Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.

There are many wonderful stories about a beloved saint, St. Francis of Assisi. He was called to rebuild the medieval Church, and he did both literally and spiritually. While he physically rebuilt the crumbling San Damiano church and spiritually reformed the morally astray medieval Church by cleansing objects of attachment by steadfastly practicing the virtue of poverty. 

St. Francis’ virtue of poverty, which has eventually become the Catholic doctrine of evangelical poverty, invokes the Japanese aesthetic sense of “wabi sabi”, which finds beauty in simplicity, impermanence, and even in dilapidation.

Now, as a pastoral psychologist, I find St. Francis’ sense of “wabi sabi” in his care for his companion, Bro. Leo. 

Applying “wabi sabi” sense in psychospiritual care also reflects the clinical wisdom from Morita Therapy, which was developed by a Japanese psychiatrist, Shoma (Masatake) Morita, an avid Zen practitioner, during the 1910s.  Though Morita never intended Morita Therapy to be a religious (Zen Buddhism) activity, a Japanese Zen priest and psychiatrist, Yugen Usa, first pointed out Morita Therapy’s similarities to Zen Buddhism spirituality. And, through St. Francis’ Morita-Therapy-like care for Bro. Leo’s depressive psychospiritual distress, I would like to indicate Morita Therapy’s “wabi sabi” evangelical poverty aspect. 

In the below dialogue between St. Francis and his companion, Bro. Leo, St. Francis demonstrates some clinical elements of Morita Therapy, along with Otto Kernberg’s treatment model of narcissistic personality disorder. The way St. Francis assesses and treats Bro. Leo’s depressive psychospiritual distress certainly bears Jesus’ teaching on detachment, which also echoes Buddha’s teaching. But, Bro. Leo’s ego resists St. Francis’ confrontation of Bro. Leo’s ego defenses. So, St. Francis further ushers Bro. Leo to focus on Christ in order to practice detachment, in order to resolve his psychospiritual distress. And, it is to attain psychospiritual “wabi sabi” – appreciation of simplicity and beauty in human frailty and imperfection. 

Namely, the psychospiritual “wabi sabi”  is “poor in spirit”(Matthew 5:3), which St. Chrysostom regarded as humility. As Zen Buddhism spirituality teaches “wabi sabi” to be an important aspect of humility, St. Francis’ application of Morita Therapy principles also has some Zen Buddhism spirituality bearings

The below dialogue between St. Francis and Bro. Leo certainly makes St. Francis a Morita Therapy practitioner. 

 

*******

One day Saint Francis and brother Leo were walking down the road. Noticing Leo was depressed, Francis turned and asked, “Leo, do you know what it means to be pure of heart?”

“Of course. It means to have no sins, faults or weaknesses to reproach myself for.”

“Ah,” said Francis, “now I understand why you're sad. We will always have something to reproach ourselves for.”

“Right,” said Leo. “That's why I despair of ever arriving at purity of heart.”

“Leo, listen carefully to me. Don't be so preoccupied with the purity of your heart. Turn and look at Jesus. Admire Him. Rejoice that He is what He is—your Brother, your Friend, your Lord and Savior. That, little brother, is what it means to be pure of heart. And once you've turned to Jesus, don't turn back and look at yourself. Don't wonder where you stand with Him.”
“The sadness of not being perfect, the discovery that you really are sinful, is a feeling much too human, even borders on idolatry. Focus your vision outside yourself, on the beauty, graciousness and compassion of Jesus Christ. The pure of heart praise Him from sunrise to sundown.”
“Even when they feel broken, feeble, distracted, insecure and uncertain, they are able to release it into His peace. A heart like that is stripped and filled-stripped of self and filled with the fullness of God. It is enough that Jesus is Lord.”

After a long pause, Leo said, “Still, Francis, the Lord demands our effort and fidelity.”

"No doubt about that,” replied Francis. “But holiness is not a personal achievement. It's an emptiness you discover in yourself. Instead of resenting it, you accept it and it becomes the free space where the Lord can create anew. To cry out, ‘You alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord,' that is what it means to be pure of heart. And it doesn't come by your Herculean efforts and threadbare resolutions.”

“Then how?” asked Leo.

