In the last week or so I wrote some brief notes on the redemptive work of Christ, its "presuppositions," effects, and related topics, such as the manner in which our spiritual life is effected by these considerations and the way in which the Church's process for the reception of converts is directly related to her theology of revelation.
This document is meant for a group of Morisco Catechumens who will enter the Church at Christmas. This was written in a bit of a time crunch and certainly done in haste. There are a few other areas I could have connected to these reflections (e.g., the magisterium's necessary relation to revelation/faith), but simply are not as clear to me as other areas, so I wanted to refain from writing about them to beginners.
This is meant to be as simple as possible, thus, in certain areas, those who are more scholastically minded may be alarmed as some of the formulations. But, we must remember that, at certain times, precision can cause more harm than good for those who are being nourished by the simple doctrine that provides the foundations for understanding the Teaching of the Church.
As I prepare this, I am in the middle of an end of year fundraiser. I would appreciate it if you would consider donating to reach our end of year goal. This work isn't entirely "popular," but quite niche, therefore, its existence relies, for the most part, on the generosity of donors. Go here to donate.
PART I. THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
Introduction
This guide is meant to be read as a bridge between your catechesis and the spiritual practices that will pervade your life as a Catholic. The Church is not called “holy” because every particular member is perfectly holy or because those who are unholy are not “real members” of the Church, but because the Church provides the teachings that are able to make those who follow them holy and the means for those who use them.
This guide is meant to provide an overview of those means, connected with some of the teachings that provide the reason for those particular means. This is intentional. When someone wants to fix a car, there are always various problems that arise throughout the process. If you are someone who doesn’t know why this part is here and its function in relation to the other parts, you are not going to solve these problems as they arise. Being skilled at fixing a car is not something that comes by reading the directions to replace a single part, but by a holistic understanding of the entire machine. In a similar way, in order for you to become skilled in the spiritual life, to build virtues and destroy vices, it is not simple enough for you to understand “x is bad” and “y is good,” but you need to understand yourself, why you choose x at one moment and y at another moment, what the various parts of your soul are, how these parts relate, etc., etc. This guide is meant to simply provide an overview of all of these problems.
Two Parts of Man
In order to understand Christian spirituality, we need to first understand something about Christian “Psychology.” Psychology is the study of the soul. In Christian psychology, we divide the soul into two main parts since, as men, we are both bodily and spiritual. In scripture, this is often called the distinction between “the spirit” and “the flesh” (cf., Romans 7-8). Yet, today, we usually speak of “the higher faculties” and “the lower faculties.” As men, we share the “higher faculties” in common with the angels and the “lower faculties” in common with animals. The “higher faculties” are the intellect which is able to know truth and the will which is able to freely choose the good. The “lower faculties” are what we call the “appetites.” From these flow those “motions” or “urges” that you have which are prerational, called passions. When you feel anger, this is a passion of your lower faculties, but when you choose to be angry, lashing out against someone, this is a choice of your will. Thus, the “higher” and “lower” do not exist in isolation from each other, but the lower influences the higher and the higher can control the lower.
The States of Man
As each of you understand, your lower faculties often urge you to do something that is wrong. It can be something as simple as you being urged by your hunger to eat and, rather than reasonably limiting yourself to the food you need, you overindulge and become a glutton. Yet, has it always been like this?
Before man fell into sin, there was a perfect harmony. The lower faculties were submitted and obedient to the higher faculties and the higher faculties were submitted and obedient to God. Just like a well ordered household has the mother in submission to the father and the children to the mother, so also the soul of man was well ordered and able to be directed to its final end, pleasing God in all things. This is called the “state of original justice.” God had given a special gift to man called “original justice” so that he would be perfect. Not only that, but God chose to make this gift hereditary, Adam was to pass down this gift of original justice to their children and so on.
Yet, this gift was not passed on. Just as Adam could have passed this gift to his children, so also did he lose it for his children when he sinned. Now, there is a loss of this gift of original justice for the children of Adam. Rather than having the harmony of the lower to the higher and the higher to God, we now have disorder, the soul being turned away from God. Besides the higher faculties being turned from God, we also had the rebellion of the “flesh,” the lower faculties. In this, the desires of man were to submit to reasonable ends, but became rebellious, clouding our minds and judgment. This is called “concupiscence.” These two combined, the loss of the gift of original justice and the disorder of concupiscence is what we call “original sin.”
