Devotional Classics
Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups
Edited by Richard J Foster & James Bryan SmithNurture and strength from fifty-two Christian devotional classics for individual study and group use -- from RENOVARÉ, a movement committed to spiritual renewal.
These fifty-two selections have been organised to introduce readers through the course of one year to the great devotional writers. The readings have been edited by James Smith, and each is accompanied by an introduction and meditation by Richard Foster. In addition, each reading features a linked biblical passage, discussion questions, and individual and group exercises.
Devotional Classics features readings from Augustine of Hippo; Bernard of Clairvaux; Francis of Assisi; Julian of Norwich; Catherine of Siena; Thomas à Kempis; Catherine of Genoa; Martin Luther; Ignatius of Loyola; John Calvin; Teresa of Avila; Blaise Pascal; Madame Jeanne Guyon; Soren Kierkegaard; Evelyn Underhill; Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Thomas Merton; Dallas Willard and many more.
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The Way of Perfection
Saint and mystic, born in Aacvila, Spain. She entered a Carmelite convent there in 1535, and became famous for her ascetic religious exercises and sanctity. In 1562, with assistance from John of the Cross, she re-established the ancient Carmelite rule, with additional observances. Her many writings include an autobiography, The Way of Perfection, and the mystical work, The Interior Castle. She was canonised in 1622; feast day 15 October.
Written during the height of controversy which raged over the reforms St. Teresa enacted within the Carmelite Order in Spain, The Way of Perfection was to serve as a guide in the practice of prayer and set forth her counsels and directives for the attainment of spiritual perfection. By "perfection", St Teresa means the complete acceptance of the will of God for our lives.
St. Teresa begins her work by presenting three virtues which are fundamental to a spiritual life. They are detachment, humility and active love. St. Teresa encourages detachment from all activities which fail to develop a stronger relationship with the Christ Jesus, including not only possessions, but also personal relations. Humility is accepting the life which has been given to us by our God. It is an arrogant expression to believe the life we have is less than we deserve. Finally, active love toward the Christ Jesus completes the virtues which prepares us for the way of perfection achieved in prayer.
St Teresa teaches about prayer through her commentary on the Paternoster (Luke 11:2-5). Whether a person prays as a contemplative or vocal exercise, the benefits of prayer can be fully realised as we consider to whom we pray With the help of detachment, humility and active love, a fulfilling prayer life can become a part of our spiritual experience.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works
Written during the great age of European mysticism, The Cloud of Unknowing is an essential devotional classic of the Church. At a time when the whole of Western Europe was in the grip of the Black Death and the Hundred Years War there was a great flourishing of spiritual.works. The Cloud of Unknowing is part of this tradition and although the exact identity of the author remains obscure, he was probably an English country parson of the late fourteenth century. The main theme of this book is that GOD cannot be reached by human intellect but only by a love that can pierce the 'cloud of unknowing.'
He writes: St Luke tells us that when our Lord was in the house of Martha her sister, all the time that Martha was busying herself preparing his meal, Mary sat at his feet. And as she listened to him she regarded neither her sister's busy-ness (and it was a good and holy business; is it not the first part of the active life?) nor his priceless and blessed physical perfection, nor the beauty of his human voice and words (and this is an advance, for this is the second part of the active life, as well as the first part of the contemplative). But what she was looking at was the supreme wisdom of his Godhead shrouded by the words of his humanity.
And on this she gazed with all the love of her heart. Nothing she saw or heard could budge her, but there she sat, completely still, with deep delight, and an urgent love eagerly reaching out into that high cloud of unknowing that was between her and GOD.
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Francois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fenelon (1651-1715)Christian Perfection
Francois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fenelon was born at Chateau de Fenelon in Perigord and descended from a long line of nobility. He studied at Saint-Sulpice seminary and after being ordained priest in 1676 he was director of the 'New Catholics' a college where women who had been converted from French Protestantism were instructed. In 1698 Louis XIV entrusted to him the education of his grandsons, the dukes of Burgundy, Anjou, and Berry. Fenelon enjoyed great popularity in official circles at this time and received two special honours: election to the Academie Francaise in 1693 and elevation to Archbishop of Cambrai in 1695.
October 1688 became a turning point in Fenelon's life when he met Madame Guyon, the leading exponent of Quietism. Her emphasis on the need to make spiritual progress in one's interior life particularly appealed to Fenelon at this time. Fenelon was satisfied that he could prove GOD's exigence in his mind but now he concentrated on his need to experience GOD for himself. Within ten years, Fenelon had discovered that Madame Guyon's teaching on Christian perfection supplied him with just the answers he needed in his own spiritual pilgrimage.
Fenelon's spiritual advice is extremely practical. His topics include Meditation & Prayer, Dealing with Self, Coping with Others, and Death & Bereavement. On the subject of Christian Perfection, Fenelon writes:
"Christian perfection is not the strict, tiring, restrictive thing you suppose;" writes Fenelon, "it requires a person to give himself wholeheartedly to GOD. As soon as this has taken place that person will find it easy to do whatever else GOD asks him to do. People who are wholly given over to GOD are always satisfied, for they desire to do only GOD's will and and they are prepared to do whatever this is."
"People who do this are the true children of GOD and they experience great happiness, even though the may be in the middle of many tribulations" he counsels. "This happiness consists of a clear conscience, a freedom of spirit, pleasure in handing over everything to GOD, the experience of GOD's light becoming stronger and stronger in one's life and a complete deliverance from hankering after the things that belong to this world."
