The task of the purgative way is to come to an accurate knowledge of one’s self and to a true understanding of God’s call to ever new life in Christ so that one can leave behind whatever attachments keep the individual from a deeper commitment to the Christian life. Meditation, in which one tries to reflect on Scripture and to allow the word of God to be the horizon within which attitudes and patterns of behavior are reformed in accord with the gospel, is understood to be the principal means to