The Catholic spiritual tradition has defined three categories reflecting particular degrees of spiritual advancement. These are 1) The Purgative Way; 2) The Illuminative Way; 3) The Unitive Way. To begin, let’s enlist the help of St. Teresa of Avila and her analogy of a gardener cultivating a garden that the Lord will find pleasing.
Catholic Spiritual Tradition
St. Teresa of Avila and The Way of Beginners
This podcast explores the first discipline of Lent: prayer. It discusses the first degree of prayer in the Catholic spiritual tradition, the way of beginners, aka., the purgative stage. St. Teresa of Avila, the great Doctor of Prayer, utilizes an analogy of a garden in order to illustrate how to advance in prayer and the love of God.