francisco de osuna

ON RECOLLECTION AND DESIRE BY FRANCISCO DE OSUNA IN HIS TREATISE “THE THIRD SPIRITUAL ALPHABET ”

Introduction

Francisco de Osuna lived during the early period of sixteenth-century, a period of religious renewal and reform that touched the lives not only of priests, fri ars and nuns, but also lay people in Spain. he was a Franciscan, in the Order of of Friars Minor of the Regular Observance attracted to a simple, Christ-centered, inner spirituality practiced by St. Francis of Assisi. As an Observant Francisco emphasized in prayer the role of the will more than that of understanding, and encouraged a spontaneous and simple prayer of the heart. Francisco combined elements of Franciscan spirituality, the affective way of the heart, with the Augustinian philosophy of love. Osuna stands out as a vital intermediary in the development of Spanish Mysticism. His influence on Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross are indeed remarkable. As a prolific writer, Francisco in his seminal work  the third Spiritual Alphabet clarifies the nature of false and true mysticism. In order to develop one’s inner prayer life, he formulated maxims as a guide for meditation, which he arranged alphabeticall y.

1. The Spiritual Alphabet

It was first published in 1527 in Toledo. Originally written in his native Spanish, the title “Tercera “ Tercera  parte del libro llamado Abecedario Abecedario spiritual” . To aid in developing a practice of meditation and contemplation. The Alphabet is Alphabet  is full of spiritual wisdom and insights from a masterful prayer guide. He insisted on recollection as an inevitable means to obtain the objective. 1.2. Recollection

In his teaching on recollection Francisco was alert and keen to avoid the passive quietism that denied any role for reason. To support on the inner process it is necessary to have a rigorous intellectual reflection. He emphasizes that recollection is not only a gift received but something we do by ourselves. However, he says that the exercise of recollection, ‘is not achieved by force but by skill’. skill’. It is a process of prayer which ascends from the lower stages of recollection to higher or  deeper ones. It is prayer: It includes vocal prayer, to the extent that mental concentration is employed: mental prayer, and, more importantly, passive prayer. Given the ideal of one’s total life  being lived out in conformity conformity with God's will. 1

Rrecollection is our  constant alertness and receptivity to God,  punctuated by moments of intense awareness of the divine, experiential union between union between creature and Creator and wisdom is poured into the soul  without our understanding how and whence.’ For Osuna, becoming spiritually spiritual ly ‘collected’ was best achieved through a process of prayer consisting of three major forms of prayer, from lowest to highest: 1. Vocal prayer (active) 2. Prayer of the heart (active) 3. Mental or spiritual prayer (passive) Disturbing thoughts can plague even the most experienced re-collector, hence, Osuna recommends disciplining the soul gently and lovingly. It consists of disciplining the interior faculty, memory. A ccording to Osuna the faculty of memory can be distorted and corrupted due to continually remembering hurts, it in t urn stirs vengeance. Another cause for the disability is hidden attachment to the symbols of pleasure/security/esteem  –  continual preoccupation with evil. (11:1:292-293). As a consequence consequence spiritual spiritual recollection is distorted and blocked. Hence there comes the need for a therapeutic healing inside the memory that we have. For  Osuna, this healing takes first of all through the way of Self forgetfulness.

1.2. Self-forgetfulness

The human capacity to recall and retain information that creates self-awareness takes place through the approach of ‘self -forgetfulness’. Openness to self-forgetfulness is initially nurtured by recalling and retaining the scriptural promises.

2. The Spiritual Transformation Transformation of Memory

Osuna reflects at length on the impact of spiritual recollection on the capacity to remember. Once one is purified by self-forgetfulness in his memory, a new law operates.

2.1. Memory That Both Retains and Creates

Memory is the place wherein the wisdom is stored. s tored. It is the ark of truth, the th e living book of man.

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2.2. Memory That Holds the True and Essential Identity of the Self 

‘The idea for every single thing and the seminal reason for every possibility exists in his memory  better than on a plan, so that even if something were to die in itself, it would not perish in God's memory where all things are recorded and comprehended in such a way that the angels can read as if from a perfect book what God wishes them to know. In that book alone the essence of individual  people is found, and there they are immortal, participating in the immortality possessed only by God, to whom and through whom and in whom all things live.' (11:2.295)

2..3. Memory Needs to Be Trained

Osuna recommends that we train our memory through exercises of spiritual remembering, Some examples he gives are, recalling our religious commitment, recalling our baptism, recalling the  passion of Christ, recalling the religious experience, and recalling the action of God in daily life (11: 2.295-8).

