The Chaplet of Saint Michael the Archangel and The Three Stages of the Interior Life: Meditation Class, A Mystic’s Journal Entry, August 5, 2006
For those of you who missed previous entries of A Mystic’s Journal, this Chaplet prayer was given to humanity by Saint Michael himself. The prayer in its entirety is given in the July 25 - 27, 2006 entry. Aside from the vast rewards for saying this beautiful prayer, I remembered that Saint Bonaventure had written, in A Mind’s Journey to God, that our human journey towards mystical union followed the ascending hierarchies of the angelic choirs. I was therefore doubly interested in Saint Michael’s chaplet.
The next choir of angels, the 3rd choir, again mentioned the infusion of a virtue: By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Thrones may the Lord infuse into our hearts a true and sincere spirit of humility. We noted that the only other time infusion of a virtue was mentioned, was in the prayer to the 7th choir: By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Principalities may God fill our souls with a true spirit of obedience. We agreed that obedience was a lower, more simple form of true humility. We discussed this briefly, and decided to return to our discussion after first studying the two lowest choirs.
The prayers to the two lowest choirs of angels are to the Archangels, or 8th choir: By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Archangels may the Lord give us perseverance in faith and in all good works in order that we may attain the glory of Heaven and to the angels, or 9th, lowest choir: By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Angels may the Lord grant us to be protected by them in this mortal life and conducted in the life to come to Heaven.
These prayers, to the two lowest choirs both mention attaining Heaven: the prayer to the 9th choir is more simple, and asks that we be protected by the angels and conducted to heaven. The prayer to the Archangels asks that we be given perseverance and faith and in all good works, in order to attain the glory of Heaven. I felt that these two lowest choirs of angels represented our goal of developing the three cardinal virtues: faith, hope and charity. This would be our first task on the spiritual journey. Nate disagreed, but I persisted in my thinking.
I felt that the prayer to the lowest choir of angels: By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Angels may the Lord grant us to be protected by them in this mortal life and conducted in the life to come to Heaven, outlined the virtue of hope. In this initial step on the spiritual path, we have the hope that God will protect us, forgive us, and take us to heaven when we leave this earthly life, i.e. we first develop the hope and intent to be with God after this life is over.
The prayer to the Archangels, or 8th choir: By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Archangels may the Lord give us perseverance in faith and in all good works in order that we may attain the glory of Heaven now mentions faith and good works, or charity in the more simple sense of the word charity. On this beginning or initial level of charity, we develop love for our neighbor, and a selflessness which is reflected in our good works - and mercy towards ourselves and others.
After our discussion on these two lowest choirs, I returned to my idea that the 3rd and 7th choirs might represent the two Dark Nights that separated the three stages of the Interior Life. Only two of the prayers to the choirs of angels asked for infusion of a virtue, and this seemed to set them apart from the other virtues we were praying for.
After further discussion, we began to agree that the infusion of obedience by the 3rd choir and humility by the 7th choir were somehow related to the two Dark Nights we must pass through on the spiritual Path: the Dark Night of the soul and the Dark night of the spirit ( or of the senses, in St. John of the Cross’ schema.).
We agreed that true Humility is higher than obedience. In obedience, we are still standing in the ego and trying to master our thoughts and emotions, trying to master our passions. In true Humility we realize that we ourselves can accomplish nothing, that God accomplishes through us. And until we are truly Humble in this sense, we cannot be pure vessels for the Divine to act through us. This true Humility is essential for Mystical Union, where God fills us, even replaces us.
In the generally accepted schema of the Catholic saints and theologians, there are three stages of our interior life. (From: The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Volume I; the Rev. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Tan Books and Publishers, Inc. Rockford, Illinois 1989; Trans. Sister M. Timothea Doyle, O.P.). These three stages are divided by two Dark Nights: the Dark Night of the Soul and the Dark Night of the Spirit. (St. John of the Cross calls this second Dark Night, the Dark Night of the Senses.) I had drawn up my own diagram of how St. Michael’s chaplet fit into this traditional schema, and put the two infused virtues during the two Dark Nights :
The Three Stages of the Interior Life:
Stage I: The Purgative Way or Stage, the active purgation of the senses.