“Simply hoard nothing of yourself; sweep the house clean. Sweep out even the attic, even the nagging, painful consciousness of your past. Accept being shipwrecked. Renounce everything that is heavy, even the weight of your sins. See only the compassion, the infinite patience and the tender love of Christ. Jesus is Lord. That suffices. Your guilt and reproach disappear into the nothingness of non-attention. You are no longer aware of yourself, like the sparrow aloft and free in the azure sky. Even the desire for holiness is transformed into a pure and simple desire for Jesus.”

Leo listened gravely as he walked along beside Francis. Step by step he felt his heart grow lighter as a profound peace flooded his soul .

(“The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus”, Brennan Manning (2004), pp. 209-211)

******

Through the above dialogue, St. Francis rightly points out that our obsession with desire for perfection can make it difficult for us to attain the perfection. Here is a paradoxical irony that Bro. Leo is going through as his efforts toward the purity of heart only makes him depressed, making it more difficult to work toward this goal.  It is because our obsession with the desire for perfection brings a tremendous amount of mental and spiritual distress, as Bro. Leo had experienced. It also makes a life very complicated.

St. Francis realized that what was behind Bro. Leo’s depressive mood was Leo’s apprehension to perfection, his obsession with the desire to be perfect. This leads to excessive fear of not to be perfect, resulting in mental and spiritual afflictions. 

This symptomological pattern is similar to eating disorders, as what is common in Bro. Leo’s distress and eating disorders is an apprehension to perfection and an obsession with the desire for perfection. 

The very first step for healing from this kind of mental and spiritual distress is to accept the reality, which is imperfect, as it is. This corresponds to Morita Therapy’s foundational concept of accepting symptomology as it is – accepting “arugamamani”.

What Bro. Leo desires – the purity of heart – is quite a tall order. Unless having a realistic discipline, our sense of religious and spiritual piety can make us vulnerable to fall into the kind of distress that Bro. Leo had experienced, as St. Francis, like a Morita Therapy practitioner, points out.

In fact, the symptom of Bro. Leo is rather uncommonly found among those who live a religious life, as their have gotten “lost” in their pursuit of holiness, sacredness, and purity. Some of these even become psychologically and spiritually pathological, often exhibiting narcissistic symptomologies. They certainly need a competent and compassionate pastoral psychological care. 

This dialogue between St. Francis and Bro. Leo offers a bit of insight for responding and treating psychospiritual problems due to “getting lost” in pursuit of perfection. 

These words of Bro. Leo: “Of course. It means to have no sins, faults or weaknesses to reproach myself for” in response to St. Francis’ inquiry: what it means to be pure of heart suggests an association between narcissistic disposition and preoccupation with highly idealized fantasies, including obsession with perfectionistic goals. 

In this answer, there is an indication of Bro. Leo’s pride and overconfidence – a faulty thinking and ego defense to think that he knows what he is talking about and what he is seeking in his life – the purity of heart. But, this symptom is a fear-ridden reaction to his own fragile ego. It is also a clinical indication that he has unrealistic expectation, which tends to be found among narcissists. 

After all, narcissism is a form of preoccupation of self due to fragile and insecure ego. Thus, Bro. Leo’s symptom of preoccupation with the purity of heart is a manifestation of his preoccupation with self. In fact, Bro. Leo’s depressive symptom due to his preoccupation with the purity of heart (the perfection of heart) seems to be narcissistic withdrawal.  A person suffering from narcissistic withdrawal tends to make himself or herself appear independent and proud but internally insecure and vulnerable. Because of this inconsistency between confident outlook and internal fear of his or her fragile ego, such a person can slip into a depressive mood, as Bro. Leo did.

The way Bro. first responded to St. Francis is as if he would make himself independent and confident in regard to his understanding of what the purity of heart was. Bro. Leo was on his highly idealized fantasy when he acted as if he were independent. But, in reality, he was deeply insecure. That was why he was exhibiting depressive and withdrawn appearance. 

Bro. Leo’s insistence of having no sins, faults or whatsoever to rebuke himself alludes to his narcissistic and perfectionistic character. 

With the way Bro. Leo answered his question about the purity of heart, now St. Francis makes an assessment: “Ah, now I understand why you're sad. We will always have something to reproach ourselves for.”

Here, St. Francis was realizing Bro. Leo’s depressive outlook was narcissistic withdrawal due to afflictions between his independent and perfectionistic outlook and his ego vulnerability inside. In a psychoanalytic view, Bro. Leo’s perfectionistic self-expression, insisting that he knows what the purity of heart is, is his ego defense to protect his vulnerable ego. 

