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A Deep Dive into the Anima Christi (Inigo de Loyola) : First Request




                                                                                             (image by t baca)

Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O Good Jesus, hear me.
Within your wounds hide me.
Permit me not to be separated from you.
From the wicked foe, defend me.
At the hour of my death, call me
and bid me come to you
That with your saints I may praise you
For ever and ever. Amen.

The Song's First Request: "Soul of Christ, sanctify me."

The warrior first addresses his respondent saying: "Soul of Christ"

The warrior is in deep conversation with more than what he sees before him. His conversation is with a soul and body, yes. But the words and appeal are made to the respondent’s inner existence, that tender, (in some respects) vulnerable part, yet the most powerful part; the part most capable of granting the request as a spring would give forth its water. In the potentiality is vulnerability; and in vulnerability is the venerabilitity. The intimation here is as if addressing the Soul with a loving tickle, a courtship. It is an appeal brought forth not necessarily in penitence, or in sorrow or over exuberance, or even joy, but rather as an exercise a deep discipline in the desire of the warrior for readiness, self immolation, of self mastery and of achieving full “capacity” (capax) or a capacity to transcend the ego and self will; and become one with the superior Soul with whom the warrior speaks. This would be as if "sinking into" the soul of the respondent and the letting go of everything else.

As constructed, this prayer is a song to his Lord-soul.  The pleading is not to a spiritualistic “other,” or to Budda, or Nirvana, or the almighty universe, or the new age spirit-soul of humanity. The warrior’s request is directed to the Soul and Body of a person of dual dimensions living in time and eternity but with whom the warrior has a deep relationship. The respondent is a person whose being is not a figment of imagination albeit Ignatius of Loyola was known to have used the tool of imagination to manifest a deeper senses of relationship. This person to whom the plea is made is a real person with whom the warrior has a deep fondness, love, and mystical awe. It is the soul of the Christos

The danger in recitation of the words by rote is that we can very easily and quickly pass right over the moniker, Christos, as if it were a simple appelation. because it is really not a name –rather, it is a title added to a name of a historical person – the person is Yeshua Nazaret, otherwise known as the Messiah, the anointed one, the Christos (Greek form). This was a person who lived in history, and who suffered, was crucified, died, was buried, but who rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.  

The warrior finds himself in a whirlpool of mystery. Christos turns tables on all understanding of power by becoming the opposite of worldly power and honor; by being the the very nourishment on a table set for the warrior even in the face of the warrior’s enemies. (see Psalm 23) Christos is anointed to be food for the warrior, for the journey and the dream -- the Bethlehem, or "house of bread" who is consumed; and so by being so consumed, thus consumes the warrior. So the warrior finds himself at a table as a knight at the table of his Lord. 

So as it is very easy to dispense of, or even ignore, the personhood of the respondent by addressing him with the title, Christos, it helps to understand that the warrior-author of this song is of a state of mind far more profound and dynamic than the words may indicate.  Before the song's first line is even completed, the warrior has already immersed himself headlong into the baptistery of a lover’s soul like no other. 

So by uttering,  “Soul of Christ,” the warrior already admits, in one fell swoop, that Christos-Messiah-Annointed One, is the "Soul of Souls." The Christos-soul is the source living water, of abundance and grace. Water that in stillness and in movement surrounds, cools, cuts, warms, molds, softens, reshapes, inundates, conforms and reforms the other. It is as St. Catherine of Sienna's fish in the water being both water and fish breathing that which surrounds and penetrates. 

Christos is a real person to whom the warrior can address his request. This prayer is not a generality. It is specific and harmonic in its being intoned. It is not spoken to the nighttime sky of a billion stars, but rather to a singular power capable of both listening and responding. This Lord-Soul is addressed by the warrior as someone both imminent and present while yet transcendent -- even beyond any light or darkness or by any human construct that can be limited by human language or system of measurement. 

From the beginning this song is laser-focused. The warrior squares in upon the eyes of a respondent ready to reciprocate in intimate conversation. It is both a vertical and horizontal dynamic at once, possible and viable only not in some theoretic cartesian coordinate paradigm but rather in the mystery of a brutal Crucifixion. A Body uplifted for all to see, arms outstretched becomes the well-spring inviting even a lowly Samaritan woman to drink; the scene is not static  -- ever; it is both crisis and chrysalis -- the denouement of a knight's quest; the headwaters of a living river. Always in the Christos' is the inner and outer experience of onslaught, betrayal, disappointment, aloneness, abandonment, abuse, despair, and death. And in the moment's eye, at once, the warrior sees a "lamb who was slain" (Revelation), an "arnion" (as opposed to an "amnos)," a "pet lamb," if you will, with deep set eyes  and the marks of slaughter. 

So in this drama, it is the soul of a pet lamb that awaits the knight's utterance of a request a pleading. The Soul of Christos transfixed upon human and divine dimensions is ready to reenact a Baptism, an immersion, a cleansing,  and vivification -- the moment of the warrior's first sanctification.

It is here in Inigo's song that the warrior’s address leads to the first request of the Lamb-Soul: “Sanctify me.”

The presumption by the warrior here is that the soul who is being addressed has the power of sanctification. To be sanctified is become a higher order of will, to be set apart, as out of the ordinary, much in the same way that kings would “knight” a soldier. To be “knighted” is to be set apart from any other soldier or rank. To be “knighted” means receiving a special “cause” or quest, and not simply as a reward or term of superficial honor; but as a “cause” into the future, a mission. But in considering this, it is so easy to focus on the “knight” and less on the power of the King to grant this request. The warrior must always concentrate on his respondent, the real subject of his desire, instead of any concern or need, but just focusing on the ever burning Soul of Christ -- as if it were the bush unconsumed by fire.

The warrior is sublimely aware that his Lord-soul, to whom he directs his request, knows his needs, wants, and desires without any words necessary. The warrior states his request and awaits a tingling, a touch, a caress of the heart, a palpitation dance, a passing by -- a touch. For the sanctification to embed within the human soul touching is involved. As in the case of being knighted wherein a sword is touched to the head and shoulders of the knight while kneeling, sanctification involves the touch of the Holy Trinity, with the preponderance of action coming from the breath of the Christos sustained in the Holy Spirit. The warrior is already so close to the soul of Christos that he can feel the warmth and even sweetness of his breath. The result is a reunification of the warrior with his baptismal self – with the knighthood he received while being dubbed priest, prophet and king. The sanctification is the touch of all of the sacraments including the rite of penitence, suggesting that the prayer of the warrior was said while kneeling. This is not the kneeling of subjugation, but rather the kneeling of a beau asking for a hand in marriage. It is an espousal. Kneeling is a mark of great reverence. It is a dance of sorts calling forth a well-spring of deep inner grace from the beloved Soul to whom the warrior speaks.

This song was meant to be said by the warrior following the supreme intimacy of a physical consummation, a physical communion, a sanctifying communion between the warrior and the Soul of Christos - thus a Holy Communion.  

The address and flow of the entire prayer thus follows the unification of the two souls.  Such unification already having taken place before the song is not predicated or dependent upon the prayer, but rather the song solidifies and promulgates the union of two souls.  It is the moment of supreme touch, intimacy, rapture, and communion between a warrior and his king, between the soul of man and the soul of God.


2nd Request: "Body of Christ save me." (to be continued)

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