MSN Revision Notes

Psycho-Spiritual Integration (Part I)

IntroductionPsycho-spiritual integration centres on the relationship between psychology and spirituality; it is the meeting of two persons: Jesus Christ and the individual person (in other words this is a meeting between values and the psychological structure of the individual). The point of meeting between these two poles is the motivation of the individual;Values Motivation The Individual Values need to move the person as I encounter them, if they do not move me then they have no influence on me. My motivational system needs to be oriented towards values which is a process involving the whole person. The work of the educator is to educate the motivation of the individual. A. Spiritual Experience and Discernment1. A spiritual experience is a gradual awareness (knowledge) of the objective values and self-transcendent values (Jesus Christ), which progressively modifies ones way of living.

2. Moral discernment is the most basic and is presumed before entrance into the seminary or formation programme.

3. There is a need to discern the quality of the individuals spiritual experience, that is, to discern whether it came from God of from the individuals own creation. What really happened when the student felt called to become a priest or religious?

4. This is achieved through distinguishing the apparent good from the real good: through a discernment of this we find out the interpretation and conclusion that the person has given to his/her experience. The subjective interpretation of values determines the way in which it is to be lived by the person: what does it mean for him to be a priest. Discernment involves an understanding of two moments; Theological moment in this we seek the signs of the presence of God in the lived life of person. How does God manifest himself to this person?

Anthropological moment how does this person respond to this God that has invited him into a new relationship? These two moments must converge. God uses means to speak to the individual and the individual uses the same means (opportunities and experiences) to respond. But it may happen that God uses my experiences to speak to me but I use different means, i.e. He may seek me as a married man but I seek him else where thus creating a divergence between the theological and anthological. In this case the person is seeking God as a Deacon instead of seeking him as a married man which is the problem of the apparent good.

The heart of discernment is this; is there is a convergence or divergence between these two moments? B. Discerning Motivation 1. Discerning availability and willingness towards dialogue with God. This is assessed from attitudes; if a person is really moved by love then it will be seen in their concrete actions.

2. The presence of God and the human subject there is a progressive experience of God in the persons life which becomes the object of reflection and judgement (He is discovered day by day by the heart that is willing to listen). This experience of God brings the subject to progressively discover himself and he gradually becomes confronted by a new value system (objective values) which is an experience of conflict and struggle.

Growth is allowing oneself to be conquered by God and in order to achieve this we need to cultivate a willingness which is necessary for this growth. This willingness is a necessary condition for the change of ones original position (that is personal philosophy) which is the whole process of transformation. Thus, the basic question posed by the formator is not has the person changed but has he changed the capacity to change further?

3. Presentation of values the formator must present the values to the student in a clear and uncompromised way. The students reaction towards these values gives indications of both the existence and willingness to learn. 4. Apostolic experience from which the student will learn. C. Dynamism of Change1. First Phase The Divine CallGod calls the individual out of his gratuitous love, but this call has no content only God attracts the person to himself in love and gives him some instruction about his nature. There is the new awareness of a transcendental horizon in the persons life which goes beyond just natural values. The individual is aware of what is happening but does not know the contents;

The individual becomes more disposed to some good which previously he would/could not do (what Karl Rahner call operative grace). The individual is passive here; God has taken the initiative and guides the person in a new direction.

The Formator has no real role here all this first phase is the work of God. 2. Second Phase Beginning of Human CooperationThe individual begins to respond to the divine initiative as he feels the movements in his heart; he begins to make his judgements and decisions correspond to these new transcendent ideals whose content is not fully known. The formator can help in clarifying his responses and feelings so as not to base decisions on emotional but on rational judgments.

The individual is invited to take a position not based on facts because the content of his experience is not known he is invited to a response to love which is a different way of knowing. It is not just knowing the facts but a decision out of love coming from the spiritual experience. In this situation the individual is called to make a decision and only afterwards to analyse and understand. The task of the formator is to know the individual at this stage and help him resolve this kind of knowing.

