The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of two main senses of Scripture the literal sense and the spiritual sense. The literal sense (Paragraph 116 CCC) “…is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation; “All other sense of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal.” The spiritual sense with allegorical, moral and anagogical subcategories are described in paragraph 117. “Thanks to the unity of God’s plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs.” Allegorical sense refers to how events can acquire a more profound understanding in reference to Christ and the faith. (Such as the crossing of the Red Sea as a sign of Baptism or Christ’s victory over death.) The moral sense leads us to act justly and is written for our instruction. The anagogical sense refers to events and realities seen in terms of their eternal significance. (Such as the Church on earth as a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem.)
There have been other senses suggested over the course of the Church’s history. One example is that of the Mystical Literal sense. Venerable Mother María de Jesús of Agreda in her historic Mystical City of God provides numerous examples of the Mystical Literal interpretation.
I was not able to find a formal definition of this sense online. I here propose one.
The mystical literal sense is a spiritual sense of Scripture which like the allegorical sense interprets events of the past in reference to Christ or the Church. The mystical literal sense is typically a prophetic sense of Scripture which literally applies the majority of the context and contents of a text to a future event. It is not literal in the sense that the original meaning of the text was meant by the author to be prophetic or refer to Christ or the Church, but literal in the sense that in large part the words of Scripture can be applied directly to Christ in a comprehensive way.
Song of Songs 1:13 “My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh that lies between my breast.”
Literal Sense: A love poem rather a figurative or real event.
Spiritual Sense: Christ should be our sweet fragrance which lies between our breasts, i.e. in our hearts.
Mystical Literal: Jesus literally as a baby slept swaddled between Mary’s breast as in a couch for his body.
One example is a well know tradition. At the nativity of Christ there was an ox and donkey.
Isiah 1:3 “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib;”
Literal: Isaiah is talking about the Jews at the time of his writing.
Spiritual: It is natural for animals to follow their owners. We should be in a state where we can easily see where our owner God is leading us.
Mystical Literal: Christ in his manger ‘crib’ will literally have an ox and donkey nearby who know that he is God.
I hope to continue this list. Please provide your own mystical literal interpretations in the comments.
Defending Vatican II 