Three Stages of Spiritual Advancement:
Purgative, Illuminative, Unitive
Overview
About the year 500, a mystic and theologian known as Pseudo-Dionysius observed and wrote of a three stage pattern in spiritual advancement, which he termed the purgative, illuminative and unitive stages.
Our effort to free our soul of its illegitimate attachments is termed the Purgative way. A life of virtue is the Illuminative way. Complete elimination of self will, including hidden legitimate self will for the purpose of union with Christ is the Unitive way.
Adam and Eve were born into the illuminative stage and were expected to perfect their virtues, then progress into the unitive stage, with the first coming of Jesus Christ.
The purgative stage was never part of the plan, in the purgative stage we purge our soul of illegitimate will and action, that is sin. Sin was never a part of the plan, but it’s here now and everyone must take on a burden of sin and its damaging effects of the soul. We must now push through the purgative stage to reach our native ground which is the virtue of the illuminative stage, and the illuminative stage is just preparation for the unitive stage in which we make divine union with Jesus Christ.
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Jesus speaks, “The truest and most effective teaching that you can receive is this. Keep yourself apart from all men, if not in body, then in spirit. Keep yourself free from all unneeded images and words. Free yourself from everything that is accidental, binding or that brings worry. Always direct your spirit to the intimate contemplation of God, keeping me constantly present before your eyes and never turning them away from me. Direct all other exercises, be it poverty, fasting, vigils and all other types of chastisement toward this goal and make use of them to the extent that they advance this end.”
“Do all this and you shall attain the summit of perfection that not one person in a thousand comprehends because they make these exercises their goal and therefore wander about for years.”
This teaching of the prior two paragraphs, is known as “brief rules for spiritual advancement”, given by Christ to St. Henry Suso. It is essentially a rephrasing of Christ’s teaching in Matthew 22:37, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” This phrasing by Jesus seems more attractive than his phrasing of the same idea, given to St. Suso. Suso’s is perhaps more useful because of its detail.
If our salvation is to become Christ, then every faculty of one’s soul must direct itself to Christ, in order that Christ may then incorporate us into his being. When one’s will is fully functioning as Christ’s will, our actions are then redirected to family, job, daily routine; but now as Christ in the world.
To think of, and be Christ 24/7 sounds burdensome and impossible, but it’s not. We do not become a first century carpenter, but a present day member of Christ, who is now the entire body of Christ: a mother, worker, student, unemployed, reforming sinner. We do not really have to learn more, or do more, or even be more. The less we cling to the accidents of this life, the deeper our participation in Christ. On the proactive side, the sacraments are essential, as they are the agents of our incorporation into Christ, as we clear the way of selfishness.
Purgative Stage
The purgative stage of spiritual development did not exist until the onset of original sin; now it is the necessary starting point for every student, since we all have a burden of original sin.
All the actions of Adam and Eve were legitimate, prior to original sin. Each action could have been made better somehow — more generosity, more reverence. Adam, Eve and family were expected to make spiritual advancement, even from their condition of sinlessness. But with the onset of original sin, each person had to take on a portion of it, and each person now started his spiritual advancement from a condition of sin, or the purgative stage.
We start our spiritual advancement in the Purgative way, and by repeated effort substantially eliminate sin from our lives. The purgative stage has the student eliminating major sins of commission and omission in his life. We may suffer the effects of original sin to a greater or lesser degree, but barring a God given exception, everyone has a burden to purge.{54} Sin and imperfection arise from misshapen virtues, called vices. If we examine and reform these vices then our actions will become virtuous instead of sinful.
In the purgative stage, which will overlap to some degree into the illuminative and unitive stages, we reform the vices into virtues. We recall that while sins may be forgiven by God or man, vices can only be reformed by the owner of the vice. Vices are the cause of sin, which takes the form of injustice, war, poverty and crime in our world. Political action cannot reform vices, politics cannot advance or perfect our virtues, and no political program can make our divine union with God.
No one acts exclusively in the purgative stage, any student has many virtues which may be advanced (illuminative stage), while also purging vices. The purgative stage, might also be thought of as the purgative technique. If one does not care for the labels given to the three stages of spiritual advancement, they might be thought of as the three techniques of advancement.
We consult the Catechism of the Catholic Church for definitions of sin, vice, and virtue (given previously). This list from CCC 1852, which quotes the apostle Paul is useful, and each of these sins might fall under the category of mortal or venial; “Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God."