The dynamic union has between God and the individual has begun (although this stage is very fragile as the person listens to a reality he does not yet fully know). The individual has to pass through to the next stage which is accepting this logic of love which he is now experiencing. 3. Third Phase The Initial Decision The individual risks and responses to this reality by deciding. The decision has content; to do something concrete to accept this new horizon in life. Deciding means accepting what God wants. Not longer is the psychic disposition enough but doing something concrete now. Here both Ideal Self and Actual Self are engaged.

NB. The acceptance of these new ideals widens the basic dialectic because the basic natural needs of the person remain in the very action of choosing ideals the person feels ambivalent feelings and a tension arises which stems from the natural needs in contradiction to the new ideals. The problem emerges of the incapacity of living out what one has chosen to live; that is living out the consequences of the risk taken in love. 4. Fourth Phase Integration of Choice made with the Lived LifeIntegration actually means containing the tension by knowing the forms of this tension present in the individuals life. Integration does not mean harmony of opposites that brings about the serenity of a cemetery; it is rather bearing the scars of the war between our Actual and Ideal selves.

Tasks to achieve this integration;

a. The formator must be aware of this tension and how it manifests itself in the life of the person; what is the significant nature of this tension for the person.

b. The individual must integrate his chosen values with his dispositions that are already conscious (Manifest Self), i.e. a subjective sanctity which is putting the individuals gifts to good use at service of the kingdom of what the person already knows of himself, his obvious talents etc.c. The individual also has to integrate the values with the unconscious dispositions (Latent Self) which are less free in order to make them freer, i.e. objective sanctity.d. This integration of the two conscious and unconscious dispositions are important not only for God but for the person themselves. This integration has two elements;

1. Psychological Analysis this is the technical means by which a persons unconscious needs are assessed. His/her psychological profile is described. 2. Anthropological Analysis this is an analysis of each students natural tendency to transcend himself and to love God (conscious intentionality). It requires providing the student with a the knowledge of Ideal Self and Actual Self, i.e. implying that they is always a gap between what he is and what he is called to be.

D. The meeting of the Ideal and the Psychological Structure of the Person; The Place of Symbolism A. Symbolism (values)When values are presented to a person, some receive them positively others negatively why is this so? Ultimate values (revealed in Jesus Christ) presented by a formator (or the Church) are values and are therefore symbols. These values represent one thing for one person and another thing for another person, i.e. for one person celibacy represents life, for another it means death. These representations/interpretations take place at an affective level. Values are different from norms as they do not tell us how to live, i.e., poverty as a value does not tell us how much money we should spend each week. Norms prescribe what needs to be done in certain situations.

Values are endure in time, they are distinguished from personal interests which could be lost if the interest vanishes. Terminal values concern the ultimate meaning and end of human life (union with God and imitation of Christ).

Instrumental Values the means to this end (poverty, chastity, and obedience).

The terminal value justifies the instrumental value. It is thus important that the individual does not see the instrumental values as end in themselves.

Religious vocation demands an integration of these values in the psychological structure of the person. The formator needs to discern if to the extent in which the value is free and objective in the life of the person in their particular life situation.

Symbolism What does this value/this experience mean for me? No one can be known in his interiority, but ones interiority is revealed through what he does. Symbols help us to externalise our interior life. Our actions are symbol activities of our interiority. A persons actions reveal the person but can also be used to cover the self, therefore there is need to move away from actions to the self and from the self to actions.

Symbols can do this because they give us two types of information;

1. What is seen, said and done = the thing.

2. The meaning = the signified.

Self-transcendent values and Natural values converge in symbols, therefore when S. T. values come into contact with my psychic structure, my actions become symbolic of these values; my choice of clothes, my choice of friends, my decisions, my interests, are all reflections of my symbolic life.

So only when the value has assumed a symbolic form in the life of the individual as an expression of his interiority can the value effect change in the person. The value becomes a symbol through a persons affectivity. B. Affectivity

Only when a value/ideal is loaded with affect can it assume a symbolic form and be able to change a person. Every idea has a mental representation, but when it succeeds in attaching itself to my affectivity, then it assumes greater force to effect some change in the psychological system (motivation). This indicates to me the kind of relationship I have with that object or idea;

Positive

AFFECTIVE RESPONSE Indifference

Negative These varying responses of affect to values reveal a lot about the person, it is not enough that the person interpret the value well; we need to ask; what is the type of relationship between this value and the psychic structure of the person? If a value does not provoke affect in me, it means it has no place in my symbolic world.