2.4. The Highest Purpose of Memory Is to stimulate Love

Osuna then suggests a deeper purpose for these practices of remembrance. Remembering increases desire for the presence of what is remembered.

2.5 Memory Transcending Transcendi ng Recollection

Although the natural memory has been engaged and gathered into the process of recollection, the spiritual memory presupposes and transcends it.' Remembering presupposes recollection: the memory of God based on recollection is a spiritual resurrection.'

2.6. Memory – A Way of Transformation of the Whole Person

The memory based on recollection raises him from death to life and vitalizing his innermost being and heart and eyes, so that he lives not for anything else but God because his memory is of naught else but God.' ( 11.3.301)

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2.7. Memory – Capable of Spiritual Knowledge

In a lofty way, we remember God as unlimited being, immeasurable kindness, beginning without  beginning, end without end, fullness that leaves nothing empty, invincible power, knowing that ignores nothing.

2.8. Memory Strengthens the Will

'If we clearly remember something good, we usually desire it eagerly: thus the memory of some good moves our will to desire it. Call out to him with sighs so that the memory may serve the will, which is the power nearest to God and most intimately in communion with him.'

3. Recollection and Pure Desire

Desire for God originate in the heart, however, the heart is secretly moved by one who can move it:  by God, in whose hand it rests. Purer desires are unqualified by the sensual nature but a desire is infused or caused by pure love.

Conclusion

Osuna insists that recollection in God can be attained only by detachment from the senses and that the perfection of the prayer of recollection consists in thinking of nothing in particular so that the soul can be completely absorbed in God. To comprehend God withdraw from created things.

ALFONSO MARIA DE 'Liguori (1696-1787 1. Biographical He was born in Marianella (near Naples), September 27, 1696,  1726 - priest "Evening Chapels"-It was poorly organized groups of lay people, artisans, traders, unemployed workers, who gathered in the evening at the "chapels", for catechism, devotions, prayers and  penitential practices.

all the baptized who have responsibility in faith and are called to a holy life

4

Founder 

He knows, in Scala, the Ven. Celeste Crostarosa, then Visitandine (+1743), who in 1731 founded the

Order

of

nuns

of

the

SS.mo

Redeemer.

The second achievement is the innovative foundation (in 1732) of a religious congregation dedicated

to

evangelization

through

popular

missions

in

the

countryside.

was founded the Congregation of the Redemptorists, with the approval of Pope Benedict XIV, "the SS. In

Redeemer. 1762

he

was

elected

bishop

of

S.

Agata

dei

Goti

(Benevento)

Characters

Spirituality

1. His apostolic concern and his pastoral experience pointed the realistically his asceticism. 2. God loves all the things he has created. God loves everyone and wants everyone to win eternal salvation. 3. All souls are called to perfection and holiness, the essence of the term and take root in the love of  God 4. True love must have its manifestation in effective accession to the divine will, and in the exact fulfillment

of

its

precepts.

5. 2. To get to the real and effective love of God the way most ordinary is the fear of God 6.

Thus,

the

meditation

of

the

eternal

truths,

must

inspire

a

healthy

fear 

7. The feeling of fear, according to the Holy One, has no reason to be in itself, but in its supreme  purpose

and

in

its

formative

function

of

love.

8. The feeling of fear, according to the Holy One, has no reason to be in itself, but in its supreme  purpose

and

in

its

formative

function

of

love.

9. 3. Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Sacraments, the Saints are means, which should lead 10.

us The

to

Ghost

is

the

the tireless

pure

preacher

of

love

those

tender

and

of

God

effective

devotions.

11. In this field he has no competitors among the modern masters of spirituality. 12.

4.

A

key

point

of

the

whole

ascetic

Alphonsus

is

prayer.

13. Prayer not only great means of salvation, but also an instrument of spiritual perfection. 14. It has been said that the doctrine of St. Alphonsus with regard to the prayer already belongs to the

history

of

Christian

thought

and

practice.

15. In two basic directions should get the message of St. Alphonsus than prayer. The first might be said to be oriented in the pastoral and apostolic, because prayer is the great means of salvation for  5

all

Christians.

16. The formula: Who prays is saved, and he who does not pray is condemned. 17. Do not pray means to break the chain of thanks, lose trust in the Lord and failing to love. 18. At St. Alphonsus belongs the glory of having restored the practice of prayer in general, and meditation in particular, as an ordinary and popular current exercise of Christian piety. 19. "From this absolute need we have to pray, there is the need of mental or moral meditation." 20.

In

his

spiritual

life,

mysticism

occupies

a

very

small

space.