Our soul does not contain both virtues and vices; vices are actually our virtues in a damaged state. From CCC 1866, “They [vices] are called ‘capital‘ because they engender other sins, other vices…They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth…”. All deformation of virtue may be traced to these seven primary vices.
The sin of irreverence for example is caused by the primary vice of pride, which is the faulty tendency toward isolation, which may even exclude God.
In another example, the vice of greed is actually the effect of several damaged virtues: trust, moderation, religion (we have no greater goal than this life, and put all our effort into it). We know that acts of generosity alone will not reform greed, an new mindset is needed which includes many virtues.
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The purgative stage is largely the identification and elimination of our illegitimate actions. We therefore begin with identifying those vices, which oppose the virtues.
Pride is really illegitimate isolation. We may not recognize God; we may take sole credit. Isolated and therefore small goals might become our life work: career, love of others, worldly power or praise. When pride encounters a virtue, it holds it prisoner within oneself. We grow smaller, at the expense of a greater being which includes others and God.
The most damaging form of pride is irreverence, in which we fail to give God what is due him, we may even fail to acknowledge God.{55}
Pride is said to be the root of all sin. It can take the forms of self centeredness, or an external form which lacks the moral guidance of an ideal outside of oneself. In its severest forms of brutality and injustice, the selfishness of pride will not even accept the existence or well being of others.
Pride should be reformed into humility. Humility is a selflessness that allows our participation in God, who is Christ, the Holy Spirit, and ultimately God the Father.
Avarice is greed; a desire to have it all to ourselves and keep it all to ourselves. It has an obvious link to pride.
Wealth or abundance in itself is no sin. To unreasonably accumulate or retain such abundance, rather than relieving the want of others could be a sin. Avarice should be reformed into its correct virtue of generosity.
Envy is the desire for others status, attributes, abilities or situation. Faith makes water into wine, but envy makes wine into water. Envy seeks what is others and demands it for our own selfish ownership. Joy of the moment is the reformation of envy. To place oneself into the presence and person of Christ, is to know that envy of anything else is uncalled for.{56}
Wrath is unjustified anger, in degree, duration, or reason for. Anger should be no more than an emotional signal to correct the situation which causes justified anger. Often our only recourse of action is prayer.
All vice seeks more of itself, because the vice is either felt, sensed or believed to be good. Anger especially feeds and grows upon itself, and quickly so, often into vengeance. Patience is the correct reformed virtue of anger.
Our goal is not to be more in this life, but to be more in the afterlife, therefore our priority must not be ourselves. Patience shifts our priority not just outside of our self, but toward an ideal, which for the Christian is the person of Jesus Christ.
Lust is illegitimate self stimulation; lust for power, sex, blood, revenge all feed some vice seeking satisfaction. Stimulation can never be fulfillment because fulfillment satisfies and perfects not just the momentary, but extends even to the eternal. Fulfillment is the big picture, even beyond what our senses and limited reason are aware, or are dimly aware of.
Lust can be the most difficult vice to reform. Addiction at its worst combines the brain chemistry of addiction, the psychology of on demand satisfaction, and the spiritually damaging cycle of pride, which spirals into itself and is unable to discern a higher ideal worth pursuing, resulting even in self destruction.
In the elimination of some tangible bad habit, the student should of course remove himself from the proximity of the problem item. Practice in reformed action is very useful, one could mentally step through the absurdity of the desire for the item or activity and repeatedly image oneself avoiding the problem activity. A trained memory as such can be an effective guide for the will. “Never make a decision based on emotions”, is an all around good rule. Always examine an action from outside of oneself, before committing to it.
Gluttony is excessive consumption of food, alcohol or anything else. Motives vary according to what is consumed. Food gives satisfaction to taste, texture, hunger; over consumption is a developed obsession with this satisfaction. Alcohol is different in that it is not required by a person, as is food, and overconsumption satisfies a desire for intoxication. Both food and alcohol are commonly abused in an effort to relieve boredom or depression.
Overeating is a complex situation. Weight gain occurs in part because of reduced metabolism as one ages, and ulcers painfully scream to be fed. Overeating requires more overeating to satisfy ones hunger. A person may end up overeating simply to feel full, which in itself is a legitimate reason to eat! Training one’s hunger and acclimating one’s stomach to a much reduced intake is the key.
Smaller meals, eaten slower is a good start to more moderate eating; the stomach will feel full after fifteen minutes. Light foods may not be a real solution, since any food reactivates hunger, and acid production. Many people find they can skip a meal, and this becomes easier with practice.