Sin and Our Redemption
Are we left in this state? No, we are not! Jesus Christ has decided to save us from this fallen state. How was he to do it? In order to understand this, we need to understand the nature of sin and its consequences. Sin has two aspects, the “disorder” (guilt) and the “obligation to punishment.” We can compare sin to the way in which criminals are punished. If there was someone who, in a fit of rage, beat a man, not only does he stain his soul by committing such an evil act, he also now deserves to be punished for his evil. It would not be enough for him merely to have a change of heart and apologize for beating the man, justice has been violated, so punishment is obligatory.
In a similar way, when we are in the state of fallen nature, we have the disorder of our souls which turn us from God (guilt) AND the obligation to be punished with eternal punishment for such a crime. Yet, God did not abandon us, but, from the foundation of the world, had a plan to redeem us from this stain (guilt) and obligation to punishment. This is Jesus “who will save us from our sins.” This Jesus had two tasks, 1. To reconcile us to God (descending mediation), and 2. To reconcile God to us (ascending mediation).
First, we have the problem of our disorder (guilt) which is solved by the descending mediation of Christ since it descends from Christ to us. This estranged us from God insofar as we are turned from him. Therefore, we had to be reconciled to God. Now, to heal this, it is as simple as restoring order. We must go from turned away from God to turned towards God. Therefore, Jesus gives us a certain gift to restore order, this is the gift of sanctifying grace.
But, as we noted above, just because someone removes the disorder (guilt), that does not mean that there isn’t also an obligation to punishment. So, the obligation to punishment must be taken away. Whereas sanctifying grace reconciled us to God, God still needs to be reconciled to us. This second task is called the ascending mediation of Christ since it ascends from Christ to God. This is done by what is called “propitiation.” In propitiation, the judge who is meant to inflict punishment is rendered “propitious” (i.e., merciful) by being offered something he loves. It is similar to a “peace offering.” This “propitiation” that takes away the punishment due to our sin is Jesus Christ who lovingly offering Himself to the Eternal Father in his passion.
The Progression of Our Redemption
Yet, immediately, an objection may arise, if we have been cleansed from our disorder (guilt) and the obligation to punishment, shouldn’t we be made perfect? I mentioned above that original sin has two aspects, the lack of original justice, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, there was concupiscence, which are those urges that are unreasonable. The gift of sanctifying grace rids us of the former aspect, but not the latter. Thus, in this life, we still must battle all of those urges we have that try to attach us to creatures and distract us from God. Therefore, in one way, we are like Adam in the garden, ordered towards God and submitted to Him, and, in another way, we are like man fallen into sin, wherein our flesh wars against our spirit, trying to drag us down.
Here, we have set the stage for Christian combat, the battle between the spirit and the flesh. Our higher faculties have been awakened from the slumber of sin and it is our job to now conquer the rest of ourselves, our rebellious concupiscence which still arises within us, trying to drag us down and make us sin. Each of the spiritual exercises mentioned are meant to furnish us with weapons in this battle.
In this battle with concupiscence, sometimes we are wounded and sometimes we are killed, needing to be revived by Christ again from spiritual death. This “wounding” involves committing a sin that is venial and the “killing” involves committing a sin that is mortal. When we commit a venial sin, we are slowed down in our journey towards God, the stain making it harder and harder to act in the spiritual life, just like, if you became ill, it would be more difficult to act in the natural life. Yet, on the other hand, when we commit a mortal sin, we are completely stopped in our journey towards God, the stain completely removes the life of sanctifying grace from us, and it becomes impossible for us to act in the natural life.
Further, just like in mortal sin, there is the stain (guilt) and obligation to punishment, so also there is for venial sin. With venial sin, the stain is a hindrance to be able to make acts flowing from grace. Unlike the stain of mortal sin, where we need a whole new influx of sanctifying grace to revive us from the dead, with the stain of venial sin, we already have from God what we need to remove it, by making acts of contrition for our sins. When it comes to the obligation of punishment, whereas in mortal sin, this would be punished in hell and is removed by the satisfaction of Christ, when it comes to venial sin, this is punished in purgatory and is removed by voluntary suffering, also known as “penance.”
