Religious and Literary Modes
This table is adapted from one used by Professor Walter Davis some years ago in a course at the University of Notre Dame.
Religious Modes
| Liturgy (daily life, the Mass) | Meditation (active lifetime) | Mystical Contemplation (contemplative lifetime) |
|---|---|---|
| external, man united to God | internal, parts of the soul united | interior, soul united to God |
|
I. Catechumens (the Word): SAY Pray (purgative): Prayer/Memory
Kyrie (desire)
Gloria (praise) Collect (ask) |
Prefaces (purge soul, memory)
Prayer
Composition of Place |
Purgative Way (burning away sin & attachment to world)
Prayer & meditation
Humility Penance or atonement for past Mortification, remaking soul |
|
Hear (illuminative): Understanding
Epistle
Gospel Sermon |
Body (illumine soul, understanding) Points:
Memory
Understanding Will |
Illuminative Way (awaking to spiritual reality)
Consciousness of Absolute ("practicing the presence
of God")
World permeated by the Divine Visions or psychic experiences Affective prayer |
|
II. The Faithful (the Eucharist): DO Commune (unitive): Will
Credo: Trinity & Life of Christ
Offertory Preface: Christ's Coming Consecration: Incarnation & Crucifixion Communion: Resurrection Final Prayers & Dismissal |
Colloquy (unite soul, will)
Talk & Prayer
|
Unitive Way (becoming one with God)
Contemplation (attentiveness to God)
Quietude & recollection Dark Night of the Soul Ecstasy & rapture Transforming Union: intimate, serene, indissoluble |
Literary Modes
|
public voice, as in Church celebrate thematic exploration of mystery |
private voice experience drama of change in the soul |
private voice understand (or seek to understand) realization of sudden moment of revelation |
| dialectic structure | integration of memory, understanding, & will as structural skeleton | a-logical development by intuitive leaps; associative |
| reader as performer, going through the ritual | reader as confidant(e | reader as understander |
| vocal | imagistic | narrative or abstract |
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Jonathan A. Glenn, University of Central Arkansas