The symbolic relationship has three elements;

1. Cognitive Element

This means knowing the values; but it is more of an interior image of what has been perceived. The cognitive element includes;

Perception that the person is aware of some fact

Clarification of Values the candidate needs to know and be clear on the values, but knowing is just information, it does not affect behaviour, it could remain only a dry idea.

The Interior Image of the Idea this image of the value influences behaviour. The image of Jesus in the interiority of the person indirectly influences all he does, i.e. his interpersonal relationships. The formator must ensure that because of the basic dialect, the student may have a poor image of values; he wants to love God with all his heart but his values represent more defensive or ego-centric symbols. The formator task is to reduce the limited or distorted representation of these values in the life of the candidate. Limitations in the students structure could be voluntarism which means Gods love demands a lot and therefore I must win or earn it. This view limits freedom as the student feels he is being trained or tested by God. 2. Affective Element

The establishment of a new relationship happens through our affectivity; affectivity is towards;a. the possibility of channelling our energies,

b. towards an esteemed object central to our identity. NB. Our affectivity is channelled towards what is central to our self-esteem. When an object touches negatively our self-esteem there could result depression or even suicide. That is why it is important to find out where one found ones self-esteem; in fantasy, intelligence, beauty, power, money, relationships. If an object does not become the source of my self-esteem, it becomes secondary in the individuals psychic structure and does not receive enough psychic energy for its realisation.

A central question is; How much does this vocation following Jesus found my self-esteem? Only when an object occupies the centre of ones self-esteem can all energy be mobilised towards its realisation. Formation therefore helps at making the object of love Jesus the centre of the candidates psychological structure. This lack of centrality leads to problems as the person seeks outside compensation and confirmation to bolster identity and self-esteem. 3. Conative Element (the element in psychological processes that tend towards activity or change and appear as desire, volition, and striving). This is the least important aspect as it follows as a consequence of the previous two. Now my actions are a reflection of my interior processes. We need to integrate all aspect of our psychic functioning;

Psycho-physiological

Psycho-social

Psycho-spiritual

(Any exaggeration at one of these levels to the expense of the other indicates an integration problem).Elements of Renunciation

In many elements involving a Christian religious experience, there are definite implications;

Every choice implies a renunciation of other possibilities, not always an external renunciation but an internal one; that is, renouncing some part of the self and its needs which may not permit the realisation or gratification due to the object chosen.

One chooses a cause not because it is the only possibility but because it is the one preferable to others. Renunciation must be justified so that it does not become a constricting mortification; this also implies that the values renounced are not despised.

The choices made become the foundation of all future choices and decisions.

Every Christian Decision in terms of Vocation Presupposes;

Psycho-Spiritual Integration (Part II)The Laws of Christian Experience;

A. First Law; How can the individual be helped to move gradually in his experience to move from subjectivity to objectivity?1. Christian Experience is situated in the intermediary space between two poles;Christian Revelation (objective pole) Christian Spiritual Experience

Concrete Existence of the Person (Subjective pole)

Christian spiritual experience cannot be identified without both of these two poles.

Psychoanalysis the subject is truly a subject when the objective is destroyed. Humanistic Psychology the objective is at service of the subjective.NB. From this law the fundamental criterion for discerning truth of a spiritual experience is deduced; namely: the priority of the objective pole over the subjective. It is this priority that confers to the spiritual experience the quality of internalization. 2. Reasons why this law is important;

a. The individual possesses some self-deceiving (self-defeating) mechanisms that facilitate distortion of reality. Transcendent values in their objectivity offer the motivational system the capacity of discontinuing this distortion of motivation and behaviour. In this way, the objective pole serves as a guarantee of continuity and verification of spiritual experience.

b. Regarding the motivational sources of the individual, the transcendent values in their objectivity provides the possibility to the individual to give new meanings (not distorted) to the psychic events of the past (meaning re-organisation). c. The primacy of the objective pole guarantees that election made does not depend solely on the intra-psychic structure (i.e. as in miraculistic approaches after one month novena I will not remember the pains again in the sense of establishing irresponsible relationships between events or infantile attitudes the feeling that the conflict have been resolved).