21. For him, holiness does not necessarily need extraordinary gifts of the mystical life, you may find the perfect union also active as an outcome of mental prayer in the Christian faithful of the town. 22. For him, holiness does not necessarily need extraordinary gifts of the mystical life, you may find the perfect union also active as an outcome of mental prayer in the Christian faithful of the town. 23. His doctrine in this respect, and almost always traditional, or rather, it is the greatest tradition reworked

and

heated

SPIRITUALITY

breath

'of

Two

lines

a

the

SPIRITUALITY

•

of

spiritual

fate

personality.

nineteenth

'THE'

of

strong

century

Restoration

all

'inside

of

the

Christian

'

community

itself:

• an uncompromising opposition to the rationalism of the Enlightenment, and in the movements of  the French Revolution. This opposition can be summed up in the well-known formula of the Syllabus: •

an

"The

attempt

to

church recover

is from

incompatible all

of

the

new

with cultural

modern currents

civilization"; than

it

appears

• 1800 ushers in the beginning of a new era. The new civilization is fundamentally anti-Christian and anti-religious

proclamation.

As a result, its growing propagation led to a new rhythm in the life of the Church and in the development

of

spirituality.

The radical transformation of the West, religious and political will begin with the French Revolution

(1789).

Other •

The

revolutions Old

Regime

can

be

said

now 6

gone

in

almost

all

Western

nations.

•

Liberalism

as

a

philosophy

affects

every

aspect

of

life.

• The different philosophical systems determine the progress of culture and modern science (relativism,

positivism,

rationalism,

existentialism,

fenomenologismo).

• We require both the liberal ideas of democracy, constitutionalism and parliamentarianism, both the secularization of the state and the usurpation of ecclesiastical property, leading to the gradual emancipation of the local churches by the state and the new configuration of the legal relationship  between •

We

Church can

find

in

this

and

period

the

separation

State. of

state

and

church.

• We are witnessing the ever -clearer -clearer separation between believers and non-believers, convinced Christians and followers of naturalism, conservative Christians and liberal Christians, right and left. •

In

this

regard,

we

can

detect

that

within

Catholicism

two

currents:

• The current restoration. Concerned about the pri vileges and temporal goods of the church. • The current restoration has been able to promote religious orders already abolished and stepped up missions

to

the

people

calling

it

asceticism

and

piety.

• It has enhanced the traditional popular devotions that appeared inserted in the Christian mystery (Way of the Cross, devotions to the passion, the blood of Christ, the cross, to the hearts of Jesus and Mary). • The Council reiterated that revolutionary explosion can be avoided, if the Christian community self-giving to charitable charitable. He made the condemnation of the new ideologies. 2. The current progressive, instead, look with some complacency prudent bourgeois civil autonomy and

the

They

want

socio-liberal.

a

new

spiritual

path.

His desire is to see a liturgy understandable and partecipabile by the faithful, clergy educated and distracted by political maneuvers, an opening social-democratic politics and the overcoming of the claims

of

the

temporal

power

of

the

Church.

The

Restoration

• The "restoration" of 1815 represented a starting point in the awakening of the Christian conscience towards •

They

a were

soon

overcome

new the

obstacles

coming

spirituality. from

the

political

upheaval.

• The Christian life began to develop everywhere with renewed commitment, commitm ent, so as to be able to speak

•

of

There

a

are

true

two

lines

rebirth.

of

development:

• on the one hand there is the "restoration" with a return to traditional religious events that had 7

suffered. • At the same time appear new sources and new expressions of spirituality inspired by the new conditions

of

life.

• The restoration is not a time of speculation or its expressions in science or doctrine. •

It

is

a

time

of

spiritual

life,

rich

and

varied

spiritual

practice.

• In this environment dominated by practical prac tical concerns the determinants of spiritual restoration are as

follows:

• the intensification of traditional practices of the Christian life with a renewed spirit; • participation in the growing of the Catholic laity in all areas of church activity; • the extraordinary flowering of religious life in new forms and more dynamic than in the past. • All these forces renewed join the movement of reaction to provoke an authentic spiritual revival that had his moments of greatest splendor in the second half of the nineteenth century.

1.

Romanticism

and

spirituality

• The Romanticism movement is a very complex and with many aspects of philosophical, political, artistic

and

cultural

heritage.

• It is basically an artistic and cultural movement and then, according to t o religious order, but important

for

its

universal

diffusion.

• Born as a reaction against the Enlightenment and the Revolution that choked certain natural needs of

man,

such

as

religion,

the

link

with

the

past,

tradition,

etc..

• Romanticism proved the need ne ed of the religious phenomenon and consecrated as the classical era of  the Christian faith, the Middle Ages. Romanticism committed to reconcile faith and culture, God and

man,

fully

drawing

on

the

philosophical

and

artistic

heritage.

