Interviewer: Anđela Krivić
Silva Vrdoljak, theologian, mentor in hagiotherapy who has been working as a hagioassistant for 20 years. We bring you an interview with her that was done on the eve of the seminar she held in Dubrovnik. The title of the seminar, ie the topic was „From fear to trust“.
Anđela: Why is this topic extremely actual nowadays?
Silva:
The topic is contemporary because „modern people seem insecure, disoriented, hopeless“, said Pope John Paul II in his exortation „Ecclesia in Europe“. Man experiences that his life is endangered, on insecure foundations, because the spirit of the postmodern times, as a constant changeability, destroys security, obligation and human attachments.
The consequence is that fear enters people. Man has lost his centre, he has lost himself, he has lost his foundation, and that is why the call of the Church is for man to return to himself and his foundation – the Creator, God. What happens to man when he loses that foundation, the „ground beneath his feet“? Fundamental vulnerability, mistrust. And normally, a symptom of that vulnerability, lack of trust, is fear.
Anđela: Why are these seminars of the new evangelization?
Silva:
This is not new content, of course, because it has always been present in the Church. Iti s about a new power, a new expression.
We need to find the modern man where he is now. It means with the power of the Spirit and a new expression, and that is my experience.
When you work with young people, they really like that scientific speech. They love the speech they can understand too, modern speech. And that is certainly the current kayros of hagiotherapy. Why?
As our professor put it, it is not that something on man is healed or treated, but man himself. If we change man, we change the world. Therefore, what matters is that heart, the commitment to God. Therefore, I would say that the content of the concept of the new evangelization is precisely in how to bring a distant believer or unbeliever back to an experienced believer, an experienced Christian. Even today, we need experientiam arguments that are necessary for life, for everyday life, more than theoretical knowledge.
Both Gadamer and others said that the theoretical truth is much poorer than the experiential one. And thus… what is anthropology than an experience that requires explanation and understanding. Experience and logic. We cannot measure half a meter of trust or a kilogram of love. But surely, when man forgives, he is liberated. It has been proven that 70% of diseases have a cause in this anthropological spiritual area. That is what medical anthropologist Arthur Jores says.
So let’s go work, let’s go develop, let’s go man, het to know your dignity, let’s really become man. Christian, get to know your high place in society. We are called to this by the bishops in the book „The Call to Holiness“.
Anđela: From the perspective of a hagioassistant and an evangelist, can you give us an answer on how these two areas are connected? Can it help man? Nowadays, numerous answers to existential questions are offered, there are many sources that provide self-help. Why isn’t this it?
Silva:
It should be emphasized again that hagiotherapy has grown out of the new evangelization. This means that it is rooted in the new wvangelization. What does that mean?
It means that the main medicine and doctor in hagiotherapy is Jesus Christ, his strength and power – the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the prerequisite for action i hagiotherapy is that the hagioassistant must have the experience of the Spirit, the experience of friendship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, should be deeply immersed in the Church and live a sacramental life.
Figuratively speaking, our roots are in the Church, but our branches and leaces are in the world. So we habe a mission in the world, but we draw strength from exactly who we are, and that is Christianity, the Christian spirit. Why? For only the Christian spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, has the power and strength to heal the anthropological aspect of man, by which mani s man, the unique being on this Earth. Man is a supreme being because he is the idea of God himself who directly created his spiritual soul and thus endowed him with his abilities by which he is specifically man. The essence of man is that he is a person. So, a person is of a spiritual nature. The person was not given to me by my father and mother, but by that Someone. That is why we say that mani s a being of another.
Who is that Someone? God.
So, I am a unique, unrepeatable person only by the idea of my Creator, God the Father, who gave me a spiritual soul and abilities, which philosophical theological anthropology talks about. These abilities are damaged by primrodial guilt, original sin. And that is why man cannot redeem himself and be saved. The human spirit as such does not have that power in itself because it is damaged, wounded, relative, which means that it is not absolute. For example, science tells us that our consciousness is severely damaged because we are only 25% aware.
That is why both Jesus Christ and the Church call us, „Be vigilant, keep watch.“ Hagiotherapy is therefore by no means self-correction and a kind of self-help, but it is the hagioassistant who must be evangelized and in the encounter with the hagiopatient. He speaks to him in a scientific way, mediating medicine through the Being and transcendentals, but if the word and intercession is anointed by the Spirit, the person in need hears it so much that he wants to change his life. When you scientifically explain that some negative, evil thought is destroying the brain; that by immoral life we throw ourselves out of existence, we would say Christianly from the palm of God, then we certainly experience endangerement. Therefore, fundamental therapy is a turn from evil to good.
We know that this medicine and physician is Jesus Christ, and the hagioassistant is only a mediator. „Through Jesus Christ we receive forgiveness of the guilt of sin, deliverance from debts, and we have the opportunity to come out of slavery to evil and Evil and to enter the realms of truth, goodness, justice, love.“ But everyone who is ready to resist evil, Evil, sin and decide for good is connected with Jesus.
Man lives according to the law of morality, and every decision for moral action connects man with salvation in Jesus Christ, are the words of our Founder. That is why he constantly warned us not to act only with human strength and abilities because it is not hagiotherapy. When man therefore acts at the level of the Spirit, then the results are also seen.
Anđela: What is the difference between hagiotherapy and various New Age practices?
Silva:
The various New Age practices are not spiritual but paraspiritual, which means that they are psychological rather than spiritual levels and destroy rather than heal the spiritual soul.