With these words, “Right, That's why I despair of ever arriving at purity of heart”, Bro. Leo begins to realize the ironic paradox that he has been struggling with: the harder he tries to attain the purity of heart, the farther he gets from it, resulting in more frustration and depression. He also begins to see how his own preoccupation with the purity of heart contributes to his despair as a result of St. Francis’ confrontation of Bro. Leo’s ego defense, bearing Kernberg’s method of treating narcissistic personality disorder.

St. Francis said:

“Leo, listen carefully to me. Don't be so preoccupied with the purity of your heart. Turn and look at Jesus. Admire Him. Rejoice that He is what He is—your Brother, your Friend, your Lord and Savior. That, little brother, is what it means to be pure of heart. And once you've turned to Jesus, don't turn back and look at yourself. Don't wonder where you stand with Him. The sadness of not being perfect, the discovery that you really are sinful, is a feeling much too human, even borders on idolatry. Focus your vision outside yourself, on the beauty, graciousness and compassion of Jesus Christ. The pure of heart praise Him from sunrise to sundown.”

In this statement, St. Francis confronts Bro. Leo’s tendency to become preoccupied with his perfectionistic desire – the purity of heart. To prevent this “relapse” into his attachment to the insecure ego, St. Francis urges Bro. Leo to focus on Christ, helping him recognize that Christ is the one to rejoice for, to accept as his brother, as his friend, and as his savior Lord.  According to St. Francis, this recognition is what it means to be pure of heart. 

This shift of focus from Bro. Leo’s ego needs to Christ is the second step toward healing, as the first step is to accept his symptomology: he is depressed because of his fruitless pursuit of the pure of heart, in St. Francis’ intervention, in light of Morita Therapy’s progress. In regard to psychoanalytic view, this step is to gradually replace Bro. Leo’s fragile ego with Christ as his primary self object in his object relations.  It is because his fragile ego only creates an narcissistic illusion on  attaining the pure of heart, while Christ is, indeed, the perfect being of the pure of heart – by accepting Christ as his primary self object, as his center. 

What Bro. Leo needs to understand here is that pursuing the pure of heart with his own efforts and fidelity alone will not cut it in resolving his problem and in attaining his goal.  He must acknowledge that it is necessary to accept Christ, who is the embodiment of the purity of heart (meaning being without sin) as his brother, friend, and savior Lord, to rejoice for and with. And, this is what faith is, as faith is our personal and intimate relationship with Christ. Salvation, in this case with Bro. Leo, resolving his psychospiritual distress, cannot be attained solely with his own efforts and fidelity unless he focuses on Christ and accept Him as his brother, friend and savior to rejoice for and with.　

This statement of St. Francis also reflects the clinical foundation of Morita Therapy – delivering a patient like Bro. Leo from apprehension by shifting his or her attention focus from ego to another person in his or her object relations. In Bro. Leo’s case, it is to shift his locus of attention from his ego to Christ, in order to resolve his psychospiritual distress: depression. 

What is behind Bro. Leo’s depressive psychological problem is persistent anxiety associated with his obsession with his desire to attain the purity of heart. This obsession is attributed to his undisciplined ego or insecure ego. 

St. Francis immediately sensed that Bro. Leo’s psychospiritual distress was due to his preoccupation, obsession with the purity of heart.

Buddhist spiritual wisdom teaches that attachment to our goals and purposes , although having goals and purposes in life is very important. Thus, the Buddhist spiritual wisdom is to help us cultivate spiritual discipline to work toward goals and purposes of life without becoming attached to them or obsessed with them by staying in the middle way. 

As it is the case with the Ignatian spirituality, the Franciscan spirituality is pretty much like the Buddhist spirituality, in regard to the discipline not to become attached or obsessed with what we try to attain. But, Bro. Leo had become attached to his noble goal: attaining the purity of heart, and suffered from psychospiritual distress due to preoccupation, because of his pride and narcissistic disposition.

Psychoanalytically speaking, when we become attached to our goals and purposes in life, it is not merely due to the Type-A personality or perfectionistic character. It is not just a faulty thinking pattern, either. Rather, it can be a manifestation of narcissistic ego that subconsciously assumes perfection in seeking pleasure of supremacy. There is a bit of sense of arrogance.

That is why it hurts more when such a person finds himself or herself not attaining his or her goals and purposes, which is the purity of heart for Bro. Leo. 

