Ontological Presuppositions of Spiritual Guidance in Communitarian Spirituality Cover Image

Ontologische Voraussetzungen der geistlichen Begleitung in gemeinschaftlicher Spiritualität
Ontological Presuppositions of Spiritual Guidance in Communitarian Spirituality

Author(s): Peter Volek
Subject(s): Theology and Religion
Published by: Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Nakladatelství Karolinum
Keywords: Communitarian spiritual guidance; Focolare Movement; Chiara Lubich; Klaus Hemmerle; Trinitarian ontology

Summary/Abstract: In the history of spirituality, a way to search for the wisdom facilitating the imitation of wise people’s lives has been developed. This sort of spiritual guidance had been developed by the desert fathers and mothers, in the cloisters, and through the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. An important step in the achievement of spiritual guidance is a search for a guide to help the guided person learn to discern the spirits. The discernment of spirits is to help one in selecting the goals and means of one’s activities of self-improvement. Spiritual guidance can be provided by individual men and women, but also by communities. A specific type of communitarian spiritual guidance was developed within the Focolare Movement, founded by Chiara Lubich, who understood God as love. Forsaken Jesus and Jesus who dwells in unity can be considered a foundation of this communitarian spirituality. The mystical experiences of Chiara Lubich in Paradise ‘49 point to the fact that this spirituality is premised upon an ontology, which has been developed into a Trinitarian ontology by Klaus Hemmerle.

  • Issue Year: 11/2021
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 165-179
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: German
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