Stain of Sin | Obligation of Punishment | Removal of Stain | Removal of Punishment | |
Venial Sin | Sickness that hinders life | Purgatory | Contrition | Penance* |
Mortal Sin | Death that removes life | Hell | Sanctifying Grace | Christ’s Passion |
*Penance applies Christ’s passion to us…it's not like Christ’s passion isn’t operative in the removal of punishment due to venial sin
Ultimate Goal in the Christian Life
Now that we have all the background material about our redemption out of the way, we can move on to a discussion of the various means for bringing about this redemption within us, namely, baptism, the eucharist, penance, mental prayer, and the particular examen. Yet, before that, we need to say something briefly about the end upon which all of these converge. St. Ignatius states this quite well,
Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.
And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created.
From this it follows that man is to use them as much as they help him on to his end, and ought to rid himself of them so far as they hinder him as to it.
For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it; so that, on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created.
The key here is making ourselves indifferent. Since our proper order, as stated above, is to be completely ordered towards God, we must free ourselves from any attachment to creatures. Creatures for us ought to be seen as tools for us to enjoy only insofar as they bring us towards our final end.
The exercises and means that follow will be all ordered towards bringing us into this perfect conformity with our last end, free from all the snares that created things can bring about, completely inflamed with love of God.
Baptism
The first means we must discuss is baptism. Baptism is our “birth” into the life of grace. You should already be aware of the nature and usefulness of baptism from your catechesis, but, in the terms we have put it here, baptism gives us sanctifying grace and removes all the punishment due to sin, both mortal and venial.
The Eucharist
The second means we must discuss is the eucharist, which is our spiritual food. As with baptism, you should already have gone over the eucharist in your catechesis. The eucharist is the most sublime act of worship in our holy religion. It perfectly combines the descending mediation of Christ, increasing sanctifying grace within us, and the ascending mediation of Christ, offering up to God the body and blood of Christ, so that the punishment due to sin may be wiped away. Thus, the eucharist is both sacrifice (in that it is offered to God) and sacrament (in that it nourishes us in grace).
Therefore, it is essential that you both, 1. Prepare yourselves to receive this heavenly food, and 2. Join your intentions with the sacrifice offered by the hands of the priest.
Sacramental Penance
Just as the above two means, this third means should also have been covered in your catechesis. This third means is meant to be spiritual medicine, a medicine that both brings alive those who are dead (i.e., those in mortal sin) and heals those who are broken (i.e., those with the stain of venial sin). Besides this, the sacrament of penance has a special concentration of the removal of the punishment due to sin.
Non-Sacramental Penance
The fourth means is the means of non-sacramental penance, usually just called “penance.” Penance can take a number of forms, anything from fasting to sleeping on the floor to wearing a hair shirt. In general, penance is any act that is meant to contradict your appetites, it is to will against (agere contra). While we can have specialized actions of penance (cold showers, fasting, etc.), it is important to remember that penance has that broad notion of “acting against,” so it is not enough that we have particular acts of penance, but that our entire lives be penitential, frequently following our Lord’s instruction to “deny yourself and take up your cross.”
St. Ignatius describes this process, saying
it is very expedient, if it happens that the soul is attached or inclined to a thing inordinately, that one should move himself, putting forth all his strength, to come to the contrary of what he is wrongly drawn to…asking God our Lord for the contrary, namely, not to want such office or benefice, or any other thing, unless His Divine Majesty, putting his desires in order, change his first inclination for him, so that the motive for desiring or having one thing or another be only the service, honor, and glory of His Divine Majesty.
Yet, why do we “will against” the inclination of our appetites? Is it merely some form of self-torture? Of course not. With everything we have said up to this point, the reasons behind penance should be relatively clear. St. Ignatius lists two,
“First, as satisfaction for the sins committed.” As we went over above, when we sin, we incur some sort of temporal debt. This debt can either be paid here by penance or in the life to come in purgatory. Penance is meant to satisfy for those evils we have committed.
