{"id":409,"date":"2025-04-20T21:39:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T00:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cristoforma.org\/?page_id=409"},"modified":"2025-05-11T20:22:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T23:22:54","slug":"lo-que-amamos-crecimiento-espiritual-desde-el-corazon-cristoforme","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cristoforma.org\/en\/lo-que-amamos-crecimiento-espiritual-desde-el-corazon-cristoforme\/","title":{"rendered":"What We Love: Spiritual Growth from the Christ-like Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mario Bravo-Lamas, April 20, 2025<\/b><\/p>\n

Spirituality Model<\/b><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Christian spirituality is not limited to what we believe (orthodoxy) or what we do (orthopraxy), but also encompasses what we love. As Saint Augustine once said: \u201cLove and do what you will,\u201d not as a license for boundless action, but as an invitation to let true love \u2014 love for God and neighbor \u2014 be the guiding force of our lives. At the center of spiritual life is love: a love that transforms, that orders our desires, that conforms us to Christ (Matthew 22:37-39). This affective dimension of discipleship has been called orthopathy<\/i>: a harmony between our affections and the heart of Christ.<\/p>\n

Spiritual formation, then, is a process that transforms the heart. It is not merely about acquiring knowledge (orthodoxy) or behaving correctly (orthopraxy), but about loving what God loves and rejecting what grieves Him. As James K. A. Smith states, \u201cwe are what we love,\u201d and these loves are shaped by our daily practices, not just our ideas. True spirituality is, in this sense, a pedagogy of desire.<\/p>\n

1. A New Identity in Christ by Grace<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Everything begins with God\u2019s first love. \u201cThis is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another\u201d (1 John 4:10-11). Spiritual life is born out of a transformative experience: being loved, forgiven, welcomed. Like the prodigal son embraced by the father (Luke 15), this experience not only restores dignity, but also ignites the desire to live in love.<\/p>\n

This identity \u2014 received, not earned \u2014 frees us from the need to prove our worth or seek love in places that do not heal. In Christ, we are beloved sons and daughters. This emotional security is the starting point for a formation that touches the deepest parts of the heart: our wounds, attachments, and desires.<\/p>\n

Grace, then, is not just a theological truth, but a lived reality. As Will Willimon wrote: \u201cGod restored the divine-human relationship we had broken.\u201d This restoration gives us belonging, reconciliation, and a new way of inhabiting the world through received love.<\/p>\n

2. Union with Christ: Loving What He Loves<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Christian spirituality is not about following an admirable figure from the outside, but participating in a living relationship from within, because we are \u201cincorporated, integrated<\/a> into the inner life of God Himself through Christ\u201d (John 17:20-23). Our union with Christ \u2014 the center of discipleship \u2014 transforms not only what we think or do, but also what we feel and desire. \u201cIt is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me\u201d (Galatians 2:20).<\/p>\n

In this sense, spiritual transformation involves an affective renewal. James K. A. Smith emphasizes: \u201cwe become what we love,\u201d and our loves are shaped by repeated practices that orient the heart toward a vision of the good life. That is why spirituality cannot be merely an intellectual effort: it requires concrete practices that recalibrate our affections toward God.<\/p>\n

Christian practices \u2014 such as prayer, contemplation, and communal life \u2014 recalibrate our affections. They are spaces where the heart is retrained to love differently. In community, we learn to worship, serve, and share, not as empty duties, but as tangible ways of forming a heart aligned with Christ.<\/p>\n

3. Imitation of Christ: Embodied Love and Transformed Affections<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Discipleship does not end with knowing Christ, but in becoming like Him. The imitation of Christ is an affective transformation: learning to love as He loved, to have compassion as He did, to be righteously indignant, to forgive with grace. It is not about copying external gestures, but about allowing the Spirit to form in us a heart like His.<\/p>\n

This inner work is precisely the work of the Holy Spirit: \u201cthe love of God has been poured out into our hearts\u201d (Romans 5:5). It is the Spirit who enables us to love our enemies, serve the least, and embrace the cross with hope.<\/p>\n

True holiness is mature love: not emotional perfection, but a heart fully surrendered to God and neighbor. That is why orthopathy is not optional: we must learn to love well as an essential part of healthy spirituality.<\/p>\n

Conclusion: We Worship What We Love<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

This aligns with the ancient spiritual tradition that describes this path as a journey: purification, illumination, and union. The purgative way cleanses disordered affections. The illuminative kindles love for God. And the unitive leads to an interior peace that rests in Him. It is not a linear path, but a journey marked by trials, consolations, and deep discoveries that shape us into the image of Christ.<\/p>\n

We live in a world that shapes our affections through consumption and distraction. But Christian spirituality offers a deep affective formation. As Smith reminds us, we become what we worship. Therefore, Christian worship \u2014 both personal and communal \u2014 not only expresses love but also forms it.<\/p>\n

This is the spirituality we embrace: a life shaped by the love of God, responding with a transformed heart and growing until Christ is formed in us (Galatians 4:19).
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Mario Bravo-Lamas, April 20, 2025 Spirituality Model Christian spirituality is not limited to what we believe (orthodoxy) or what we do (orthopraxy), but also encompasses what we love. As Saint Augustine once said: \u201cLove and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-409","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cristoforma.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cristoforma.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cristoforma.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cristoforma.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cristoforma.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cristoforma.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":561,"href":"https:\/\/cristoforma.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/409\/revisions\/561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cristoforma.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}