A Gateway to Something Higher
Week 11 | The Illuminative Way
Hello friends, we made it through 10 weeks of the Purgative Way!
Today we begin our journey with the Illuminative Way, the middle stage of spiritual transformation. This is a season of visible growth and deeper intimacy with God, marked by encounters with His beauty, truth, and goodness, further developing the mind of Christ—even as purgation and illumination continue to weave together within us.
In every civilization, in every era, men and women have devoted themselves to the beautiful—calling it sacred, sensing it to be a kind of gateway to something higher and brighter.
Classical Christianity embraces beauty, claiming that God is the Divine Artist behind it all. “Earth’s crammed with heaven,” wrote Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “and every common bush afire with God, /But only he who sees takes off his shoes.”1 As our first steps fall within the Illuminative Way, our shoes come off, we begin to see, the whole world takes on a sacramental character. We discover that being alone in a meadow of golden-orange poppies, walking barefoot in a sleepy river, or crushing a piece of pale purple lavender between our fingers are more than just moments of delight, but moments of transformation; moments that make us stop; moments that say look, pay attention, be here, right now—with this field, with this stream, with this flower.
What’s happening to us? A longing for the beautiful is growing within, God is making us more receptive, sensitive, tender—giving rise to the loving transformation we long for.
Room to Reflect
What practices help you slow down and notice the beauty around you?
How does experiencing beauty draw you closer to God?
What moments of beauty in your life have felt sacred or transformative?
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Poetical Works. (United States: J. Miller, 1871), 452.