Foreword

Leading by Hand beyond Boundaries Dr. Saju Chackalackal CMI President, DVK

29 March 2014, a day on which Rev. Fr. Canisius Thekkekara would be declared a Servant of God and whose cause would be opened up for scrutinizing his sanctity in exemplarily living his Christian life, is a significant date both for the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) and for Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram (DVK). For, Fr. Canisius was associated with Dharmaram as its Professor of Sacred Scripture and Rector, who guided its growth and development by his undivided dedication, excellence in teaching and animation with a clear anchoring in the person of Jesus Christ, and his unique spiritual thrust in fulfilling the will God for himself and, through him, for the rest of Dharmaram. Moreover, as DVK pays its special annual tribute to this great son of Dharmaram by establishing “Fr. Canisius Endowment Lectures on Spirituality and Counselling” (offered in the Vinayasadhana Institute of Formative Spirituality and Counselling at DVK), this event of declaring him a Servant of God in the Catholic Church enhances the value of this academic initiative especially for DVK as a Pontifical Athenaeum

xii Picturing the Soul established by the Vatican in India in order to facilitate formation of pastors and ministers who would invest themselves for the establishment of the Kingdom of God. Hence, I am pleased to record in this foreword the joy that DVK and its entire academic fraternity has in Fr. Canisius Thekkekara being declared a Servant of God; we look forward to the declaration of his sanctity definitively and the unique Christian life example in the course of the processes that would begin on 29 March 2014 at St. Theresa’s Monastery, Ampazhakad (Kottackal), Thrissur, Kerala.

As a young scholastic, I personally knew Fr. Canisius, especially through the brief exchanges I had with him whenever I visited the Sakshatkara Centre for Spiritual Realization, Pariyaram, where he was residing after his active life. Although my senior confreres would have naturally informed me about his high stature in the Congregation that he gained as a Professor of Sacred Scripture, Rector of Dharmaram College, Provincial of Devamatha Province, and the Prior General of the CMI Congregation, what made him more attractive to me was the glow of spirituality that was undoubtedly visible or experienced on his face, in his conversations, and in all that he involved in. Later, after I started teaching at Dharmaram in 1994, for the first few years when Fr. Canisius was at Sakshatkara, I used to spend a week in silence and

Foreword xiii recollection. In fact, this choice was inspired by two factors: first, the Sannidhi, where the silent Eucharistic adoration was regularly held and, second, the presence of Fr. Canisius, a constant spiritual inspiration for me and many others, including my most favourite professor and guru at Dharmaram, Rev. Fr. Francis Vineeth Vadakkethala CMI. While at Sakshatkara, I used to spend hours in the Sannidhi; I also had the daily privilege of spending time with Fr. Canisius for personal conferences. As I could experience the power of the Spirit especially during the time spent at the Sannidhi (which was the favourite space of Fr. Canisius himself), the personal encounters I had with Fr. Canisius helped me to review my life and to enhance it with his direction, which was invariably filled with the wisdom from his long life in the Spirit and his commitment and dedication to the Word of God. Even today I can recall those moments of serene discourses that Fr. Canisius personally offered me, the way he could invite and inspire me to be fully dedicated to the Lord: the force of his personal discourses came not only from his familiarity with the Word of God and his long years of religious life; there was certainly a special grace that was brimming in his personality, a grace that instilled in me a love for the Lord that he always claimed to be the undoubted source of the joy and serenity that he experienced and radiated in his life.

xiv Picturing the Soul There is no exaggeration, therefore, that Fr. Canisius was fondly called by many as ‘a living saint’; some others who frequented for his spiritual company even held that he is a ‘personification of prayer’. Fr. Canisius, as I knew him, spent most of his day in silence and prayer, especially in Eucharistic adoration. Observing him while in adoration itself was considered to be an enriching spiritual experience for many, as his face would glow, as I felt it, from his intense personal encounter with the Lord. As he spent more and more time in silent adoration, he became closer to the person of Jesus and was being firmly established in him. Interestingly, his personal encounter with the Lord did not make him a solitary person in the negative sense; instead, he made himself available, as much as his health would permit, to inspire others to seek and share the same experience.

The personal inspiration that I have received from Fr. Canisius had another dimension. The way he would guide me (and I believe many others in the course of his life at Dharmaram and at Sakshatkara) is seen as “leading by hand” to the inner recesses of Christian spirituality; as he was an established seeker, firmly rooted in the love of the Lord, it was easy for him to take us by hand to the Lord and to guide us into the Word of God. With his vast expertise in the Sacred Scripture, enduring experience in Christian spirituality,

Foreword xv his unrelenting love for Jesus Christ, and his boundless patience to listen and care for the ‘wavering’ seekers made him a unique person who would take all of us who approached him by hand to the Lord. It was characteristic of Fr. Canisius to inspire those who approached him to finally surrender themselves to the inscrutable will of God, as it was the cornerstone upon which his own personal Christian life was firmly founded and fructified. Even when he was going through agonizing moments of physical illness, he inspired us by accepting it with patience and grace: truly, his effective guidance was not only facilitated through verbal medium, but also unfathomable when it came to his vibrant and convincing living example.