Morita Therapy, which bears Zen Buddhist spirituality, guides to resolve preoccupations and obsessions by redirecting attention from ego to things outside ego. When he said, “Focus your vision outside yourself, on the beauty, graciousness and compassion of Jesus Christ. The pure of heart praise Him from sunrise to sundown” to Bro. Leo, St. Francis was applying this Zen-like clinical principle of Morita Therapy to help Bro. Leo overcome his preoccupation with the pure of heart.

Bro. Leo developed his preoccupation with the purity of heart, which was his desire and goal, because of his attachment to ego. In order to completely overcome his preoccupation with the purity of heart, Bro. Leo had to conquer  his own ego-attachment by removing his locus of attention from ego.  To Bro. Leo, a new object of his attention outside his ego was the beauty, graciousness, and compassion of Jesus Christ.

St. Francis further said, 

“Even when they feel broken, feeble, distracted, insecure and uncertain, they are able to release it into His peace. A heart like that is stripped and filled-stripped of self and filled with the fullness of God. It is enough that Jesus is Lord.”

With this statement, St. Francis is confronting Bro. Leo’s narcissistic vulnerability, which manifests as his perfectionistic and independent outlook as a seeker of the purity of heart. This approach that St. Francis takes to address Bro. Leo’s narcissistic withdrawal resembles Otto Kernberg’s  treatment model of narcissism to interpret Bro. Leo’s ego defense manifesting in his narcissistic withdrawal. 

Here, St. Francis is meeting with Bro. Leo at his very ego vulnerability, acknowledging his broken, feeble, distracted, insecure, and uncertain feelings, resulting from his insecure ego. And, St. Francis is now guiding Bro. Leo to accept his vulnerable self and let his own stripped vulnerable self with the fullness of Christ. This way, Bro. Leo will not need to tap into his ego defense to protect his vulnerable ego, because the divine mercy through Christ will stabilize his ego. This is like St. Augustine’s saying (Confession , I.1), “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you”. 

As long as Bro. Leo fails to shift his attention from self to outside of himself, his narcissistic distress will not be resolved. In fact, it will worsen. This is what Morita Therapy’s understanding of Bro. Leo’s problem. 

By guiding Bro. Leo’s locus of attention from his ego to Christ, St. Francis is applying the clinical paradigm of Morita Therapy. And, this is how I also apply principles of Morita Therapy in my pastoral counseling practice, especially in treating persons with psychospiritual distress due to narcissistic factors. 

In response to St. Francis’ therapeutic confrontation of his ego defense for his vulnerable ego and nudging to focus on Christ, instead of his ego, Bro. Leo needed some time and space to process internally.

Then, after a long pause, Bro. Leo said, 

“Still, Francis, the Lord demands our effort and fidelity.”

Ah, ha! Bro. Leo’s ego-centric psychospritual forces are quite strong! In fact, Bro. Leo’s narcissistic ego is still fighting back to St. Francis’s therapeutic intervention, like the inertia. 

Then, St. Francis responds:

 "No doubt about that. But holiness is not a personal achievement. It's an emptiness you discover in yourself. Instead of resenting it, you accept it and it becomes the free space where the Lord can create anew. To cry out, ‘You alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord,' that is what it means to be pure of heart. And it doesn't come by your Herculean efforts and threadbare resolutions.”

Of course, St. Francis is not going to let Bro. Leo’s ego-centric forces to pull him back into the preoccupation with the purity of heart and psychospiritual distress. It is to prevent his “relapse” into his stubborn ego-centric forces and his ego attachment. 

Bro. Leo’s ego defense made him say that he still needs diligent efforts and steadfast fidelity, even accepting that he is not so perfect. It seems that Bro. Leo’s vulnerable ego makes him think myopically that paying attention to Christ the Lord would make him preoccupied, again, or obsessed with something – if not necessarily with the purity of heart, by arguing that the Lord demands efforts and fidelity. 

To challenge such Bro. Leo’s ego defense, in applying Kernberg’s treatment method, St. Francis further states that the pursuit of holiness, the pursuit of the purity of heart, is not about himself. Rather, the kind of efforts and fidelity that the Christ the Lord demands on him is about discovering an emptiness in himself. Again, this is Morita Therapy that St. Francis is applying here, together with Kernberg’s treatment method for narcissism, as he further guide Bro. Leo to accept the emptiness within. 

