← [[session-09-f2a|Explanation of the Nature of Union with God]] | [[formation-II-a-handbook|Table of Contents]] | [[session-11-f2a|The Impediments and Harm Caused by Different Apprehensions]] → # Growth in Prayer — The Point of Departure for the Means, Which Is Faith, Hope, and Love Required Reading: Ascent, Book Two, ch. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 Theological Virtues: Faith, hope, and love (charity): working interdependently and being the likeness of God, they bridge the infinite distance between God and His creatures. They are the only proper and proximate means to union with Him (see Glossary of Terms, pg. 777). Explanatory note: In part one of this formation year, John uses the term “the point of departure” for purification of sense faculties of all that is not God. Part two looks at John’s explanation that the soul might leave the “point of departure” for the means, which is “faith” “hope” and “love” — a way to emptying and purifying the spiritual faculties of all that is not God (see A.2.5:6). The three theological virtues are the means and preparation for the soul’s union with God (see A.2.6:6). John especially addresses those who have begun to enter the state of contemplation (see A.2.6:8). John discusses the faculties and the theological virtues separately, however, they do not function independently or in isolation from one another. When a person is touched by divine grace, the whole of the soul is affected, not just part of it. As one’s faith vision is transformed, so is the object of one’s hope and one's desire or love that seeks the ultimate good (see Ascent to Joy, pg. 89). “The very pure spirit does not bother about the regard of others or human respect, but communes inwardly with God, alone and in solitude as to all forms, and with delightful tranquility, for the knowledge of God is received in divine silence.” (Sayings, 28) **Essential Points to Discuss:** • The theological virtues perfect the faculties of the soul and produce emptiness and darkness: faith in the intellect, hope in the memory, and charity in the will (A.2.6:1). • “…the soul is not united with God in this life through understanding, or through enjoyment or through imagination, or through any other sense; but only faith, hope, and charity (according to the intellect, memory, and will) can unite the soul with God in this life” (A.2.6:1). • “…faith is the substance of things to be hoped for and that these things are not manifest to the intellect, even though its consent to them is firm and certain. If they were manifest, there would be no faith. For though faith brings certitude to the intellect, it does not produce clarity, but only darkness” (A.2.6:2). The reason for this darkness is that it strips the intellect of the customary light (natural knowledge). • “Hope, also, undoubtedly puts the memory in darkness and emptiness as regards all earthly and heavenly objects. Hope always pertains to the unpossessed object. If something were possessed there could no longer be hope for it” (A.2.6:3). 29 01.24 1-24-2024 OCDS Formation II, Year A • “Charity, too, causes a void in the will regarding all things since it obliges us to love God above everything” (A.2.6:4). • John observes that some are content with a certain degree of virtue, such as perseverance in prayer and detachment, but never achieve true nakedness of soul — Christ’s poverty, selflessness, and spiritual purity. Such a one searches only for sweetness and delightful communications from God (a spiritual sweet tooth) (see A.2.7:5). • The cross is a supporting staff that greatly lightens and eases the journey (see A.2.7:7). Note: Outward self-denial is insufficient for faith if one is inwardly filled with spiritual pride, missing the entire point of imitating Christ’s poverty of spirit. • “… the road leading to God does not entail a multiplicity of considerations, methods, manners and experiences;” but demands only one thing — surrendering self to the suffering Christ. “A person makes progress only by imitating Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (A.2.7:8). • John’s understanding is that Jesus accomplished the most marvelous work of His whole life by dying on the Cross. That is, He brought about the reconciliation and union of the human race with God through grace (union with God through participation). When reduced to nothing, the highest degree of humility, the spiritual union between God and soul will be accomplished (see A.2.7:11). • The intellect gets ideas and concepts in two ways: naturally and supernaturally. Natural knowledge includes everything the intellect understands by way of the bodily senses or through reflection (see A.2.10:2). “The ‘natural’ are those the soul can actively construct by its own power through forms, figures and images” (A.2.12:3). “Supernatural knowledge comprises everything imparted to the intellect in a way transcending the intellect’s natural ability and capacity” (A.2.10:2). “The supernatural are represented passively [the initiative comes from God] without the work of the senses” (A.2.12:3). Note: Reason and faith are compatible with one another. John is not against reason. He is against a desire to know God through “extraordinary charismatic phenomena” (knowledge that comes from vision, locution, feeling, understanding, forms and images, etc.). “There is no necessity for any of this kind of knowledge since one can get sufficient guidance from natural reason and from the law and doctrine of the Gospel. We should make such use of reason and the law of the Gospel that, even though — whether we desire it or not — some supernatural truths are told to us, we accept only what is in harmony with reason and the Gospel law. All matters must be regulated by reason save those of faith, which though not contrary to reason transcend it” (A.2.21:4). • “Contemplation, consequently, by which the intellect has a higher knowledge of God, is called mystical theology, meaning secret wisdom of God” (A.2.8:6). The soul passes from lower levels of awareness to higher ones. Note: John captures the unexplainable experience of the higher knowledge of God in his poem, Transcending All Knowledge: “I entered into unknowing/yet when I saw myself 30 there/without knowing where I was/I understood great things/I will not say what I felt/for I remained in unknowing/transcending all knowledge” (Collected Works pg. 53). • To grow in faith is to deepen one’s awareness of and attentiveness to God’s indwelling presence. It is a “habit of soul” or a habitual state of consciousness (see A.2.3:1 and Ascent Reflections pg.108). 31 01.24 1-24-2024 OCDS Formation II, Year A --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Formation II Year A: The Ascent of Mount Carmel* (US National Formation Program, 2024).