So Longeth My Soul

After working for many years in the health service as a clinical psychologist and specialist neuropsychologist, Joanna Collicutt moved into the field of psychology of religion and was director of the MA programme at Heythrop College until 2010. She is now Lecturer in Psychology and Spirituality at Cuddesdon College, and Oxford Diocesan Advisor for Spiritual Care for Older People. She is the author of numerous titles, including The Psychology of Christian Character Formation.

Preface xi
Part 1
1 The Vital Testimony of the Ancients
2 Approaching the Text I: Understanding its Nature
3 Approaching the Text II: Interpreting its Significance

Part II
4 Lamenting
4.1 Bearing witness in words
To Mary and her Son – Blathmac, Son of Cú Brettan
Prayer to Christ and Meditation on Human Redemption (extracts) – Anselm of Canterbury
Stabat Mater – Unknown Italian author
The Little Book of Eternal Wisdom (extract) – Henry Suso
The St Matthew Passion of J. S. Bach (opening chorus) – Christian Friedrich Henrici

4.2 Bearing witness in martyrdom
Letter to the Romans (extract) – Ignatius of Antioch
To the Martyrs and On Baptism (extracts) – Tertullian
The Life of Cyprian (extract) – attributed to Pontius the Deacon
Confessions (extract) – Patrick of Ireland

5 Attending to the Body
5.1 The body of the community
Life of Pachomius (c.292–c.348) (extract) – Anonymous
Rule (extract) – Benedict of Nursia
Sermon in the Day of Pentecost – Augustine of Hippo

5.2 The body of the Eucharistic bread
Pange Lingua – Thomas Aquinas
The Imitation of Christ (extracts) – Thomas Kempis

5.3 The body of the believer
Hymn of Divine Love 2 (extract) – Symeon the New Theologian
Life of Francis and The Mystical Vine (extracts) – Bonaventure
The Memorial of Angela of Foligno (extract) – Brother A

6 (re-)Attaching Imaginatively
6.1 Parental attachment
Prayer to St Paul (extract) – Anselm of Canterbury
The Way of Perfection (extract) – Teresa of Avila
Letter to Sister Françoise-Thérèse III (extract) – Thérèse of Lisieux

6.2 Erotic union
Commentary on the Song of Songs (extracts) – Bernard of Clairvaux
Letter IX – Hadewijch
The Life of Cyprian (extract) – attributed to Pontius the Deacon
Confessions (extract) – Patrick of Ireland

5 Attending to the Body 56
5.1 The body of the community
Life of Pachomius (c.292–c.348) (extract) – Anonymous
Rule (extract) – Benedict of Nursia
Sermon in the Day of Pentecost – Augustine of Hippo

5.2 The body of the Eucharistic bread
Pange Lingua – Thomas Aquinas
The Imitation of Christ (extracts) – Thomas Kempis

5.3 The body of the believer
Hymn of Divine Love 2 (extract) – Symeon the New Theologian
Life of Francis and The Mystical Vine (extracts) – Bonaventure
The Memorial of Angela of Foligno (extract) – Brother A

6 (re-)Attaching Imaginatively

6.1 Parental attachment
Prayer to St Paul (extract) – Anselm of Canterbury
The Way of Perfection (extract) – Teresa of Avila
Letter to Sister Françoise-Thérèse III (extract) – Thérèse of Lisieux

6.2 Erotic union
Commentary on the Song of Songs (extracts) – Bernard of Clairvaux
Letter IX – Hadewijch
Fourth letter to Agnes of Prague (extract) – Clare of Assisi
Sermon on Isaiah 54.5 (extract) – George Whitefield

6.3 Solidarity through suffering-with
Revelations of Divine Love (extract) – Julian of Norwich
Was you there? – Anonymous African American Spiritual

6.4 ‘Holding fast to the word of life’ (Philippians 2.16)
Commentary on the Twelve Psalms (extracts) – Ambrose of Milan
Sermons on Several Occasions (extracts) – John Wesley

