Lumina - New Lumina

As books by and about the mystic Adrienne Von Speyr (1902-67) published by Ignatius Press tell us on the back cover:"Adrienne von Speyr was a 20th century Swiss convert, mystic, wife, medical doctor and author of some seventy books on spirituality and theology. She entered the Church under the direction of Hans Urs von Balthasar, who was her confessor for twenty-seven years. Her writings, recognized as a major contribution to the great mystical and spiritual writings of the Church, are being translated by Ignatius Press."Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-88) was a friend of Pope Emeritus Benedict, and an acquaintance of Pope St. John Paul II. A short section in the Prefatory Note in this book tell us about Adrienne von Speyr's struggles with poor health and blindness which gave her the time to write:"After a number of years devoted to an exhausting professional practice, Adrienne faced decades during which illness increasingly prevented any outside work. In moments of leisure, she dictated meditations on the Bible, particularly on .. Joh(n) ...[B]etween 1947 and the time of this writing (1969), thirty-four volumes ha(d) .. appeared ... She spent her nights almost entirely in prayer and her afternoons quietly embroidering or (as she began to go blind) knitting. During such hours she would from time to time pull out a notebook and write down one of the thoughts that the reader will find in what follows; she then stuck the pages in the desk drawer where they were discovered after her death. In their artless concision, they offer distillations of the essence of her thinking, praying, and being." (9, 10)Here are some of my favorites from this book:"Souls who live entirely in God experience the divine presence even in the smallest details of everyday life." (54)"[O]ur primary goal: to forget ourselves, not just partially, but totally. There is a verse in Scripture that expresses this goal: 'I live, but it is no longer I who lives; rather, Christ lives in me. (Gal 2:20)" (93)We should learn to humiliate ourselves, that is, to love deeply and wholly enough to eliminate once and for all the wish to be loved by our sick patients, by those around us, for our own sake, but to want instead to inspire in them the love we serve. ... Will you be able to be non-conformists by being the sort of people who try to love?" (94, 95)"Love and suffering are so close to each other. ... The ability to suffer and the ability to love are one. ... To suffer in God is a form of love. ... [S]uffering has only one meaning: love offered." (82, 45, 66, 67)"[D]efinitiveness is not rigid. ... Dogma does not close things off, for its content is immeasurable. ... The inexorability of dogma makes our spirit malleable by allowing it to adapt itself, to open itself, to grow. ... A universal law cannot be abolished by the tragedy of a particular case. Indissolubility of marriage. ... The Church is like the vision of God on earth distorted by our sin." (89, 91)"Christian penance is a reservoir from which prayer can continually draw fresh energy. ... There is an obedience of the body that begins precisely where the body is humiliated through some sort of penitential practice. This obedience resembles a total oblivion, because the will of the body, with perhaps keener vigilance than ever before, dares to try to insert itself into the will of the scourged Lord." (55, 92)"Grace comes through prayer ... Zeal and love wither without prayer ... Prayer is a reliable source of strength. ... Father ... You have time for all our concerns ... You created us .. (and) remain .. our lifelong companion." (108)"[T]he Lord's radiance shines infinitely over everything ... The Lord's blood never congeals. It remains living and flows warm through all ages." (42, 39)