As we look at the life of Fr. Canisius, we could see that all his efforts to be established in the love of Jesus Christ, be it in his own case or in the case of others, were instrumental in taking him as well as others beyond the limited boundaries that we human beings set for ourselves. The fact that the life of Fr. Canisius is being studied by the Catholic Church itself testifies to the fact that he crossed the boundaries of human frailty by his unrelenting trust in the Divine Providence, his complete commitment to the inscrutable Divine Plan, and total surrender to the Divine hand that was guiding him and everyone else.

xvi Picturing the Soul I am glad that Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram has established the annual endowment lectures on spiritualty and counselling in the name of Fr. Canisius, one of her own illustrious sons who has attained the heights of Christian spirituality and effectively led many others along the same path. I appreciate the initiative of Rev. Dr. Jose Nandhikkara CMI, the CMI Devamatha Province of Thrissur (to which Fr. Canisius belonged by ascription), and the Vinayasadhana Institute of Formative Spirituality and Counselling that finally made this commemorative event being shaped into an annual feature of our Pontifical Athenaeum. Fr. Canisius Endowment Lectures offer us not only an instance of academic excellence, as most of other endowment lectures would be usually acclaimed for, but also an instance offered by DVK to deepen the faith experience of her members by way of dwelling upon subjects that would offer inspiration in living Christian life in the context of personal direction and animation. As these lectures are being annually held at DVK, it has turned out to be an occasion to deepen the quest for personal transformation as well as to strengthen the faith-life of many who attend these lectures. Persons of eminence – academically and spiritually – have been involved in delivering these lectures, which, in turn, inspire the listeners to get firmly rooted in the Lord and to lead a sound and inspiring Christian life.

Foreword xvii During the academic year 2013-2014, Fr. Canisius Endowment Lectures were offered by an eminent expert in psychotherapy and spiritual direction, Dr. Peter Tyler. A Reader in Pastoral Theology and Spirituality at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham in London, Peter Tyler has written extensively on spirituality, psychology and mysticism and is a registered psychotherapist in London. He is known for his unique attempts to bridge between spiritual direction and psychotherapy, and his attempts are widely acclaimed. As both spiritual direction and therapy have the potential to take us beyond our boundaries, Tyler offers us deeper insights into the methods being adopted and the results gauged. The present volume, Picturing the Soul: Revisioning Psychotherapy and Spiritual Direction by Peter Tyler offers a critical and creative look at therapy and spiritual direction, as both of them are capable of leading persons beyond the limiting boundaries that each one sets for oneself in the existential contexts. Though these are two divergent ways of dealing with human person who seek for wholeness of their lives, they have the power of animating and leading the seeker by hand by offering technical assistance as well as personal guidance stemming from lived experience, be it in the secular or sacred sphere. As a human being dwells in both these spheres, harmonizing the best of therapy and spiritual direction can do a lot of good to

xviii Picturing the Soul an earnest seeker. Moreover, as both spiritual direction and therapy are human mechanisms, though the former certainly has its anchor in the animation offered by the Holy Spirit, Tyler invites us to engage with both, without diluting their divergences or overemphasizing their similarities. By drawing from the font of spiritual direction offered by the Desert Fathers and the Spanish School (especially by focusing on Ignatius of Loyola and John of the Cross) and by analysing the therapeutic methods offered by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Tyler brings two prominent disciplines closer to each other so that the healing initiated and the wholeness aimed at would be better facilitated through their supporting mechanisms. While therapy and counselling may be restricted to the mundane realm (psyche) and the spiritual direction to the realm of the Spirit (spiritus), their closer collaboration can certainly enable individual persons to unlock their human potentials for the good of oneself and others.

As we live in an age that recognizes the spiritual quotient of persons in making their lives in order to gain confidence and to be more effective in personal as well as communitarian or organizational existence, this book would serve a greater goal in animating persons towards wholeness by harnessing our own inner human and spiritual potentials. As the content of this book has come out as a tribute to the great soul that Fr.

Foreword xix Canisius was and celebrates his cherished mission of life in guiding and animating thousands of persons in their spiritual sojourn, it is my earnest hope that the attempt to integrate the best from spiritual direction and therapy or counselling in healing and wholeness would enrich and empower many Christians in their ongoing struggle for human and spiritual perfection, in their attempts to be closer to the person of Jesus Christ, to be persons abiding in the Spirit.

This volume is also enriched by a unique contribution on Fr. Canisius from Dr. Jose Nandhikkara CMI, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at DVK and an ardent devotee of Fr. Canisius. Entitled “Will of God, All of That and That Alone: Life and Holiness of Servant of God Canisius Thekkekara CMI,” this life-sketch offers a glimpse into the Spirit-filled person that Fr. Canisius was. Though brief, this excellent article enables the reader to understand the holy life that Fr. Canisius led during his eight-four years of earthly sojourn. As the cause of Fr. Canisius is opened and the sanctity of his life is being investigated by the ecclesiastical bodies constituted for the purpose, dwelling on the life and spirituality of Fr. Canisius, I believe, is timely; its addition in this volume enables the readers also to familiarise themselves with the person in whose celebrated memory these lectures were offered at DVK by Dr. Peter Tyler.

xx Picturing the Soul I congratulate both Dr. Peter Tyler for his excellent work on spiritual direction and therapy or counselling and Dr. Jose Nandhikkara for his insightful article on the person of Fr. Canisius. I acclaim the earnestness and hard work of these two Wittgensteinian experts who use their technical philosophical expertise in analysing religion and spirituality and offer useful insights for the realization of the great Christian ideal. I also appreciate the initiative of Vinayasadhana Institute of Formative Spirituality and Counselling and its Director Rev. Dr. Mathew Maniampra CMI for having efficiently conducted these endowment lectures at DVK.

I wish that the spiritual charisma of Fr. Canisius and his ability to guide those who sought his assistance and accompaniment in climbing the ladder of spiritual perfection and the excellent and insightful work that Dr. Peter Tyler offers us in this book would together constitute a single whole inviting the readers to seek the Divine inspiration and assistance in enhancing the spiritual intelligence that would make our human lives effective and successful. Let the Spirit lead us by hand and take us beyond the limiting horizons of human existence so that we could take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Spirit in optimizing and strengthening ourselves and others in getting established in the Christian way of perfection.