Over consumption is very common, but it cannot be part of any spiritual advancement discipline. To eat a bag of chips an hour after dinner is a form of masturbation, and cannot help the soul rise above its imperfections.
Excessive consumption includes not only quantity but level of luxury. Any willful self seeking slows or even reverses the soul’s advancement. It is for good reason that religious communities stick to a meal menu and schedule; it takes individual self seeking out of the spiritual advancement equation.
All self seeking and stimulation ends only in itself, without advancing into a higher ideal. In making spiritual advancement the student must make a real self assessment, and self satisfaction, self interest, self destruction, self stimulation must go where ever it is found. Moderation is the reformed form of gluttony.
Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work. If we fail to do what is required by the situation…any situation, we are slothful. If we fail to make the moral effort to move out of despair of life, or depression of life, we will remain in it. Our God given life requires that we attain our highest potential for our life.
Acedia is a specific spiritual sloth, or disregard. It is not irreverence, or a failure to do the minimum required spiritual work. It is really a failure to make spiritual advancement. Even the minimum requirements for spiritual advancement increase continually. If we are to advance further, we need to make more and/or better quality of moral effort than we have made to date.
Recall that spiritual advancement consists of the complimentary actions of purgation and reformation. We refrain from making a bad act, and we replace it with a good act. When we are insulted, we refrain from replying with an insult and we make a positive act in its place, prayer if nothing else. The vice (revenge) is not only avoided, but reformed into a virtue, (prayer). All of creation advances, starting with ourselves.
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For our spiritual advancement, we might construct a three stage program, which we repeat until holy:
(1.) We identify and examine the problem and our foolish attachment to it. We do this in both structured mediation and on our feet as we encounter problems. We hold the temptation or imperfection at arm’s length to break the emotional cycle which feeds itself. This emotional cycle usually proceeds away from perfection and towards self: pity, indulgence, destruction.
We recall our goal (incorporation into Christ) and our reasons. We compare our proposed action to the person Christ, and not only the first century Christ, but the present day Christ: the mother, the worker, the person at leisure, danger or trouble. We think of our past failings in which we fail at the peak of temptation, only to kick ourselves later. We do not listen to the self calling us to satisfaction, but Christ calling us to fulfillment and perfection. We do what is best for our soul.
(2.) We ride out the peak and steamroll to virtue on the downside. We do not worry about the consequences, God will arrange those. We maintain focus on the only thing that lasts or has value, our participation in Christ.
(3.) Cultivation of peace is the next (and necessary) event. We must not eliminate vice, pride and worry, only to complain of boredom.{57} Our calling is to express ourselves as Christ in the many ways open to us. Christ seeks to express himself in every legitimate art or enterprise, and “non-religious” acts are not less than religious acts. Indeed, to carve out a part of life for religion, implies that the other part does not seek inclusion into God. In ancient Israel there was no divide (in theory) between God, government, business, family. They were all God’s enterprises under our stewardship. With the advent of Christianity, we are not stewards for Christ, but Christ himself, and this life is our productive training ground.
Not only temptation to sin or imperfection, but decisions also should be given this program of scrutiny. A good decision may be made better by it, and we advance as Christ. Idle thoughts are not so idle, (Mt 5:28). We can and should practice the best possible thought. This is the core value of prayer, it is proactive good thought and will which has great meaning for eternity.
Prayer is a real act of construction, it requires real moral effort and we can feel this. It is easier to view television for fifteen minutes than to pray a rosary. The rosary is far more productive, and as we free our soul of selfishness, the television becomes less attractive and the prayer more meaningful.
The Ten Commandments are in order of importance. God comes first; separation from God only brings a corresponding separation from God’s good design for our world. Praise of God implies an association of wills with God. Positive prayer joined to acts of selflessness advance our incorporation into God, and our families and the world benefit. Lack of external resources does not prohibit great influence in our world.
Spiritual advancement is not primarily a matter of reading or study, but of doing and not doing, of purgation and reformation. Most who have made the effort (and were literate) used only the Gospel and the Holy Spirit as guides. Confirmation is the sacrament for spiritual advancement, and adult evening classes are available.
The most vital virtue is love of God, It is possible that a person making imperfect advancement in the purgative stage, shows a greater love of God, than someone starting off with fewer faults, but making less effort. This is what Jesus teaches in his parable of the talents, where virtue is depicted as talent weights of gold (1 talent = 75 pounds). If we adjust the talent weights given to the actors in the proverb, we might have one starting off four talents in debt, but acquiring ten additional talents, giving him a net of six talents of gold, placing his efforts (love of God) ahead of the one holding a single talent, or even five talents.
