S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 2 0 4 5 Miloš Lichner parent discourse of the Church Fathers and early medieval authors about the Church’s mistakes thus points to the image of the Church drawn from the Holy Scripture and expressed by the term Ecclesia permixta . This term recalls the New Testament images of Church as tare and wheat, corn and chaff, good and bad fish. Probably the best-known image of the early Church is the Church as a moon. According to this interpretation, the Church receives its light from Christ, because without it, it is dark. And just like the sun always shines on one side of the moon, Christ enlightens one part of the Church, while the other remains dark. The only source of sanctity and beauty of the Church is Christ. The Church Fathers thus spoke about the gradual consecration of the Church, the contemporary sanctity of which is the sanctity of its head, Christ, while its ecclesiastical body is gradually sanctified (e.g. Augustinus 395, 446–447). Doc - uments of the Second Vatican Council remind us of this patristic intellectual wealth, which has not yet been sufficiently integrated into the manuals of ecclesiology ( Lumen gentium 8:3; 9:3; Gaudium et spes43:6). The literature of the early Church left us testimony about the cohabitation of systematic theological thinking and spiritual life. These two realities were separated at the end of the ancient era into two independent elements, and only after the Second Vatican Council the Church did representatives realize the tragic impact of this separation. Among a great number of examples we can mention the preserved Eucharistic prayer in theDidaché ( La Doctrine des douze apotres1978, 175–177), the letters of martyr Ignatius of Antioch, the poetry of Gregory of Nazianzus, the hymns of Ambrose of Milan or the prayers of Augustine in hisConfessiones , the theology of which had been actually formed by prayer. It is remarkable that several council and post-council theologians, like Karl Rahner, Henri De Lubac or Emil Krapka, understood theology as theological meditation. These texts reminde us that Christian existence is deeply marked by the spirit of Christ do not present Christian teaching as something moralizing, but as a spiritual way of life. Probably the greatest expression of truly lived spirituality in early Christianity was the testimony of martyrs. Naturally, they did not want to die for the sake of death, but in death they demonstrated their proper faithfulness to Jesus Christ. This testimony was closely associated with the Eucharist – the Christian’s source of life and strength, which helped him persevere in hardship with faithfulness to Christ. At the same time, we find there a source of spiritual impulse, according to which the possibility of martyrdom should not make Christians restrain from the world. The spirituality of the Church Fathers is also important for the renewal of spirituality of Christian marriage and the Catholic priesthood. During several centuries, the early medieval monastic model of spirituality was seen as the only right way of experiencing both the sacraments mentioned above. Thus, the ideal of marital spirituality and priestly spirituality was understood through the prism of monastic spirituality, various forms of which had been offered to married couples and priests as a guide for their spiritual life. Ascetic-spiritual manuals described monastic life as the only possible form of salvation in this world, which actually excluded lay people and secular clergy who did not adopt the monastic way of life as the only guaranteed way of salvation (Lichner 2019, 49–58). In conclusion, we suggest that various aspect of patristic inspirations for spirituality might be at help in reconnecting theology and spirituality in theological work, which can consequently provide impulses for the life of believers with the impact on contemporary society as a whole. Acknowledgement This paper originated as a partial outcome of the project no. APVV-17-0001.
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