"[1] In accord with this, many additional forms of prayer have developed over the centuries as means of animating one's personal Christian life, at times in gatherings with others.
In New Testament times it is likewise for the reason of discerning God's will and proving his obedience that Jesus of Nazareth retired to the desert after his vocation call (cf.
Some adherents of desert spirituality – whether as eremitic or cenobitic monastics, or as Christian faithful outside the religious life – practise centering prayer.
One form of this prayer has one meditate on a single, sacred word to draw the believer closer to God by withdrawing compulsive infatuation with particular sensory objects and conceptual constructions.
The Rosary is characteristic of Dominican spirituality because it focuses attention on the principal mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ, can lead to contemplation, and is a way of proclaiming the truths of faith.
Some members of the Dominican Order have made significant contributions to Catholic thought as did St. Thomas Aquinas, the most prominent scholar in the Scholastic tradition.
For instance, Pedro Arrupe (1907–1991), a prominent Superior General of the Jesuits from 1965 to 1983, was known for incorporating Zen meditative techniques to assist in his concentration.
Another example of adaptability is the extent to which the individual exercitant applies imagination, quite presence, or discursive reasoning to the events of Jesus' life, to arrive at closer knowledge and following of the Lord.
In Ascent of Mount Carmel John of the Cross teaches that purgation of the soul through mortification and suppression of desires is necessary for the transition through darkness to divine union with God.
They emphasize the encounter with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and have their founder's popular version of the Way of the Cross and the Christmas carols which he composed.
[10] The spirituality of the Servite order is focused on contemplating Mary at the foot of the cross as a model for Christian life and service to the suffering.
Although St Louis is perhaps best known for his Mariology and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, his spirituality is founded on the mystery of the Incarnation and is centered on Christ, as is clear in his famous Prayer to Jesus.
Consistent with Vatican II, contemporary spiritual movements usually emphasize the necessity both of an interior relationship with God (private prayer) and works of justice and charity.
Major 20th century writers who sought to draw together the contemplative and active poles of Christian spirituality have been Dorothy Day and Richard Rohr.
The purpose of all lay movements in the Catholic Church is to spread in society a deep awareness that every person is called by Baptism to live be a holy life and each in his own way to become an ambassador of Christ, For the majority of Christians, God calls them to sanctify through their ordinary lives by an ever-growing charity in the way they think, speak, and act, beginning at home, the domestic church, but extending to the local Christian community, the workplace, and to all peoples, all God's children.
The CLC traces its foundation to 1563, when the Jesuit John Leunis gathered a group of lay students at the Roman College to form the Sodality of Our Lady.
As Ignatian spirituality has an essential apostolic dimension, members of the CLC do reflect also on how to bring Gospel values into all aspects of life in today's world.
Schoenstatt seeks to invite the Blessed Mother (and hence her divine Son, Jesus Christ) into the home by establishing a spiritual Covenant of Love with her.
In 1943 in northern Italy during World War II, Chiara Lubich, together with a small group of friends, concluded that God is the only ideal worth living for.
Now embracing over 5 million members in 182 countries, Focolare (which means hearth) draws together groups of families, neighbors, and friends to build community and to extend the works of the Gospel.
The Sant'Egidio community began with a group of high school students in the 1960s who were convinced by a local priest in Rome to try an experiment: live for a time as the early Christian disciples did, gathering for prayer and shared meals daily in their neighborhood as well as joining in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
Pope John Paul I, a few years before his election, wrote that Escrivá was more radical than other saints who taught about the universal call to holiness.
[14] Expressed this way, Opus Dei builds on "finding God in all things" from Ignatian spirituality and emphasizes the universality of this path to holiness.