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Seasons of the Soul
The Liturgical Cycle 
 and the Mystical Path

Seasons and Soul Development

The weekly meditation prompts at The Edge of the Enclosure offer ideas for personal meditation on themes related to the coming Sunday or the liturgical season.  The cycle of the Christian year offers a profoundly rich instruction in soul-development. While the liturgical cycle did not develop to unfold the mystical journey in itself, the seasons correspond to the modes of relationship to the divine described by the Christian mystics of our tradition.

Each season of the Christian year provides a myriad of resources for corporate worship and the soul’s nurture: Biblical texts, hymns, colors, decoration, traditions, literature, music, images and metaphors, and even foods and customs particular to that season. Observing the practices of the church deepens access to the mysteries of that season year by year.  Each season in some way prepares us for or celebrates the Paschal Mystery: the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the church.  Likewise, each season teaches the soul how to be in a nuanced mode of relationship to that Mystery.

Modes of the Soul


From the beginning of the church, men and women have described universal mystical states of the soul in Christian terms.  Language developed to describe these various modes: conversion, purgation, illumination, nights, and union. Progression through these modes of relationship is not necessarily sequential.  Illumination is not “better” than purgation, nor union “better” than illumination, for example. Neither is such progression desirable.  Called to be faithful to the present, to “pray as you can, not as you can’t,” modes of prayer are prophetic gifts to the church and to the whole of humanity. Diversity of temperment, experience, and individuality enhance these offerings.

W
e are called, however, to deepen our own spiritual lives and to extend ourselves in mission, activism, and service.  Deepening the practice of prayer in the cycle of the liturgical year prepares us for the time we may be called to sit and wait, or live or act from that unique “season of the soul.”

Each season offers its own path to the paschal mystery and union. Each season and its practice, lessons, tools, tasks, carry into other seasons. Conversion is a daily process, as is purgation, illumination, the nights of unknowing. Each season teaches skills necessary for the life of the soul.

Consequently, the most helpful analogies of the soul cycle offer fluidity of movement such as a three-dimentional maze or labyrinth, or present complex layers such as the so-called “Metatron's cube." Teresa of Avila’s elegant metaphor of the interior castle is based upon Jesus’s own image of “many mansions” (John 14:2-3). Teresa writes,“Let us now imagine that this castle, as I have said, contains many mansions, some above, others below, others at each side; and in the center and midst of them all is the chiefest mansion where the most secret things pass between God and the soul.”

Development of the Schema


While acknowledging that each person’s path is different, the following general modes or moods or states are described widely in Christian mystical literature. (I avoid the word “stage” because of its implications of stasis, judgement, and quality.) Building upon the scheme described by Pseudo-Dionysius (5-6th century) of purgation, illumination, union, Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) unfolds seven mansions, the last of these rendered with thoroughness, subtley, and brilliance by John of the Cross (1542-1591).  Taken together with their commentators including A.Poulain, S.J., P. Marie-Eugene, O.C.D., and Evelyn Underhill’s synthesis outlined in her book Mysticism, the following scheme emerges:

Conversion

The Purgative Way

Passive Purgation (or, the “first” night)

The Illuminative Way

The Dark Night of the Sense

First Union

The Dark Night of the Soul

Apostolic Union (my phrase)

I describe briefly in my book Grace’s Window how I made the connection of this scheme to the Christain cycle of the year.  Working on a master’s degree studying aescetical and mystical theology (spirituality), especially Teresa and John, I also served on the altar guild of my little parish.  I set the lections (scripture portions) for each Sunday and as I read them I could not help but notice the correspondance to the soul cycle and the liturgical year.


Advent                                     Conversion, Purgative Way

Christmas                                 Passive purgation

Epiphany                                  Illuminative Way

Lent                                         The Dark Night of the Senses

Easter                                      First Union

Ascension                                The Dark Night of the Soul

Pentecost                                 Apostolic Union

Season of Pentecost                     living the mystery in the world


Of course we are always “living the mystery in the world,” but the liturgical cycle offers us a yearly course of practice for all the seasons of our soul and insight into other people’s souls that together we may do the work of the Kingdom with passion, understanding, richness and compassion.

We are called to be, as Teresa put it, Christ’s hands in the world.  I do not believe the purpose of the spiritual life is personal salvation.  Our life, the life on this planet, we are one organism.  We succeed or suffer to the extent that all humanity and all being succeeds or suffers.  Praying strengthens us for service, self-sacrifice, and the transformation effected in the Paschal Mystery to which we are called daily.

- Suzanne Guthrie 


 
What is a
Meditation Prompt ?

What is a meditation prompt?  A writer at a loss for words turns to a collection of phrases, pictures, sentences, and other “starters” found in books, online, or from a personal cache collected for such moments.  Choosing randomly or by intuition, the writer uses such a “prompt” to initiate the desired flow of thoughts and words. The “prompts” on this website are posted for the purpose helping prepare for the coming Sunday liturgy by personal meditation and to link the themes of the liturgical season to the mystical path of grace.

Reading and reflecting upon the scripture portions for Sunday enriches the experience of the liturgy immeasurably. Tasting the text through a word or image trains the palate to enjoy the unexpected. Ask for and expect a gift in your meditation.  Enter with a sense of play and openness.

And he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.”  Then I ate it; and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.
  - Ezekiel 3:3


"Metatron's Cube," the cube resembles the fourth dimensional analog of the cube, or the Tesseract
The Labyrinth

Labyrinths offer myriad approaches to meditation.  Only one of these is to walk "the purgative way" all the way to the center, wait for the insight as "illuminative way" at the stopping point, and the integration that occurs on the way out again is characterized as "the unitive way." 
Chartres Labyrinth
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