Role of Educator/Formator;

The educator (or formator) must try to get the candidate to hold onto the objective pole, as the objective is so frequently conditioned by the subjective. In other words, the objective becomes defined or interpreted according to the individuals psychodynamics;

Example; your WORD is a light for my ways (objective illuminates my psychodynamics), instead the individual says, my WAY is a light for the Word! (the subjective psychodynamics illuminates the Word).

Therefore the educator must correct distortions of behaviour and motivation in himself and the candidates. These distortions are activated frequently when the challenge to live our values touch upon a central conflict and there is a greater tendency to reduce the objective pole to the subjective in order to deal with conflict (Second Dimension dynamic = important-for-me is sought instead of the important-in-itself). The primacy of the objective pole affects the choices one makes, when inconsistency prevails, the person makes inconsistent choices and follows infantile behaviours (i.e. projection of problems onto others, too much attachment to roles, etc.) 3. Favouring the Primacy of the Objective;The two movements of discernment;

Discernment directly touches human freedom which should and wants to choose and commit itself to the good, to a value and indeed, to the Good. There are two processes or movements in discernment and they correspond to the two movements of human freedom;

a. Human freedom is realised in transcending itself towards a good understood in relation to the Good;

b. It also involves a concrete and specific choice.

- This double dynamic is expressed in the double movement of discernment.

Ascending movement: this movement is verified in the search for transcendence in every event or action. It is the movement from the Particular goods to the True Good/God. This is the movement of participation in which the divine is sought in the human = spiritual insight. One searches to see in what way every phenomenon or concrete reality participates in the transcendent world.

Descending movement: In this movement the divine illuminates and favours the particular choices the individual makes in the concrete. This is the movement of purification in which the human is sought in the divine = psychological insight.

Two types of relationship are possible in the formation or educational environment;

1. Symmetrical the candidate is despairing and the educator reaches out to help him. 2. Complementary The candidate is despairing but the educator leaves him because he is seeking. He asked the question and instead of direct help, the educator introduces him to a reflection by what he tells the candidate.

In this way the formator is favouring the primacy of the objective as it is important to see how far the lived practical life of the individual (Descending movement) betrays the believed ideal (Ascending movement). NB., This attempt helps to avoid transferential attitudes and dependency between the formator and the students. 4. Spiritualizing the problem;

Spiritualization is the challenge of transforming the struggles which take place on the human, psychological plane into a spiritual one. It is clear that the reality of the whole person is in dialogue with God (which may not always be the case). It is not just at a level of cognitive abstraction or a level of principles that must be addressed but the whole existential being (emotions, needs, desires, past history and aspirations).

Integration of two aspects of human existence;

1. Religious Level; each person is called to take a position before God. This encounter (relationship) can create tension as it gives life but also death, therefore anxiety is present.

2. Psychological Level; there is our purely psychological aspect due to our humanity: concerns which are not immediately religious in nature, i.e. fears, anxieties, questions, struggles between ideals (such as success, self-image), and aspects of the Actual Self (needs), and problems of relationship and communication. Importance of Psychological and Human Integration;

When these two areas are separate entities, a person experiences a distress that does not really have a clear cause. When a person is locked in a vicious circle due to some opposing psychological mechanisms which are in conflict, the persons energy is absorbed in himself and undergoes a continual and futile struggle.

A similar process can happen when one is involved in a spiritual struggle, which is neglecting a concrete (existential) reality, and ends up in a dry argument about abstract principles. In both cases a lack of integration is present.

Within every psychological struggle, there is a religious one and that is where the true problem lies: the encounter with God flows into a responsible dedication to him or to frustration and lack of growth. At a psychological level it is God who calls the person into a new kind of relationship which touches the heart concretely at that point where he is divided in himself and is alienated from himself.