7 Returning
7.1 Ad fontes (to the source)
The Pilgrimage of Egeria (extract) – Egeria (fourth century)
The Pilgrimage of Holy Paula (extract) – Jerome (c.342–420)
The Spiritual Exercises (extract) – Ignatius of Loyola
A Life of Jesus (extract) – Ernest Renan

7.2 Back to the womb
The Philokalia (extracts) – The Hesychasts
Sermon on Ephesians 4.23 (extract) – Meister Eckhart
Centuries of Meditations (extract) and The Return – Thomas Traherne

7.3 The gift of hindsight
The Approach – Thomas Traherne
The Life of Moses (extract) – Gregory of Nyssa
Modern Painters II (extract) – John Ruskin

8 Engaging with Absence
8.1 Enduring suffering and separation
Pastoral Rule Book and Moralia on Job (extracts) – Gregory the Great
The Pilgrim’s Progress (extract) – John Bunyan

8.2 Purposeful detachment
The Spiritual Espousals (extract) – John Van Ruysbroeck
The Scale of Perfection Book Two (extract) – Walter Hilton
The Cloud of Unknowing (extract) – Anonymous

8.3 Treasures of darkness
Commentary on the First Twenty-two Psalms (extract) – Martin Luther
The Dark Night of the Soul – John of the Cross
The Spiritual Espousals (extract) – John Van Ruysbroeck

9 Breaking Through
9.1 Piercing the veil
The Book of Divine Consolation and Sermon for Ascension Day (extracts) – Meister Eckhart
On Mystical Theology (extract) – Pseudo-Dionysius

9.2 ‘Lift up your hearts’
The Divine Comedy (extract) – Dante Alighieri
The Life of Teresa of Jesus (extract) – Teresa of Avila
Steal Away to Jesus – Wallace Willis

9.3 The open heaven
Life of Antony (extract) – Athanasius of Alexandria
Hymn of Divine Love 11 (extracts) – Symeon the New Theologian
Book of Divine Works (extract) – Hildegard of Bingen
Letter to Anna Flaxman (extract) – William Blake

10 Placing
10.1 Christ in nature
Hymn on the Nativity 4 (extract) – Ephrem the Syrian
Canticle of the Sun – Francis of Assisi
The Soul’s Journey into God (extract) – Bonaventure

10.2 The domestic transfigured
The Book of Margery Kempe (extract) – Scribe(s) of Margery Kempe
The Temple (extracts) – George Herbert
Journal (extract) – Susanna Wesley
Parochial and Plain Sermons (extract) – John Henry Newman

10.3 Material artefacts charged with cosmic significance
The Dream of the Rood (extracts) – Anonymous
Life of Malachy (extract) – Bernard of Clairvaux
On Noah’s Moral Ark (extracts) – Hugh of St Victor

11 Doing What He Would Want
11.1 Seeing Christ in humanity
Funeral oration for Basil of Caesarea (extracts) – Gregory of Nazianzus
Treatise on the Love of God (extract) – Francis de Sales
Discourse on Christian Charity (extract) – Jonathan Edwards
As Kingfishers Catch Fire – Gerard Manley Hopkins

11.2 What would Jesus do?
The Philokalia (extracts) – Maximos the Confessor
First Rule of the Lesser Brothers (extract) – Francis of Assisi
Summa Theologica (extract) – Thomas Aquinas
Social Purity (extract) – Josephine Butler

12 Remembering
12.1 Remembering with appreciation
Rule of Basil (extract) – Basil of Caesarea
Contemplation for Attaining Love –Ignatius of Loyola

12.2 Remembering as a reconstitution of the self
Anaphora of St Basil (extract) – Basil of Caesarea
Confessions, Book X (extracts) – Augustine of Hippo
Of the Lord’s Supper (extract) – Ulrich Zwingli

12.3 Remembering as keeping in mind: ‘Watch and pray’
On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination: One Hundred Texts (extracts) – Diadochos of Photiki
Forty Texts on Watchfulness (extracts) – Philotheos of Sinai
Letter to Miss Hatton (extract) – John Fletcher
13 ‘Patiently Waiting for the Smiles of Jesus’

Time and Place Table
Acknowledgements
Index