If one could perfect one’s discretionary will and environment, rapid progress could be made; that is just the reason behind religious orders of nuns and friars. Meals, prayer, work, recreation are all scheduled; each action performed is good and proper; but with no individual will involved. This is an extreme example of the eradication of self will, but it is effective. Recall that our goal is complete participation in Christ. We become Christ, and our individual being simply becomes an instrument of the will of Christ.
Illuminative Stage
Once sin is substantially purged we may concentrate on the perfection of our human virtues. In the follow on illuminative stage. The Illuminative stage is characterized by a virtuous and pious life, of legitimate undertakings in job, family, and all areas. The years of grinding perseverance have paid off for this person of virtue. The virtues are made with little moral effort; they are the student’s new nature and have a near instinctual quality. Our real spiritual life is not neatly divided into three categories, but we do make most of our efforts in one of these categories at any time.
Some people begin their spiritual advancement from the illuminative stage, they have not been given, or cultivated vices, this was the original condition of Adam and Eve. These fortunate people may immediately move forward in perfection of their virtues, and then into the unitive stage.{58} A chart of the spiritual advancement stages may be found at the front of the book.
Humanity was not created to live forever in human perfection, each individual was created for the purpose of divine union, which requires advancing even beyond a human perfection. No one gets to Heaven (who is the person of Christ) until every shred of self interest, and even self being is purged — we cannot become Christ if we remain self. We may do our Purgatory in this life or the next. If we do it now, our union is deeper and of a better quality, than if we wait until after our life on earth.
We now examine a short and practical course in spiritual advancement given by Jesus Christ himself, to Blessed Anna Maria Taigi.
Born in 1769, Anna was a wife, mother and mystic. She found training and employment as a servant for a Roman noble family. Marrying the cook’s helper Dominico, they began their family, and she her path to perfection of soul. As she progressed in soul, she was gifted with prophecy and healing powers. Her prophetic ability was unmatched, she had only to look into the blazing sun which was always present to her to know anything, the future or past, fate of souls, solutions to problems, locations of lost objects, events months or years away which always occurred precisely as foretold.
Anna saw her daily trials as wonderful ways to overcome her self will, allowing in its place God’s own will. Anna did not live her life in the clouds, but in a hovel; nursing, cooking, cleaning, praying for her family of nine. Anna, who could train nuns in the way of perfection, could not even read the Bible. The core of her spiritual curriculum was this advice given by her guide, who was Christ himself.
“The greatest merit consists in being in the midst of the world and yet holding the world under one’s feet, serving God in the state of life to which it has pleased him to call you. Remember it is far more meritorious to renounce one’s own will and submit to the will of God, than to perform the greatest bodily mortifications…you must not in the future use language such as ‘I want this; this is pleasant, but this other is not’. Do what you do not wish to do, leave undone what you wish to do. One such act is much more pleasing to me than an entire year of penance. The soul that suffers patiently the tribulations from people is greater than that of a penitent.”
The formula for spiritual advancement, is “hate self, and love God.” This two part teaching comes from Jesus Christ himself, (Lk 14:26, Lk 10:27).
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The remainder of this chapter will examine the spiritual advancement teachings of Jesus and the saints. Most of the teachings in this chapter would fit into the illuminative stage.
The following is the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapters 5-7. It is a sermon on spiritual advancement. It is spoken by a person who knows the rules, who makes the rules, who is the rule. After the first eight blessings are inserted the four ‘woes’ from the gospel of Luke, then the narrative returns to Jesus’ sermon on the mount. Verses taken from the New American Bible.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.”
“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”
“Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.”
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
(Note on the following four woes from Luke 6. Let us study these difficult lessons of Jesus. These four woes all criticize common acts performed for self satisfaction. Selfishness of any sort isolates us from Christ, we cannot become Christ, if we remain self.)
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”
“But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry.”
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep.”
“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”
“Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
(The Similes of Salt and Light) “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lamp stand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”
(Teaching About the Law) “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
(Teaching About Anger) “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.” (Note: participation even in thoughts of anger or adultery are real acts of construction. We construct our own person by what we participate in: God, sin, virtue, vice.)
(Teaching About Adultery) “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.”
(Teaching About Divorce) “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.’ But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
(Teaching About Oaths) “Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow.’ But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.” (Note: anything more than yes or no, is prideful fluff. To qualify one’s ‘yes’ , means that it is less than the whole truth, according to Jesus, anything more is a corruption,)
(Teaching About Retaliation) “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for tw