May the Lord grant us to be protected by them in this mortal life and conducted in the life to come to Heaven (9th choir); may the Lord give us perseverance in faith and in all good works in order that we may attain the glory of Heaven (8th choir): i.e. the three cardinal virtues of faith, love and charity.
Followed by the 1st Dark Night of the Soul may God fill our souls with a true spirit of obedience (7th choir)
Stage II: Illuminative Way or Stage, the passive purgation of the senses.
may the Lord preserve us from evil and falling into temptation (6th choir); may the Lord protect our souls against the snares and temptations of the devil (5th choir); give us grace to govern our senses and overcome any unruly passions (4th choir). All of these have to do with overcoming temptation and governing our own unruly passions, i.e. the senses.
Followed by the 2nd Dark Night of the Spirit infuse into our hearts a true and sincere spirit of humility (3rd choir)
Stage III: The Unitive Way: Mystical Union, the purification of the spirit.
grant us the grace to leave the ways of sin and run in the paths of Christian perfection (2nd choir); the third and highest part of this third stage is the “perfection”of the saints: make us worthy to burn with the fire of perfect charity (1st choir)
I then thought to compare the Chaplet given to us by Saint Michael to the seven Mansions of Saint Teresa of Avila:
The Chaplet of Saint Michael compared with the Seven Mansions of St. Teresa of Avila, as outlined in her book “The Interior Castle”:
Purgative Stage: 1st and 2nd mansions (active purgation of the senses)
9th and 8th choirs of angels: hope for protection and being conducted to heaven; perseverance in faith and in all good works.
1st Dark Night of the Soul
7th choir, to be infused with the true spirit of obedience
Illuminative Stage: 3rd and 4th mansions (passive purgation of the senses)
6th and 5th choirs of angels: preserved from evil and from falling into temptation; our souls protected against the snares and temptations of the devil
2nd Dark Night of the Senses (as called by St. John of the Cross)
4th choirs of angels: the grace to govern our senses and overcome any unruly passions.
St John of the Cross wrote: “The dark night is a certain inflowing of God into the soul which cleanses it of its ignorances and imperfections, habitual, natural and spiritual. Contemplatives call it infused contemplation, mystical theology, whereby God secretly reaches the soul and instructs it in the perfection of love, without efforts on its own part beyond a loving attention to God, listening to His voice and admitting the Light He sends, but without understanding how this is infused contemplation.” (The Dark Night, Bk. II, Chapter 5.)
Mystical Union, or the Unitive Stage: 5th, 6th and 7th mansions (purification of the spirit) the 3rd , 2nd and 1st choirs of angels: infused with a true and sincere spirit of humility, the grace to leave the ways of sin and run in the paths of Christian perfection, and finally, made worthy to burn with the fire of perfect charity.
In the Chaplet, given to us by St. Michael the Archangel, when compared to the Mansions of Saint Teresa of Avila, infused humility is no longer under the second Dark Night of the Senses: in her schema, true humility is placed in the Unitive Stage. Also, in her schema, and that of St. John of the Cross, the second Dark Night is of the senses, not of the spirit - and the 4th choir of angels would help us during the Dark Night before Mystical Union.
Aside from our discussions and questions concerning the placement of infused humility, what stood out foremost in our minds - was the similarity we found between the schemas of the saints and theologians and the Chaplet given to us by Saint Michael the Archangel.
More importantly, from my point of view: what the Chaplet suggests, is that we are given a choir of angels to help us through all three stages of the interior life and both the Dark Nights. And that in this Chaplet, each choir of angels seems to also represents a step in our own human spiritual development, a step on our Journey towards Enlightenment or Perfection as humans. This is in keeping with the writings of Saint Bonaventure, that we humans can reach the attainment of even the highest choir of angels.
As we delved deeper into our study of the Chaplet, we could not help but wonder and appreciate that this Chaplet so closely followed the humanly arranged schemas of the Interior mystical Life. We felt wonderment, but also were not surprised that we would find the same Divine ordering that is found in the planets traveling in their orbs, in the molecular structure of a beautiful crystal, in the ordering of the Divine Ideas that flow through every moment of our daily lives...
The Three Stages of the Interior Life, Meditation Class
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