9. Retrieve positive attitudes toward desire and pleasure Explore how God’s love for us and our love of God are similar to or different from our human loving
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19. Share with one other person your response to the song Or Something one of the images evoked in relationship to your experience of God
36. Bernard of Clairvaux: Itineraries of Progress Contemplation Wisdom and knowledge Bride Mutuality (Mary) Kiss of the Mouth One spirit with Christ Devotion Son Familial, service Friendship (Martha) Kiss of the Hand raises (virtues) grace that follows good deeds. Progress Contrition/ Confession Mercenary “ hired” (Lazarus) Kiss of the Feet Forgiveness conversion On Loving God Slave dependent Sermon on Song of Songs
37. What are the implications for Spiritual Directors that Love develops and that amor/eros provides the energy for love all the way to mystical union?
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Hinweis der Redaktion
What do we mean by love mysticism?
Ribalta, Prado. San Juan and Cristo embrace
Problematic Nature of the Imagery: God Imago and Sexual Orientation The soul is the “Bride” regardless of the person’s gender or sexual orientation The Word, Christ is always the Bridegroom. For men, this is fraught with various problems… To participate in this symbolism and erotic attachment to God, a man has to disidentify with his male gender role, and adopt a female gender role. He has to relinquish dominance and his initiating gender roles in sexual imagery. Bernard and Aelred were pretty much known to be gay monks. Bernard, plays off the presumed sexual experience of the men he is addressing, both gay and straight, to help them integrate their erotic energies into their contemplative life. In my own experience, gay men are much more likely to experience various forms of love mysticism, (rather than bridal mysticism) because Jesus as a man, matches their love object. They will not have have homophobic fears related to spontaneous fantasies of Jesus as their lover and all that might entail. Likewise, heterosexual women. For women, though, there are many places in Bernard’s texts, for instance, that really are rooted in male sexual experience and not female. For instance, one male pointed out to me in one of these sermons in which Bernard describes the Kiss of the Mouth immediately resulting in engorged breasts dripping milk, that these breasts were a disguised penis. For men, a kiss may result immediately in an erection. Women’s sexual response is somewhat different, she may feel her breasts tingle, but not match this male description. However, Bernard here, is engaged in cross gender metaphors, in which the breasts filling with milk, represent symbolically the apostolic fruitfulness of the contemplation. The kiss is fruitful in the way the monk as a male mother will feed (his/her) children in preaching or spiritual direction or other apostolic work. John Dunne resolves this problem of gender identification and love object with ayasofia, a feminine presence of God. So he maintains his masculine identification and recognizes the way only a feminine image of God brings him peace and also merges with his female close friend. She is also an image of the Divine Feminine. The medieval period had a much broader and more fluid play of gender imagery and identification culturally than became true in the post reformation period. John the Beloved Disciple is portrayed in art usually as very effeminate and steriogtypically gay. His leaning on the breast of Christ at the last supper becomes an easily adapted model for homoerotic love mysticism without requiring cross dressing so to speak to enter the imagery. There is also a strong tradition in the medieval period of men creating a feminine divine love object. Ie Francis of Assisi, lady poverty, the troubadors are projected Lady Love as feminine, and there are many texts in which there is considerable gender sliding, providing a feminine love object. There is also a great deal of marian devotion which often ends up in an idealized maternal relationship. However, when Mary’s symbolism gets split off from the sexuality of the Great Mother, and the European Goddess image, it is repressed in imagination because it is just too oedipal to entertain. Sophia or Lady Wisdom, or Lady Charity, all become personifications that work somewhat better. Lesbian women are the ones who are left completely out in the cold with this imagery. For their erotic desires require a God image that is feminine.
Soul is: Pulled Lazarus: weeps and prays longing for Christ Led Martha server, preaches, enjoys friendship Incarnation Rapt Mary beauty of her face,, encounter with God in Contemplation Heavenly Kiss (eschatological)