Headship, continued

First, my spiritual formation. I was born and raised into a "Traditional" Catholic family. I had always attended the Tridentine Mass, and learned my faith from the Baltimore Catechism as well as many spiritual classics of the church. I pretty much ignored the rest of the church, as I saw no fruits there, and was quite fulfilled, intellectually and spiritually speaking. I attended church at a Society of Saint Pius X church for most of my formative years. I was confirmed by Archbishop Levebvre. This was all prior to the 1988 consecrations that caused the charge of "schism" to be used. After that, I didn't really know where else to go to church, so I stayed there, and figured God understands my "tight spot" and will lead me where he wants me to go. I am grateful for my time at the church of my childhood. I did learn my faith, was exposed to eternal spiritual truths, and beautiful music and traditions of our church. But whether as a consequence of where I attended church, or as a outcome of my own weaknesses, I definitely intellectualized my faith, and it became a faith of my head, not my heart. I followed the rules, (thank God I knew them) out of obedience, not love. I attended church out of duty, not love. I recited my prayers out of duty, not love. I could defend my faith against any number of attacks, and did so out of duty, and by using my intellect, not my heart. The mystical portion of our faith was not opened to me at this time of my life. While the western tradition did offer me mystics and mystical theology, I had no context with which to digest it. It seems in my experience, in the Western Tradition, the intellectual life of the soul is emphasized over the mystical work of the soul. There seems to be much influence of Jansenism in the pre-Vatican II era. I see this as the "head" is superior to the "body", i.e. intellectual knowledge is superior to soul knowledge. The body is to be subjugated, ignored, mistrusted. It's only the soul that counts. I know this hasn't ever been the formal teaching of the church, as a matter of fact actual Jansenism was condemned, but the effects of such a heresy sunk in, and poisoned the Church for many generations.


Don't forget to answer my question from last post. And for those readers who are not Catholic, please bear with me, and feel free to ask questions about things I don't make clear. I am already struggling to make this clear to Catholics, and realize I may assume understandings that my non-Catholic brothers and sisters don't have.