“Second, to conquer oneself -- that is, to make sensuality obey reason and all inferior parts be more subject to the superior.” As we went over above, we suffer from a disaster called concupiscence which makes our flesh war against the spirit. We win this war by way of penance in that we deny the flesh and by denying the flesh we weaken its movements.
As an important note, we must remember that penance is not something merely external or automatic, we must join hearts that sorrow over sin to those external actions we make.
Mental Prayer and the Particular Examen
Since, as we stated above, it is the goal of the entire spiritual life to bring all of our acts and thoughts in perfect conformity with the will of God, the Church provides us with a devotion for discovering the will of God and another for carrying out the will of God. The devotion that is meant to discover the will of God is mental prayer, the devotion that is meant to carry out the will of God is called the particular examen.
Mental Prayer
St. Ignatius summarizes mental prayer thus, “exert your MEMORY, to recall facts or ideas, your UNDERSTANDING, to well understand the meaning, the value of the subject matter, and your WILL, to excite appropriate sentiments and to draw practical conclusions.”
In mental prayer, you always begin with some “subject matter.” This subject matter can be some sort of fact or event, e.g., you want to meditate on the passion of Christ. In the presence of God, there are a few ways you can apply yourself to this subject matter.
First, obviously, you need to bring this fact or event into your mind. This may require reading a section from some spiritual book or scripture itself.
After this, grace will draw your soul to certain aspects of this mystery. You may, in meditating on this, apply your understanding to it, so that you understand the greatness of the mystery you are meditating on. By “understanding” make sure you do not confuse this for speculative understanding. Rather, this understanding is practical. For example, let’s say you are meditating on the evils of lust. It would not be appropriate to merely begin considering certain technicalities of moral theology. Rather, you should be considering the various ways in which lust is evil, the ways it can be avoided, etc., etc.
As you begin to understand the subject matter under a practical aspect, your will will become active. It will excite certain sentiments which should lead you to make acts of the affections towards God. For example, let’s say you are meditating on the evils of lust and you have a strong affection of disgust at its evil, it may be appropriate to make an act proportionate with this, e.g., “deliver me, O God, from this great evil.”
Yet, the crown jewel is that, upon considering the various aspects of this mystery and making acts of affections, you will be led to discern something quite particular. This thing you will discern is what you should do. This is some sort of practical act that follows upon the mystery. This practical conclusion is what the entire meditation should conclude with. You should always walk about from the mediation with a particular action. For example, let’s say that you are meditating on lust and, while you have been vigilant in guarding yourself from acts of lust, you discern that you must be more vigilant to guard your eyes against lustful looks. Now that you have drawn this conclusion, you have a series of practical motivations that your understanding has sought.
To read more about this, check out the catechism of mental prayer.
Particular Examen
Now that you have discerned the will of God for your life in your mediation, what are you to do now? Now it is time to put this into practice, to “practice what you pray.” It is not enough to pray in the morning, discern what you ought to do and why you should do it, and then simply expect everything will follow from there. Rather, you must always be on the guard. The practice that keeps you always on the guard is the particular examen.
While I already wrote a catechism on this topic, I will simplify here for ease of study. Now that you have the “what” you will do, it needs to be put into practice in three steps, 1. Determination, 2. Watchfulness, and 3. Examination.
First, you need to have a “determination.” This can easily be combined with your morning meditation. You want to begin your day with a firm resolution on this point. Stand before God, consider all those motivations you have gathered in mental prayer, and solemnly swear to keep whatever practical resolution you have gathered from prayer.
Second, you need to have “watchfulness.” Here, you are put to the test. Chances are, the point you have been moved by grace to seek to resolve is an issue that you will moved by your flesh to violate. Here, you are to keep in mind your resolution for the entire day. When you begin to feel a movement against your resolution, immediately say a short prayer to God to aid you in your battle and begin to consider those motivations you gathered in prayer this morning.