Holding the two levels together means that there is a psycho-spiritual struggle; it is not just a struggle between the ideals of God and the ideals of man; it is not only the struggle between the limits imposed to human freedom and the demands of responding to reality; it is rather a psycho-spiritual struggle it is an appeal directed to me to do some good that I can and want to do only if I let myself be led towards a greater freedom.Role of Educator/Formator;The role of the formator is to enable to students see the importance of this integration (or interpenetration) between the two levels; helping the individual see the connection between the two and being able to create the connection himself where the need arises. Advice to achieve this aim;1. Do not remind him constantly of the ideals which he already knows (this could just frustrate him)

(= Orthodoxy).

2. Do not give him further advice on how to act (= Orthopraxis).

3. Only help him to make a true question become explicit and which are already within him (= Orthopathy). In other words, help him to see the particular human situation and the following spiritual invitation (= Parabolic pedagogy which creates a complementary relationship see above).5. Inductive method of moral life: method of intrinsic morality;1. The central point is that values are objective realities which are above and beyond man, but they have the privilege of satisfying the unspecified yearning in the human heart. If they are received, it becomes an interiorised reality by means of the process of internalisation which is set in motion by human desire and confirmed by the will. The effect of such internalization is the maximum satisfaction of our genuine human aspirations.

2. Values are objective realities which are above an beyond man which coming from outside and in an unexpected way question our existence and but can be poorly interiorised through the process of conformity set in motion by the voluntaristic effort of the person. The effect of such conformity is the abolition of the freedom to act.

This is the essence of intrinsic morality which differs from extrinsic morality;

a. Interiorised value through process of internalization a. Interiorised value through process of compliance b. Values are understood in terms of relationship/dialogue b. Values are seen as an imposition, no relationship is established.

c. Method of learning; emphasis on desire (willingness). c. Method of learning; emphasis on voluntarism (wilfulness).

d. Values are presented in persuasive way that attracts, d. Values are presented in threatening way; if you do this you will be happy

they present a qualitative way of living which leaves otherwise you are a failure (value does not convince as with the Pharisees us with free choices and Law)e. Leads to transformation and increase in freedom > e. Leads to voluntaristic effort and loss of freedom > no freedom and feels The individual feels themselves and fully alive. trapped. Intrinsic morality = human experience of value (Jesus and his teaching) as maximally human and leading to transformation, and the individual becoming fully alive. Method of learning is the appeal to desire and motivation. Extrinsic morality = human experience of value (Jesus and his teaching) is understood as an imposition demanding voluntaristic effort which makes the individual feel a reduction of freedom and reacts with rebellion. Role of Educator/Formator;The individual must be helped in his task of moving towards an intrinsic morality by the;

Presentation of objective values which must be clear;

Also help in digesting them which means the educator must avoid risk of being the intransigent type (not willing to compromise) who is preoccupied with abstract principles and rules and the concrete person is neglected. The other danger is the indulgent educator who is so taken up in the concrete situation of individual that the objectivity of values and the obliging character of the values are lost sight of.

The means in which this process can be achieved is through the following steps;

NB., Helping the person is not criticising his project of life even when this means offering another alternative in life (i.e. religious vocation may not be suited to this person). Confronting his style of life, his project of life implies letting him understand his personality deeply and profoundly and letting him see for himself what he really wants in life (if a person is too aggressive, then what is this aggression seeking?). Self-Knowledge is the key it is not a matter of preaching but enabling the individual to preach to himself.

Self-Knowledge is acquired in three ways; (always the task of the formator)

1. Explaining his situation to him enabling the individual to give true and correct names to what is really happening in this life (i.e. his feelings, motivations, needs, desires).2. Understanding: This means enabling the individual to give a subjective meaning to what is happening to him. What functions do your actions perform in your life, as these establish and create your style of life?