St. Francis explains that accepting the emptiness within for Bro. Leo means to accept that he himself alone cannot attain his goal of the purity of heart. That is why St. Francis is encouraging Bro. Leo to cry out to Christ for his mercy, because He is the only one with the purity of heart. 

In a way, St. Francis is telling Bro. Leo, “Stop struggling! Just surrender yourself as you are to Christ the Lord, if you want to strive for the purity of heart. Don’t get obsessed about it, either. Just submit yourself to the Lord, because He is the one who has the purity of heart!” 

The emptiness that St. Francis was encouraging Bro. Leo to focus on within him symbolically means the cracks and holes that we have within. It is our shortcomings and imperfection. And, St. Francis is now telling Bro. Leo that it is not something to become frustrated with but rather to understand a space to let Christ fill.

This reminds me of a simple Japanese tea bowl, which exhibits unique design, though it gives a rustic unattractive appearance. It first appears unsophisticated, as if it were for a poor man’s bowl. And, it was once cracked. So, the bowl was to be discarded. However, the artist tactfully filled the cracks with clay with different color, producing uniquely beautiful design, thus, giving the rustic bowl very unique aesthetic value. This is a good example of “wabi sabi” art in Japan, reflecting Zen Buddhism spirituality.

The emptiness in Bro. Leo is like the cracks of the rustic Japanese bowl. And, Christ is like the clay with different color to fill the crack. This way, St. Francis is suggesting that Bro. Leo’s emptiness within is not something he is to despise of or to be ashamed of, but rather to make him very unique by letting Christ fill. Realization of this shall lead Bro. Leo to a “wabi sabi” appreciation about himself. 

 “Then how?” 

To this, St. Francis answers:

“Simply hoard nothing of yourself; sweep the house clean. Sweep out even the attic, even the nagging, painful consciousness of your past. Accept being shipwrecked. Renounce everything that is heavy, even the weight of your sins. See only the compassion, the infinite patience and the tender love of Christ. Jesus is Lord. That suffices. Your guilt and reproach disappear into the nothingness of non-attention. You are no longer aware of yourself, like the sparrow aloft and free in the azure sky. Even the desire for holiness is transformed into a pure and simple desire for Jesus.”

Earlier St. Francis guided Bro. Leo to accept Christ, to benefit from His mercy, because he cannot attain the purity of heart with his own efforts and fidelity alone. It is also because this acceptance is a necessary condition to relieve him from depressive psychospiritual distress. Now, St. Francis is getting down to the nitty-gritty about accepting Christ to benefit His salvific and healing effects.

For this, first, we need to cleanse ourselves – emptying ourselves, so that we have nothing in us to get attached. So, St. Francis is reminding Bro. Leo to denounce whatever that can cause his ego-attachment, preoccupation, narcissistic phenomenon, ego defense reactions, including narcissistic withdrawal. 

In a way, St. Francis is treating Bro. Leo a Buddhist monk novitiate, who was about to go on pabbaja. Monks on pabbaja possess nothing as they sustain their lives completely on the mercy of kindness of others. 

In fact, in sending the seventy-two disciples, Jesus also treated them like Buddhist novitiate monks to be sent off on pabbaja.

Jesus said: 

“Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way.  Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’  “(Luke  10:3-5)

When Jesus said, “Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals”,  it symbolically meant that the disciples should not have anything to get attached to, because attachment on their mission journeys (pabbaja journey) would become distraction and distress.  Those who go on mission must practice detachment. 

That is why St. Francis advised Bro. Leo, “Simply hoard nothing of yourself; sweep the house clean. Sweep out even the attic, even the nagging, painful consciousness of your past.”

Money bag and sack can be used to hoard things. But, these can symbolically means a container for the weight of past sin, regret, grudges, and whatever burdens Bro. Leo’s heart and mind. 

Having nothing to hold inside, having no objects to be attached to, is the first step to accept Christ the Lord as a brother, friend, and savior. And, this is the very necessary condition to strive for the purity of heart, paralleling the Buddhist teaching of “Tariki Hongan”.

Holding nothing to become attached to inside self and cleaning any possibilities of attachment within leads to the purity of heart, free from attachment. The freedom from attachment means the freedom from preoccupation. Thus, it is the freedom from psychospiritual distress. In Buddhist,  the purity of heart, which means the freedom from attachment and preoccupation, is anatta, the egoless self. 