Third, you need to have examination. This is where the name “examen” comes from. St. Ignatius recommends that this be done at noon and before bed, but it can be done once if needed. Here, you must look back at your day and consider your victories and faults. Thank God for your victories, ask his forgiveness for your faults. Ask God to illuminate your mind so that you may understand where and why you have fallen. Just as a good employer brings his employee to account for the work he has done, bringing him to reflect on how he may learn from his failures to improve himself, so also, in the presence of God you should consider why you have fallen to write up an even more effective battle plan for the next day.
PART II. YOUR PREPARATION
Introduction
The Church in her immense wisdom has given us various rites in order to facilitate the growth of sanctifying grace. These rites surround and are ordered towards the proper celebration of the sacraments, which, as we have gone over above, and the means that bring about sanctifying grace in the soul. For those of you who are reading this, the rites we must now focus on are those rites surrounding what are called the sacraments of initiation. Very soon, those of you reading this document will receive three sacraments, baptism, confirmation, and the eucharist. We have briefly gone over the nature of these sacraments above and their relationship to the spiritual life in general, now we must go over the those rites that the Church has established in order to foster this connection.
Faith
The Supernatural Organism
Above, we discussed the idea of sanctifying grace, which is that which God infuses into our souls in order to turn us from disorder to order in a process called “justification.” Yet, as we also went over above, the soul is complex. If you are a close reader, you will have noticed that I did not say higher faculty and lower faculty, but higher faculties and lower faculties. Our higher faculties are the intellect and will and our lower faculties are the known as the concupiscible appetite (response for drawing us towards sensible goods, e.g., makes you hungry) and the irascible appetite (responsible for drawing us against what blocks our path towards sensible goods, e.g., makes you angry, bold, courageous, etc.).
When it comes to each of these faculties, as you may have went over in catechesis, there are virtues which are meant to regulate the action of these faculties in the natural order. When it comes to the intellect, this is “prudence.” When it comes to the will, this is “justice.” When it comes to the concupiscible appetite, this is “temperance.” When it comes to the irascible appetite, this is “fortitude.”
Now, it seems to obviously follow that if sanctifying grace is meant to order your soul that it would give those virtues that are meant to regulate each faculty in its proper order. Yet, it gets slightly more complicated than this. Not only are there are a diversity of virtues on the basis of which faculty they inhere in (prudence in intellect, justice in will, etc.), but there is also a diversity on the basis of the object it is ordered towards. In a similar manner, you may learn how to properly use a knife with your hands, but also, with those same hands, you may learn how to play a guitar. When we enter into the supernatural order that orders us directly and immediately to God Himself, things get complicated, we now don’t only account for the four “cardinal virtues” that we went over above, but a series of theological virtues, gifts of the Holy Ghost, beatitudes, and fruits of the Spirit. This forms what the theologians refer to as the supernatural organism. Further, we could also account for the growth and development of this organism in what the theologians refer to ages of the interior life.
What is Faith?
Yet, here, it is not the place to do such a thing. Over time, you will learn about these things, but, for now, we need to focus on one aspect of this supernatural organism, i.e., faith. The theological virtue of faith is a virtue that resides in the intellect and orders us immediately to God as he has revealed Himself. Yet, what is faith? The philosophers refer to three “species of assent.” First, you could know something in a scientific manner, which means that you are able to reason to a conclusion from knowing its principles. Second, you could know something with an opinionated assent, which means that you are able to make an “educated guess” on the judgment you make explaining the facts in front of you well. Third, you can make the assent of faith. In this, rather than relying on the intrinsic evidence, as the previous two kinds of assent do, you base your assent on the authority of a witness. Thus, for example, you have no direct evidence that Rome exists (supposing you have never been to Rome), but you assent to this on the basis of many trustworthy witnesses.
There are many aspects of life that require trustworthy witnesses. In any criminal trial, we call forth witnesses and test their competence in order to trust their testimony, in any historical work, we read primary sources and look at certain factors to test their trustworthiness, and in education, we must first have a degree of trust in our teachers and the truth of what they are saying before we can understand in a scientific manner. Now, each of these instances are instances of human faith, where we assent on the basis of trustworthy witnesses, who have been gauged and cross examined. Yet, in this case, we are not referring to human faith, but to Divine faith. God is the witness to the truth of what is presented before us. This is unlike any of the other cases, we do not need to crossexamine God, for He cannot be deceived, and we do not need to gauge his trustworthiness, for He cannot deceive. The only question we have to ask ourselves is “has God spoken?”
