St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse join us now on the journey!

Welcome to a new season! Why season four and what is it about?

Up to this point my discussions have been quite conceptual, and there is a reason for that. However, I sense that the time is right to begin making this phenomenological journey on the Trail of the Dogmatic Creed with St. Joan and St. Thérèse more concrete. I want to ask them to join us now. Rather than speaking about them and their influence on us, why not speak more with them? In this episode, I am introducing stories from their lives that you can contemplate to begin your own “descriptive phenomenology.” Season four will build on this modality of expression.

Phenomenological devotion to St. Joan is receiving what she is giving.

We are moving now into phenomenology as we journey on the Trail of the Dogmatic Creed with St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse. In the last episode, we rediscovered the metaphysics of the Church. St. Joan turned around our glasses so we could see. We bumped up against the unchanging forms of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness in an Augustinian Platonic orientation. Now, we are wondering how to “receive” this transcendent blessing. The beautiful ideas in our head are inspiring; however, those ideas do not seem to connect with our lived experience! “Receiving” that transcendent blessing requires a phenomenological approach. Our goal is to “receive” the heart of St. Joan - to “receive” what she is “giving.”

St. Joan turned my glasses around so I could see road signs.

In the previous episode, we arrived at the moment when Joan of Arc became the center of my intentionality. Her importance to my life became branded in my soul. It was a “divine glance” of grace. In this episode we move forward with her along the Trail of the Dogmatic Creed - the trail of understanding but not knowing what we understand. St. Thérèse remains at our side, and the “Thérèsian effect” of understanding but not knowing becomes a phenomenological journey guarded on each side of the trail by the metaphysics and magisterium of the Church in its public revelation. We cross over from descriptive phenomenology to a more metaphysical attentiveness to Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. Edith Stein introduces us to the combined world of metaphysics and phenomenology through The Science of the Cross. Joan turns my glasses around so I can see the signs on the pathway. We cross with St. Joan and St. Thérèse over to a world of Augustinian Platonic order.

Receiving St. Joan through the heart and mind of St. Thérèse.

In this episode we escape from the Dark Forest of despair and suffering through the devotion and prayers of my family and the help of the saints. Encouraged by my wife to attend a six day silent retreat in the Poconos, I found myself before a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary where I was healed - mind, body, and soul. A couple of years later, I came across the following poem written by St. Thérèse in honor of St. Joan:

That was the moment I received the “unreflective certainty” regarding the role St. Joan was to play in my life. St. Thérèse’s Kingdom was before me as a mystery, partially hidden. My journey was toward that Kingdom. St. Joan was to be my guide.

When my way of understanding the world interfaced with St. Thérèse's - her way endured while mine collapsed.

We are in the Dark Forest. We entered through a disconnect between our worldly reasoning and that of St. Thérèse. Through the “Thérèsian affect” we understood without knowing. We turned our being toward her. We empathized. However, we did not know what constituted this “understanding,” “meaning,”and “being-toward.”

Now we are deeper in the Dark Forest, experiencing immense spiritual, emotional, and physical suffering as the result. The “unreflective certainty” at the moment of conversion endures, while in our old mindset - we collapse. The Dark Forest is scary, and we encounter this “enduring meaning” by directly facing our own temporal death.

There is a way out. It will require help from friends. We need to leave the Dark Forest reconstituted in order to join St. Joan of Arc on her mission to the Kingdom. Next episode!

What St. Thérèse is saying is true - I just don't know what she is saying.

We are entering the Dark Forest! In this episode we take our first steps after my conversion to the Catholic Church on the Feast Day of St. Thérèse in the year 1984. I came to understand that what Thérèse was saying was true - I just did not know what it was that she was saying!

I call this phenomenological experience the “Thérèsian affect.”

Reflecting on the past, particularly through journaling, is a way to remove the cover, the hiddenness, from our inauthentic being in the world and reveal our true authentic selves. I am walking the Trail of the Dogmatic Creed with you by reflecting on my past as it phenomenologically appears to me. I invite you to do the same. Step out of the mindless, day-today and enter into a reflection.

The Virgin Mary, my conversion, and reading St. Thérèse. 

This episode takes us back to the beginning of the phenomenological journey on the Trail of the Dogmatic Creed with St. Joan and St. Thérèse! In the last episode, I introduced you to the moment in the year 2008 when I was inspired through contemplation to respond to Our Lady’s insistence that “if I had something I felt I needed to say, I should probably start saying it.” However, to understand that moment we must now turn to the very beginning in the year 1984. This was the year of my conversion to the Catholic Church and my introduction to St. Thérèse.

Let's walk together with St. Joan and St. Thérèse on the Trail of the Dogmatic Creed to the kingdom in the distance.

We are moving more deeply into the phenomenological journey with St. Joan and St. Thérèse on the Trail of the Dogmatic Creed to the mystical Kingdom in the distance. In season three I would like to go back to the beginning and have you join me as we journey across the meadows and rivers following St. Joan and St. Thérèse. The goal of this season is to see if together we can draw out some universal principles that would unite us as one family while each has our own journey and perspective. We are trying to bring the Father’s Kingdom “on earth as it is in Heaven.” We are beginning our personal fairy tales - tales that tell truth! I hope you will join me, and the rest of us, on the adventure.

The emerging universals on the Trail of the Dogmatic Creed with St. Joan and St. Thérèse.

Thus far I have given you a descriptive phenomenology of the journey on the Trail of the Dogmatic Creed with St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. We have arrived at “mystical France” on the shores of Provence with St. Mary Magdalene. My hope is that this journey has given you inspiration to contemplate the meaning this might have in your life. My belief is that in this descriptive, hermeneutical process there is a set of universal principles - those that can be distilled from my perspective. One such principle is that of the Divine Order. We can use the metaphor of standing on a hilltop overlooking a magnificent panorama we have never before seen. Everything is in order, and the gestalt image is transcendent. The journey to mystical France is a search for those universal principles leading to that gestalt image.

Metaphysics and phenomenology with St. Joan of Arc and St. Mary Magdalene.

We begin this episode with St. Mary Magdalene on the shores of Provence. How did we get here? And why did St. Joan of Arc lead us here? I discuss the meaning of the “divine glance” (St. Thérèse) or “unreflective certainty” (St. Edith Stein) in my experiential encounter with St. Joan of Arc in 2008. Importantly, we integrate into the model two important philosophical elements - metaphysics and phenomenology. We come to understand the meaning of “France” and Mary Magdalene’s spiritual role in living the Our Father. “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”