• Begin to manifest such su ch a reaction towards the end of the eighteenth century and becomes consistent

and

universal

during

the

first

half

of

the

s.

XIX.

• The current literature is original of England, though it is stated culturally and religiously in Germany. • The word romance seems to derive from the English, who spoke in 1765 Borwel the romantic aspect of Corsica, and then was translated into romanesque, romance and romantic. • Romanticism is current artistic reaction against the Classicist style, current cultural and  philosophical against rationalism; religious movement against the Enlightenment and its ideas. •

Romanticism

is

not

a

movement

specifically

Catholic,

but

generically

religious.

• Initially does not have a proper expression, is an atmosphere, an attitude opposite to the arid and vulgar

Enlightenment. 8

• In the religious takes shape when you begin to give prominent place to the mystery or mysterious in

any

form.

• The dominance of the subjective, intimate, personal and emotional of the objective and rational in life. •

Primacy

of

feeling

and

imagination

over

the

canons

of

reason

and

science.

• The Romantic feels in the depths of spiritual reality-oriented, reality -oriented, not to investigate the extent theological but rather to savor his inspiration in imaginative, emotional and aesthetic. • He feels intimately prepared to receive the inspiration from the gospel, to live the feeling of  adoration and atonement, to venerate the sovereignty of God in liturgical prayer, to situate themselves

in

an

atmosphere

of

inner

emotions.

• They are the t he most spiritual authors who speak of the heart. Romanticism has threatened to reduce spirituality

to

pity

emotional

and

sentimental.

• The anxiety of full freedom of thought and expression in every field of

life.

• In some ways it looks like liberalism taken t aken to its extreme consequences, even if the doctrinal roots are

very

different.

• The importance of the singular values of nature, like the virginal aspect, rural, and the value of the mythical,

mysterious

and

wonderful,

honor,

love,

woman,

etc..

• L'ideale-religious L'ideale-religious need and looks like natural tendency of man, the glory of the past and why the  basis of artistic inspiration, a bond of social unity and political reaction against the misery and decay. • The value of tradition, both cultural and religious, as it corresponds to the social necessity; • It is a need for continuity and at the same time link with the glorious past of culture and religion. B.

Oxford

a.

Movement

Roots

and

origin

o The situation of the Church in England began to change dramatically after the American Revolution

(1775-1783)

and

the

French

Revolution.

or begins then liberation of Catholics from a situation that has been the most oppressive that existed in the West since the sixteenth century. The steps that led to the so-called emancipation of Catholics are

as

follows:

or 1. Equality of Catholics and Anglicans in civil matters since 1823, thanks to the work of Daniel O'Connell

(1775-1847),

the

liberator

of

Ireland.

or 2. Statement of Catholic Bishops that infallibility and the primacy of the Pope in temporal matters is not Catholic dogma. As a result, the government pushed through by the two chambers in 1829

the

emancipation 9

of

Catholics.

or 3. Concession to the Catholic Church in Ireland to own real estate as the Anglican church. Early promoters or Religiously or the Oxford movement is the result of spiritual awakening that is  produced

through

the

Wesleys

between

the

eighteenth

and

nineteenth

centuries.

The great figures or promoting the revival since 1830 can change the situation and to infuse new vitality

into

the

traditional

Anglican

Church.

Promoters

• The Oxford movement extends into almost natural form in the Catholic Church for two basic reasons: • 1.for the close pr oximity oximity of doctrine and attitudes between the two churches at that time. • 2. Then for the fact that the best representatives of the movement were converted to Catholicism. • The Catholic Church gets a very strong spirit on the part of converts who awakene d spiritual consciousness

and

mystical

in

many

environments.

• John Keble was considered by Newman himself as the initiator of the movement. • Keble sought to embody in himself the ideal church and priesthood of the Anglican church. With the press and propagation of his famous Christian Year did nothing but sing these ideals and  propose to his countrymen. The testimony of his small rural community and his personal zeal conquered

the

hearts

of

those

first

followers,

as

Froude

and

Newman.

• In preaching, he wanted w anted to teach the Anglicanism of the XVI-XVII century, as a purified Catholicism by the return to the original sources. This vision went quite elementary deepening. So Hurrell Froude in his Remains proposes a very extensive restoration pastoral and religious to the Anglican

church.

• Pusey made a synthesis of the ancient sources, medieval, then the Catholic reform. • With the great John Henry Newman (1801 -1892) we arrive at a perfect balance between the sources, the living reality and the actual situation of the Church in different moments of cultural history. • Contributions-Institutions, Contributions-Institutions, Writers

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