3. Interpreting: This means enabling the individual to confront his behaviour with Gospel values. Does the way you live promote the Gospel you seek or is this aim impeded? 6. Favouring the process of introspection: the response of the subject;

The formator needs to know what kind of response the individual is giving. There are four kinds of responses that an individual can give as a justification for his/her vocation (of their faith life in general). 1. Catechetical ResponseThese are exact responses which demonstrate the individual has understood the content. It is actually a mere repetition of content rather than a free and independent exploration of faith. These responses do not lead to assimilation (internalization). 2. Moral ResponseThis is like a confessional response that is a correct indicating again the individual has understood the content of the faith and morality and is aware of what should or should not be done. It promotes orthodoxy but does not lead to assimilation but more to a voluntaristic effort to do things the way they should be done. 3. De-Individualized ResponseThis is an impersonalised response that the individual offers which is a common response shared by everyone indicating a general agreement with the common knowledge of the group, i.e. what the Church teaches about Religious life is agreed upon. In this kind of response, however, the first person is lost and one speaks as a member of a group of believers. 4. Personalised Response

This is a convinced response as the person believes the content of faith or values having personally verified the content. Such a response is the fruit of a personal investigation and arrived at after genuinely searching. Such responses are socially independent (therefore not impersonalised response) and made in a climate of suspended judgement (and hence different from moral responses) and are far deeper than just rote learning (catechetical responses). The personalised responses are stimulated by explorative questions which push the person to find meaning for his faith. The individual questions his faith and religious vocation and is provoked to seek for an ever more meaningful response. 7. From Subjectivity to Interiority;

Interiority understood in this sense implies what Lonergan calls authentic subjectivity. The whole point of Lonergans analysis is to help us to grasp that our own knowing processes orient us towards truth and our own valuing processes orient us towards what is good. The criteria of our own consciousness, if we will but follow them attentively, intelligently, reasonably, and responsibly, will lead us to true judgements both of fact and value. Our evaluations, (our judgements) then, partake in objectivity insofar as we give ourselves authentically to seeking truth and value.

It might seem strange given the commonly accepted division between subjectivity and objectivity that the more one employs the full range of ones subjectivity, the more objective ones conclusions, but it is in fact true.

Example: the radiologists trained subjectivity arrives at an objectivity that I, merely looking at the x-ray, could not arrive at. Knowing is not merely taking a good look, it is attending and understanding and judging.

Religious values, finally, lie at the heart of the meaning and value of our living and our world; because our desire is unrestricted, we are finally satisfied with nothing less than ultimate meaning and value (even winning a marathon does not bring ultimate values!)

The Laws of Christian Experience;

B. Second Law; From the Global to the Particular.

This law directly touches the contents to be taught. The objective contents must find their resonance in the interiority of the subject. Each moment of the contemplation of the objective value of God Jesus Christ must produce a corresponding consequence in the individual. The global must be incarnated in the particular.

There are three stages in the presentation of the Christian message; Point of departure God reveals himself in Jesus Christ, the face of God is revealed. This means the union of immanence and transcendence through the incarnation in history and the revelation of our means to salvation. Consequences in the mind of the individual and how he responses with his motivational system. We are called to make a union between our own historical immanence and transcendence, i.e. my history; the concrete experiences of my life are concrete places of salvation. The revelation of Jesus Christ gives me the vision in which I can understand the meaning of my own history. I contemplate the progressive obedience/decision of Jesus in his conformity to the Father by which I learn that through my own decisions I open myself to my own salvation. This contemplation leaves me with a greater image of objective values; therefore the process is a gradually conforming of the human mind through an ordering according to the mystery of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Concrete Acts this concerns what concretely should be done in my life (morality); it involves the translation of events through the activity of contemplation into particular choices and decisions.

Anthropological Requirements;

The principle anthropological requirement is the development of willingness in the individual i.e., an internal disposition in the person in order to act in such a way as to not need persuasion. It is the development of a readiness to respond to the love of God in obedience.

In order to encourage this willingness the following is of help;

1. The act of faith is not en intellectual act in itself but rather a relationship which is not just founded on what to do but on being with the beloved. Doing always flows from being. The individuals new identity is built on this new relationship.

2. This relationship demands from the individual a synthesis between the message of the Gospel and his intra-psychic structures. The theological truth gives meaning to our being and because it is truth itself, it can contradict my own definition of being. Models with attempt to facilitate the Development of Willingness1. The Model of NegationThis model hold that feelings, desires, motivations or other such psychological structures should be repressed or denied when they contradict values, i.e. mortification of affective life. A good priest of religious should not feel anger or sexual desire. This is an example of repressive pedagogy. 2. The Model of SubstitutionThis model is a form of sublimatory pedagogy which states that contradictory emotions should be substituted with other ones, i.e. a female religious without children substitutes her feelings and become a spiritual mother for her junior sister to channel her frustrated maternal instinct and play mother for others.

