Research project and scientific committee

The Old Testament prophets Moses and Elias follow the tortuous roads of their mission, of their calling to the vision of God, with abandonment to God’s will and contestation of this will. The apostle St Paul, seized by the risen Christ, runs towards him in order to become conformed to him (cf. Phil 3). Christ must live in him, and every Christian is called to grow in his existence towards the full maturity of Christ (cf. Eph 4,13).

The great tradition will be called on to give its testimony on the stages of the spiritual life and on the trials to which it is exposed. Gregory of Nyssa discerned in the figures of Moses and of the spouse of the Song of Songs examples of the infinite progress of the Christian faithful and ascetic, at the same time firmly anchoring spiritual ascension in the sacramental life. John Climacus in the seventh century recapitulates the already traditional teaching on the three stages of monastic conversion: beginners, those progressing, and the perfect. He orders them according to the three forms of monastic life, cenobites, anchorites, and hermits, while at the same time pointing out their relative nature. Isaac the Syrian, in the heart of the Syriac spiritual tradition, likewise traces the monk’s way towards purity of heart and contemplation. In the West, in the Latin world, St Benedict of Nursia presents the life of the monk in a community of brethren as kenosis, following Christ, abasement that opens the door of paschal beatitude. The Philocalia of Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain and of Paisij Velychkovs’kyj brings together a large florilegium of spiritual writings from past centuries and thus sketches symphonically the stages of spiritual growth. It is nevertheless necessary to recall that the Fathers of monastic life (Antony the Great, Theodore Studite…) recognized that certain married men and women living the Christian life in the world were more holy in God’s eyes than they.