and reflection upon Ambrose’s life is to observe the dynamic contours of his heart
and soul in relationship with God and those around him. Further, this reading of his
life will help to recognize his experiences of God and to detect the degree to which
they reflect a contemplative attitude and awareness.
There are also four potential limitations to recognize before employing the
Spiritual Movement Matrix. First, and most obvious, this tool was designed to help
spiritual directors guide individuals or groups in becoming more attentive to the
presence of God. The assumption was that you were guiding persons who could
respond to your questions and comments and thereby further explore and deepen their
respective experiences. Applying this to Ambrose who is dead obviously limits its
usage. Additionally, Karl Rahner remarks, “the transition from the experience itself
to a recognition of it at the conceptual and reflexive level is more difficult for the
actual subject undergoing the experience, so that this subject can actually prevent this
transition from taking place.”^24 In other words, a reader’s perception of Ambrose’s
experience today may not have been the actual experience he had in the seventeenth-
century. However, once that is acknowledged the Matrix is still a helpful instrument
for exploring the experiences of Ambrose. A second potential caution is the manner
in which Ambrose’s experiences are placed within the various dimensions of the
Matrix. It might be difficult to determine the placement for a specific event from his
life. However, undue preoccupation with this may cause readers to miss the
importance of simultaneity. This principle, first advanced by Rahner, maintains that
there is a unity of experience of God and self.^25 Accordingly a person who does not
experience God at any significant depth cannot experience him or herself significantly
24
25 Rahner, “Experience of God Today,” 150. Rahner, “Experience of Self and Experience of God,^ ” 122-32.