They are dangerous because they deceive and stop a person at the level of body and psyche, and disappoint him by suggesting that there is no spiritual dimension that can certainly save him.
In fact, these practices are the introduction of new wounds of the spiritual soul. It is therefore clear when the Founder points out that only an evangelized hagioassistant can work in hagiotherapy.
Anđela: Professor Ivančić also mentioned the power of good thoughts which will then lead to good deeds. What is the difference between that and positive thoughts?
Silva:
If you believe in the power of positive thoughts and words, then you are giving magical power to your thoughts and words, you are giving your subconscious magical power, which is wrong.
The key quesion is: where does man get the abilitiy for good thoughts, words, deeds?
In hagiotherapy it is clear that it is about the power and strength of the goodness of the Creator, God that is realized inu s when we believe in it. And to believe means to expect good.
The original memory of the good and the true is laid in every man, and it is activated inu s when we too turn to the good through thoughts, words and deeds, are the words of Pope Benedict VI. Therefore, here the view is directed to the Onle from whom comes this capacity for good thought and word. That is a big difference.
Anđela: What are your experiences of working with people and what are the most common problems that people come to you with?
Silva:
People come because of marital and family problems, problems of various addictions, problems of fear, depression, lack of purpose, problems of losing loved ones and so on. Hagitherapy does not cure man of depression. Depression is a mental diagnosis, a mental illness and such a person must be under the supervision of a doctor, he must take prescribed medications because he needs to respect his biological law given to him by God. But what is done in hagiotherapy with such a person?
We have seen that there are four „elements“ in depression, aggression: man’s dignity is violated, his conscience is damaged, he is tormented by lack of purpose and the undevelopment of his talent, that is, his creativity is damaged.
So he did not find the fundamental meaning for which he was called, which we all got at the time of conception. In hagiotherapy, anthropological tools are used in the anthropological field, not medical ones. Therefore, all competences should be respected. In hagiotherapy, it is a holistic treatment. Not because hagiotherapy and anthropological help is an adjunct to medicine and psyhiatry to make up that wholeness of man. Not!
The point is that the anthropological-spiritual aspect of man and his healing is the wholeness of man because the spiritual soul is an essential form of man as a person.
Anđela: How does the world react to hagiotherapy that prof. Ivančić founded to help people?
Silva:
Visiting Europe for the mission in the apostolate of new evangelization and hagiotherapy, I witness that the professor sowed a lot with seminars of new evangelization in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Ireland, England, Ukraine, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, and held international studies for hagiotherapy that are anthropologically and scientifically elaborated. And everyone in hagiotherapy recognizes one pearl, because it is based on philosophical-theological, Christian anthropology.
Hagiotherapy is increasingly recognized, spread and accepted as a method of anthropological medicine. Also, in the seminars of the new evangelization of the Church, there was a great need to know man’s anthropological dimension.
One needs to know oneself in order to heal the soul and the body and to understand the date of Revelation. In this context, it is essential that the new evangelization begins with man and his existential reality. This means that the first step in the new evangelization is the existential and anthropological question of man, the so-called Pre-catechumenate.
Therefore, it is important to realize that hagiotherapy is not just a secular work separate from Christianity, but precisely the fundamental content of evangelization, said prof. Dr Tomislav Ivančić.
Simple and convincing speech, speech that is the fruit of one’s own experience of life, the experience of one’s helplessness, damage, but also the way out of them, everyone understands, „You see, man wants to be good, but he cannot be. Man would like to be conscious, and is often, besides his open eyes, sleepy. One would like to do good in one’s will, to help someone, and yet it turns out that one is important only to oneself.“
Man, expertly speaking, has the laws of the Being. When he follows these laws, he is in the good, in God. When he does not stick to them, he endangers himself, hurts himself, or other people hurt him with insults and the like. Then the situation around him, the economic situation, work, war, persecutions and various other disasters create a threat to man. And that is why we say that man is versatile: existentially, anthropologically and ontologically endangered.
And that is why God should not be „artificially“ brought to life. For it is scientifically clear: every man knows about God. Neuroscience says that we have a „God module“ in the brain, we have a conscience, man is born as a religious being, and in our subconscious he is a spiritual substrate. That’s all so clear. Therefore, the world today, I would say, needs to be shown more by life.
Anđela: Professor Ivančić was your mentor and you have many years of experience working with him and his closeness. How has this affected your life?
Silva:
I met the professor at the student religious education back in the 1980s. That same year, the professor led a seminar for the evangelization of the Church in Pazin, and I was a participant in it. That seminar changed my life and permanently left a mark on my life, marriage, family and vocation to this day.
I experienced the nearness of Jesus and the experience of the Holy Spirit, the experience of my own transformation from a religious Silva to a Silva who believes in Jesus Christ. That seminar has „extended“ to this day, and that experience is the reason why I am in hagiotherapy.
In addition to my personal longing, the Professor also recognized in me that I had a call for hagiotherapy. After graduating from the professional study of theology, then basic formation for work in hagiotherapy as well as permanent formation according to the Rule of the Community of the Prayer and the Word, I have been in the charism of the Community for forty years, twenty in hagiotherapy and the apostolate of the new evangelization. My experience of growing and working with the professor is that I am called to constant conversion and growth in faith to Jesus Christ.
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Silva Vrdoljak, theologian, mentor in hagiotherapy who has been working as a hagioassistant for 20 years.
