Itinera Spiritualia. Commentarii Periodici Instituti Carmelitani Spiritualitatis Cracoviae

The twelfth issue of the yearly Itinera Spiritualia contains papers that deal with various issues of spiritual theology, humanities, biblical studies, Church history, ecclesiology and archival science. The article of Fr Piotr Nyk concerns biblical symbols of the Church as the “Body of Christ” and the “People of God” and their extraordinary history of rediscovery in the theology of the 19th and the 20th centuries, and combines the history of the Church with themes belonging to dogmatic theology – ecclesiology. Similarly, in the article by Fr Jerzy Zieliński entitled The Polish Archives of the Discalced Carmelites: History, Outstanding Figures, Method and Collections, there are topics that belong both to Church history and archival science. Spiritual theology, which occupies a particularly important place in Itinera Spiritualia, is presented in the paper Marriage Symbolism in the Mysticism of St Teresa of Ávila (by Fr Marek Chmielewski) and in the text showing The Origin of Élisabeth Catez’s Religious Calling, i.e. the path of the development of the calling of St Elizabeth of the Trinity and her mission to others (by Fr Antonio Kaddissy). There are two articles in the section dedicated to the Bible. Fr Szczepan Tadeusz Praśkiewicz presents the spiritual image of the Blessed Virgin Mary that emerges from the pages of the Holy Bible. In turn, Sr Agnieszka Ziemińska’s text provides an interesting interpretation of the phrase “the fringe of his garment” from Luke’s Gospel (8:44) in the light of ancient biblical and non-biblical testimonies. As part of the broadly understood humanities and “dialogue with contemporary culture” we propose an article by Fr Bartłomiej Kucharski, dealing with the current topic of the darkness of faith in the modern world. Starting from the darkness of faith experienced by eminent representatives of the world of science and culture of the last centuries, the author attempts to confront them with the darkness experienced in the light of faith by Job, Jesus Christ and St Thérèse of Lisieux. Fr Damian Sochacki, a PhD student in classical philology at the Jagiellonian University, introduces us to the translation skills of one of the fi rst Poles in the Order of the Discalced Carmelites, Fr Andrzej Brzechwa (1584–1640), based on his translation of the works of St John of the Cross into Neolatin.