Another way of looking at an integrated spirituality that is Spirit-centered, Christ-centered (Historical Jesus) and Incarnation-centered is to see it as the fruition of our efforts to live a fully human life—based on living the Cursillo Tripod.
We begin our spiritual journey schlepping along as persons with a fuzzy-centered or a self-centered life Vision. Then we experience a break-through conversion and discover a life Vision based on Holiness, Formation and Evangelization. Actually, this tripod is a growth process. But what does this process grow us into? The perfection of this process is an integrated spirituality that is Spirit-centered, Christ-centered and Incarnation centered.
Three dynamic models depict the spiritual journey: a human psychology model (Person), the Cursillo Tripod (Process), and integrated spirituality (Perfection). We will show how they relate to one another and their progression to an integrated spirituality.
Person—A dynamic model of the human person can be represented by three interacting concepts—Vision, Values and Action—with each element impacting the other. The first premise of this model is that all persons are visionaries. Everyone has a Vision that drives his or her Values and Actions. The second premise is that if you want to grow, you must change your Vision.
A person’s Vision is comprised of one’s attitudes toward God, self, others, life and creation. Values mean the virtues that enable a person to live one’s Vision. For the Cursillista, one needs the virtues of God-centeredness, compassion for others, dependency on the Spirit, openness to community, faith-based courage, faith in community prayer and action, and discipline.
Process—Usually we look upon the Cursillo Tripod as the dynamic model for creating evangelists. But it is more than that. It is the process model for growing in the spiritual life. Say that we experience a vision-changing insight from our spiritual reading. We have been greatly affected. But how do we integrate that change into who we are as persons? We have to take our vision change and work at it through each element of the Cursillo Tripod. We have to pray about it. We have to study its meaning, perhaps through more spiritual reading. We have to act as if we are already the person we want to become.
It is not enough to get a spiritual insight. We have to take possession of it. Like a bud, a vision change or a call to growth has to be nourished or it will die. The danger is that when we experience a vision change or insight, frequently it comes so effortlessly and so fast. We can be lulled into thinking that there isn’t anything more to do. Rather, we must look upon it as a gift that is an invitation to growth—a gift requiring work.
If you have ever had the experience of discovering some rich insight only to see it disappear in time, and then rediscovering it years later, you can understand the need to incorporate into your life the rich invitations of the Spirit. The Tripod is the process!
A vision change can come from many sources. From a psychological change in our attitude toward God, self, others, life or creation. From our evangelization, study or prayer life. But it takes the Process of the Tripod for us to really change our life Vision.
Perfection—As we start our spiritual journey, our Vision as persons expands to include a relationship with God (Holiness), but ultimately we want to move to where we are living more fully under the Spirit’s inspiration (Spirit-centeredness). Our human Values begin to take on Christ’s Values through spiritual Formation, but ultimately we want to arrive at where we are assuming Christ’s mind, heart and will (Christ-centeredness). Our human Actions are stretched to perform acts of Evangelization, but ultimately we want to become the Christ that we are already (Incarnation-centeredness).