To understand St. Francis’ teaching to Bro. Leo about “Tariki Hongan” of Christ or submitting self to Christ, in Buddhist teaching,  it is anatta that enables us to fully embrace the greater being Jesus Christ, who is the perfect. According to St. Francis, this acceptance and embracing itself is attaining perfection, in spite of our own imperfection. In other words, we may attain perfection as we rest ourselves in Christ, the perfect. We may attain the purity of heart as we find ourselves in Christ, the pure of heart. 

First, Bro. Leo needs to practice detachment. He must let go whatever blocks the way of accepting Christ, such as the nagging and painful consciousness of the past, as well as the weight of his sins, just as he sweeps the house and even the attic. 

The more Bro. Leo cleanses himself within, getting rid of all objects of attachment, which also means possibilities of preoccupation, the closer he gets to the pure of heart, as his life becomes less complicated and simpler. This means that Bro. Leo is becoming more “wabi sabi”, beautiful in his simplicity, because he is letting Christ shine through his emptiness and cracks within as he let Christ in.  And, this is an outcome of St. Francis’ practice of Morita Therapy on Bro. Leo. 

Morita Therapy has been known for its clinical efficacy in addressing paradoxical symptomology of mental distress . The paradoxical symptomology is like the experience that Bro. Leo has suffered: the harder a patient tries to attain a goal, the more frustration s/he experiences as her/his efforts are not having any traction and making any progress. Through a cognitive therapy aspect within it, Morita Therapy addresses the patient’s unrealistic thinking or cognitive scheme. In such a problematic thinking scheme, the patient is likely to strive for rather an unattainable and unrealistic goals and purposes. Thus, such a scheme must be corrected and converted to a more realistic one. For this process, the patient needs to recognize her or his own faulty thinking patter, realizing that her or his goals and expectations are unrealistic.  

In Bro. Leo’s case, this recognition occurs when he realizes that the purity of heart is not attainable through his own efforts and fidelity alone. It was a realization that he, indeed, needs Christ the Lord, having the Lord as his brother, friend, and savior, living a Christ-centered life rather than an ego-centric life. It is, in fact, awakening to this Japanese Shin Buddhist truth of “Tariki Hongan”, that turned the tide of Bro. Leo’s condition. 

While cognitive therapy addresses and corrects a patient’s faulty thinking, which contributes to her or his unrealistic goals and expectations, psychoanalytic perspective views problems of unrealistic goals and expectations as a phenomena of narcissistic ego.  In this view, Bro. Leo’s unrealistic goal and expectation of attaining the purity of heart solely through his own efforts and fidelity is a manifestation of his narcissistic ego, which he probably is not aware of.  The narcissistic ego is an attachment to ego, because the ego is fragile. Such insecure ego makes a patient extremely afraid to be vulnerable and to be seen as vulnerable. Thus, it leads to multitudes of ego defense reactions. In Bro. Leo’s case, it is to protect his fragile narcissistic ego, which is prone to psychospiritual injuries, by setting up such a perfectionistic and unrealistic goal for himself: attaining the purity of heart only through his own efforts and fidelity. It is also an indication of his excessive pride, another aspect of his ego defense. 

Considering this psychoanalytic perspective, I interpreted St. Francis’ intervention to Bro. Leo in light of Kernberg’s clinical method of challenging ego defense in treating narcissistic ego, which is the root of  his psychospiritual distress. 

By applying a psychoanalytic perspective, such as Kernberg’s, Morita Therapy can become even more effective in treating paradoxical symptomology resulting from narcissistic ego. And, I have explained this through the St. Francis’ therapeutic dialogue with Bro. Leo.

As a Japanese Catholic and a practitioner of Morita Therapy, finding some elements of “wabi sabi” and Morita Therapy, along with Japanese Buddhist teaching, in St. Francis’ Catholic spirituality is a tremendous joy.   

The way St. Francis treated Bro. Leo’s psychospiritual distress and ego defense problem through Morita Therapy principles transformed him from a narcissistically pious man to a humble man of the “wabi sabi” spirit. In awakening to the “wabi sabi” spirit – the  beautiful spirit of poverty that Jesus has taught as a beatitude, though St. Francis’ application of Morita Therapy, Bro. Leo’s soul has not become more alive as it can breathe the Holy Spirit better.

*****

The Lord bless you and keep you.

May He show His face to you and have mercy.

May He turn His countenance to you and give you peace.

The Lord bless you!

The Blessing of St. Francis of Assisi to Bro. Leo