The Motives of Credibility
How are we to know whether God has spoken? The speaking of God to mankind is referred to as revelation. Revelation is something that can either be public revelation, which is meant for all mankind, or private revelation, which is meant for a more limited group of people. Further, revelation can either be immediate revelation if it is given directly by God to someone, or mediate revelation if it is given by God to mankind through “legates” or “messengers.” Now, while God could have immediately revealed Himself to all men, them choosing to reject or accept His word, God chooses to interact with men in accordance with their natures. Now, as we went over above, we learn best through certain visible authorities who teach us the truth, e.g., our parents, teachers, etc.. Therefore, God has chosen to appoint certain men to carry out this task, first, the Apostles, then, in their place, the “authentic teachers of the faith,” namely, the bishops of the Church.
Yet, there is an important question that must be asked, how do we know that these men speak on behalf of God? It would be insanity for us to hear someone claim to speak for God and then unquestioningly accept their claim. This would be the vice of credulity. So, we need certain motives of credibility, not motives for us to determine that God is credible, but motives to determine whether what these legates who mediate God’s revelation are themselves are truly speaking on God’s behalf.
These motives of credibility are typically divided into four types, external-extrinsic, external-intrinsic, internal-universal, and internal-individual motives.
It is beyond the scope of this introduction to explain each of these kinds of motive, their relation to one another, the biblical/historical basis for each type, and a demonstration of the possession that the Catholic Church has for each, but the idea itself should become firmly rooted by these examples.
The Privileged Place of Faith
To conclude this brief introduction to faith, we must consider the privileged place that faith has in the life of the Church. Often, we speak of the difference between a “bad Catholic” and a “good Catholic.” What is the basis for this distinction? Let’s consider a historically Catholic country like Spain. In Spain, there are many bad Catholics, these bad Catholics have received the sacraments, may go to mass occasionally, believes what the Church teaches, yet they do not follow the moral precepts of the Church, they may fornicate, skip their sunday obligation, pray only occasionally, etc. On the other hand, the good Catholics, who are few and far between, follow the moral precepts of the Church, refuse the vices of the flesh, grow in the spiritual life, etc. What makes the difference between a good Catholic and a bad Catholic? Is it on the basis of the presence or absence of faith? How could it be? By this standard, we would be able to, with equal consistency, call Protestants or other heretics “Catholics.” Rather, it is on the basis of charity that a Catholic becomes a “good” or “bad” Catholic, yet it is on the basis of faith that one becomes a “Catholic” in the first place.
With the preparation for the sacraments, we hold to a primacy of begetting and nourishing faith within you. For, how can you even be a “good Catholic” unless you are a “Catholic” in the first place? You must first believe that God has spoken before you can obey what God says. So, in the preparation you are receiving, we are building the rock solid foundation of faith that we can build the remaining edifice of the spiritual life on top.
Precatechumenate
The first step in this process is called the “precatechumenate.” The first interaction that any convert has with Divine Revelation is that they hear one preaching it, for faith comes by hearing. (Rom. 10:17) Thus, in this first step, you must discern whether what you are hearing is truly from God. In some cases, there are some who do not even believe in God, which leads to a certain “step 0” of convincing by arguments of the existence of God before we even speak about an obligation to hear and obey Divine Revelation. But, in the ordinary case, the case which most of the Morisco community is in, God is already known from nature before Divine Revelation is preached.
This can be a complex process. Many have some other Divine Revelation that they hold to which must be discredited as false. Here, it is in the fertile grounds of doubt that faith is planted. Here, the motives of credibility are presented to the inquirer so that he may know that God has spoken. This takes a number of forms, everything from a scientific presentation of the historicity of Divine Revelation and the miracles/prophecies that accompany it to a certain presentation of the moral effects of Grace in the life of believers in the local community, the saints, and of the Church in general to an exhortation for the inquirers to examine the ways in which God is moving them by His Grace towards the Catholic Religion.