Problems with this model of sublimation are likely to follow however as, sublimation does not result in complete satisfaction, anymore than displacement does, there is always some residual tension. This tension may discharge itself in the form of nervousness or restlessness. (Lindsey & Hall, p. 51) 3. The Model of IdentificationThis model identifies psychological movements with theological ones. It is like saying that the way I feel is what God is saying to me; I feel like going on the missions, therefore it is the will of God that I go on the missions because I feel it strongly within me. 4. The Model of LinearityThis model says that there is harmony between the psychological structure and the Gospel values in such a way that the Gospel values take the person to a higher level.

NB.; Models 1 & 2 are too pessimistic / negative and stress the inner human struggle to the point of despair and little hope. There is no hope of managing the tension only resignation; such models are found in psychoanalysis.Models 3 & 4 are too optimistic / positive and undermine the human struggle to the point of delusion and folly, the basic dialectic is cancelled altogether; such models are found in humanistic psychology.

Models from Christian Anthropology 1. The Model of IncarnationThis model presupposes the human psychic structure and maintains it, for example it is not possible to love God without loving your neighbour. This model does not impoverish or amputate the individuals psychological structure; it addresses the way in which the dialectic is handled.2. The Model of Redemption

This model holds that Gospel values complete the individual; they draw him/her toward their fullness going beyond their natural capacities to a capacity to love with all your heart, i.e., the natural capacity to help others can be transformed to the capacity to even dying for others in martyrdom. Therefore the human psychological structure is transformed under the action of grace, through the values of the Gospel. There is a reorganisation and a transformation as human desires are channelled into self-transcendence. 3. The Model of CircularityThis model holds that the relationship between the Gospel structures and the individuals psychic structure is circular. The Gospel influences the psychic structure and the psychic structure attends to the Gospel and so on.

NB. The second group of models is drawn from Christian anthropology and explains that the harmony between the psychic structure and Gospel values is never stable or smooth but a continuous dynamic tension. The basic tension remains, we are in constant need of transformation.

Willingness requires a good and open attitude which manifests itself in concrete acts. Through our actions we begin the process of configuration to Gospel values which establishes our attitudes and leads to further concrete acts and a greater degree of willingness (readiness). The measurement of a persons willingness is his effective freedom. The Gospel values keep challenging us to an ever greater response to God through the process of a complete transformation of heart and mind. Put on the mind of Christ. ConclusionThe growth of Christian vocation actually takes place on the First & Second dimension; the first dimension regards the end for which I am made and the second regards the contents and materials which help or block this movement towards its end. For this reason growth must take place on both dimensions;

The primary of the Objective (First Dimension)

The translation from global to particular (Second Dimension)

Essentially the final aim of Christian vocation invites the individual to reorganise himself,

(i.e. conformity to objective values)Value

Subject

1. RISK there is always a sense of insecurity (about the future) which can only be overcome by courage and faith

2. Maximum cost an action that expresses the intensity of love is always preferable in decisions even if the outcome is minimal

3. Precision but not clarity the accepted values should be objective and realistic but can never be exhaustively clear. They is progressively discovered only in concretely realising them.

Collection of facts

This means knowing the existential situation of the individual and his daily programme along with his personality (moods, prayer, work, free time, etc.) The intransigent formator may see this as a waste of time.

Experience

Grasping the project of life

Through his daily actions and his stories he is telling the world (community) what his aims in life are and how and who he wants to be. From this the formator gathers a constant style of life and assesses if he is guided more by important-for-me or important-in-itself

Understanding

Confronting /confirming his actual project in life

Does the candidates life correspond to the Christian project given by Christ? Does who you want to be correspond to who you are called to be? The indulgent formator may not care about these aspects

Judging

Helping him modify his life project so as to reflect more the life proposed by the Gospel

This is the heart of intrinsic morality. The value had to be presented as attractive otherwise it will not receive an affective response; if the individual does not feel attracted to it, consequently he may not come to the possession of it.

Responsible Decision Being in love

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