Gaming's "Illative Sense"

In the midst of trial or test, joy or sorrow, have you even been sure of the presence of God without actually having proof?  I imagine so.... and such was also the case with Cardinal John Henry Newman.

In his work, Grammar of Ascent, he coined a curious phrase to describe this rife phenomenon: the "illative sense"  which is when a convergence of factors reaches a point where probabilities, added together, drive us to certainties.  While its not a proof, it functions as one.  

This curious illative sense is certainly at work for the students of Franciscan University who come to the study abroad program in Gaming, Austria.  Some would say that its a sine qua non to the conversion experience which so many students profess at the end of their study abroad semester. 

Why? 

I believe it has something to do with the fact that the students get to see and touch and taste our faith, not just study about it.

Some examples: Let's take Rome. 

When the students travel to Rome, most will participate in the Scavi Tour where they will go down into the necropolis of the dead under St. Peter's Basilica to the very tomb of Peter.  They can see and touch his sarcophagus.  Their Cathiolic faith is no longer ideas, fable, or story: its real flesh and blood. 

At the Colosseum, they literally witness the martyrs: they learn of St. Ignatius of Antioch or St. Eustacio and then see where they walked and gave their lives. 

They go to St. Paul's tomb, they enter the Roman Forum and contemplate Caesar and the Roman Empire and its effect upon Christianity....

They go to the church of St. Mary of our lady of Victory and they imbibe Bernini's famous statue of St. Theresa of Avila in Ecstasy.  

They go to the Capuchin Bone church and see thousands of dead monks' bones decorating the church in a great paean to the resurrection, to life, and they understand that death is not the last say in the drama of life. 

In short, their "illative sense" convicts them of their faith, plain and simple.  They believe it and accept it on their own.  But more: they become proud of their faith and this drives in them a need to speak about the good news to others.  

Newman's "illative sense" is a beautiful thing.  Indeed, Cardinal Newman was no casuist; on the other hand, he drove to the heart of the truth while obviating one of the main difficulties to its full embrace: proof that its true.