Besides these positive methods, there are also negative methods, wherein certain aspects of the Catholic religion that are considered to be doubtful are supported by considerations of natural reason and the objections against the Catholic religion are resolved, showing that they do not necessarily “disprove” the Catholic religion.
All of these are meant to provide motives that dispose the inquirer to the assent of faith.
Catechumenate
The next stage presupposes the assent of faith. Once one has assent to the fact that God speaks in and through the Catholic Church who proposes Divine Revelation (once revealed through Christ and the Apostles) unerringly for our belief. This is important, the catechumenate assumes faith. Here, we aren’t immediately concerned with whether God has spoken, this is something that has already been determined in the precatechumenate, but, rather, what God has spoken. The technical terminology for this growth is in the growth of the material object of faith.
In the beginning, you may know very little about what God has said. Maybe you merely know the Articles of the Creed and a few of the dogmas of the Church. Yet, obviously, you make an act of faith that concerns all those other things you do not know yet. This is referred to as implicit faith. The main concern of the catechumenate is to make this implicit faith into explicit faith.
Besides simply “knowing more things,” you also want to “fan the flame” of your faith. Here, as you learn more and more of the Catholic Faith, you should see more and more the “sublimity of doctrine” (external-intrinsic motive) concerning what is taught and the way in which it “fulfills the aspirations” of mankind (internal-universal motive). Besides this, through meditation on the doctrine taught, you should experience the “peace which the world cannot give” (internal-individual motive) that comes with the Catholic religion. Each of these will strengthen the faith which was begotten in through the efforts of the precatechumenate. As your devotion increases, so will your faith.
Proximate Preparation
The second stage of the catechumenate may last a shorter or longer time depending on the individual, sometimes a few months, other times it may last years. Yet, this third stage is a brief period that precedes receiving the sacraments of initiation. This is something that is meant to immediately prepare you.
First, this step is meant for “discernment,” both the Church discerning you and you discerning yourself. The Church, through considering your fruits, makes a determination of whether you possess faith and the proper dispositions to receive the sacraments. It is no matter of shame if you are not yet properly disposed to receive the sacraments, rather, it is an important step in the Christian life in order for you to reapproach with renewed vigor the state of the catechumenate. If the Church, through her ministers, determines that you are properly disposed to receive the sacraments you are now admitted as one of the “elect.”
Besides this determination of the Church of your spiritual state, there should be a self-discernment that can be aided by those members of the community who have journeyed alongside you. Here, you are to discern which are the charisms (i.e., spiritual gifts) that God has given you throughout your catechumenate. Here, you can get some indication of how you will aid the body of Christ. Perhaps God has instilled in you an intense love for the poor, or maybe a strong capacity for understanding the doctrine of the Church, etc.. In your self-discernment, where these things ought to be considered in a spirit of thanksgiving and of prudence, you can consider how you will apply these as a member of the Church, remembering not to bury your talents lest Our Lord chastise you as a wicked and lazy servant (Matt. 25).
Second, this is a time of purification. Here, your self-determination should reveal also your shortcomings. To remedy this, you ought to purify yourself of these defects by the ordinary means highlighted above. Besides this negative aspect, there is also a positive aspect. You ought to enter into a more intense consideration of the nature and obligations of the Christian life, meditating day and night on the mysteries of the Catholic Faith to nourish proper dispositions to receive the sacraments.
Reception of the Sacraments
At this point, you have fervently disposed yourself to receive the sacraments and the Church has given her confirmation of this fact insofar as she is able to judge your state from external signs. Now, you receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and eucharist.
In your catechesis, you should have received proper instructions on these sacraments. If you wish to review, check questions 251-294 in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Mystagogy
Now that you have received these sacraments of initiation, the Church, in her eminent wisdom, does not merely “throw you out into the world,” but gives you a period to transition into the sacramental life of the Church. This is called mystagogy where you exercise the spiritual life of a neophyte. This period is especially, although not exclusively, concerned with the sacrament of the Eucharist and the manner in which your entire spiritual life is nourished by it and is ordered towards its proper reception.
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