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Jeanne Marie de la Motte Guyon (née Bouvier) (1648-1717)
Short and Very Easy Method of Prayer (Moyen court et facile de faire oraison)
abridged version: Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ
Madame Guyon was a French, Catholic mystic who lived from 1648 to 1717. After the death of her husband ended an unhappy marriage, she decided to devote the rest of her life to God She counselled people on prayer and published several books on the subject She was imprisoned by the pope and bishops of France for her teaching. During her lifetime, the Abbé de Fénelon became her most famous disciples. Through Fénelon the influence of Madame Guyon penetrated, or was increased in, religious circles powerful at court--among the Beauvilliers, the Chevreuses, the Montemarts--who were under his spiritual direction. Posthumously her teaching was embraced by Protestants in Europe and Methodists in America. Her works include The Short and Very Easy Method of Prayer (1685), a mystical interpretation of the Song of Solomon, an autobiography, letters, and some spiritual poetry.
Madame Guyon wrote her book "to invite the simple and the child-like to approach their Father .. a Father who delights in seeing the humble confidence of his children and is grieved by their distrust." She gives instruction on developing a prayer life from the most rudimentary steps of "praying the Scripture" and "beholding the Lord." to the ultimate Christian attainment which she describes as "divine union." This handbook of how to develop a deeper spiritual relationship is extremely practical.
Madame Guyon shows concern for those who are just starting out on their spiritual journey. She argues against "burdening the new Christian with countless rules and all sorts of standards" which "do not help him grow in Christ." Rather, she suggests, "the way to reach the lost is to reach them by the heart. If a new convert were introduced to a real prayer and to a true inward experience of Christ as soon as he became converted, you would see countless numbers of converts go on to become true disciples." She continues, "Accomplishing all this is very easy. How? Simply teach a believer to seek God within his own heart. Show the new Christian that he can set his mind on Jesus Christ and return to Him whenever he has wandered away."
Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591)
Dark Night of the Soul
(excerpt from Ascent of Mount Carmel)John of the Cross was born Juan de Yepes at Fontiversos, near Ávila, in 1542. He entered the University of Salamanca, 6 January 1567 shortly after his profession. In 1567, he received his priest's orders and met Teresa of Ávila at Medina del Campo agreeing to join her Discalced Reform. On 28 November 1568, he took the vows of the Reform at Duruelo as Saint John of the Cross. During his life he held positions of authority and responsibility within the Carmelite Order. He endured kidnap and imprisonment until his death on 14 December 1591.
25 January 1675 Beatified by Clement X
26 December 1726 Canonised by Benedict XIII
24 August 1926 Declared Doctor of the Church Universal by Pius XIIn Dark Night of the Soul John of the Cross describes the spiritual journey through two periods of great stress. The first night or purgation is of the sensual part of the soul. The second is of the spiritual part. The first period separates the soul from the senses and allows for spiritual detachment. The ideal result is that the world no longer has the ability to draw us away from our spiritual relationship.
John of the Cross describes the second night of the soul. Its first and principal benefit caused by this arid and dark night contemplation: the knowledge of oneself and of one's misery. For, besides the fact that all the favours which GOD grants to the soul are habitually granted to them enwrapped in this knowledge, these aridities and this emptiness of the faculties, compared with the abundance which the soul experienced aforetime and the difficulty which it finds in good works, make it recognise its own lowliness and misery, which in the time of its prosperity it was unable to see.
Psalm 84 informs us that even the blessed go through valleys of weeping. When the spiritual journey carries us to one of those valleys or dark nights, John of the Cross provides strength and clarity.
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Ni To-sheng (aka Watchman Nee) (1903 - 1972)The Normal Christian Life
Ni Shu-tsu was born in Swatow, 4 November 1903. After his commitment to the work of Christ in 1919, he became Ni To-sheng or in English "Watchman Nee". During his thirty years of ministry, Nee travelled throughout China planting churches among the rural communities and pastoring in Shanghai. The congregation, called the Little Flock, was active in church building and the training of Christian workers. His work in China has been compared by some to the work of John Wesley. In January of 1956, Nee was brought up on charges by the local authorities in Shanghai. In front of an assembly of 2500 people, Nee was denounced because of his preaching. He was charged with espionage, licentiousness, stealing church funds, and demoralising the workers with his preaching on the Last Days. He was imprisoned until 1972 when he was released days before his death in his home province.
Nee underscores a precept of his ministry which is useful to those who engage in developing a spiritual relationship when he writes, "We have learned in China that, when leading a soul to Christ, we must be very thorough, for there is no certainty when he will again have the help of other Christians. We always seek to make it clear to a new believer that, when he has asked the Lord to forgive his sins and to come into his life, his heart has become the residence of a living Person. The Holy Spirit of God is now within him, to open to him the Scriptures that he may find Christ there, to direct his prayer, to govern his life, and to reproduce in him the character of his Lord."
In The Normal Christian Life , Nee comments on Paul's Epistle to the Romans. His explanations include practical applications, and so, his book instructs Christians along their spiritual journey. Those at every stage of their spiritual life can gain from the lessons of this book.
Nee, explains the first steps of Christianity, "Recognising a number of such phases in the life and experience of a believer, we note now a further fact, namely that though these phases do not necessarily occur always in a fixed and precise order, they seem to be marked by certain recurring steps or features. What are these steps? First there is revelation. As we have seen , this always precedes faith and experience. Through his Word, God opens our eyes to the truth of some fact concerning his Son, and then only, as in faith we accept that fact for ourselves, does it become actual as experience in our lives. Thus we have: 1. Revelation (Objective) 2. Experience (Subjective)
Then further, we note that such experience usually takes the two-fold form of a crisis leading to a continuous process. It is most helpful to think of this in terms of John Bunyan's "wicket gate" through which Christian entered upon a "narrow path." Our Lord Jesus spoke of such a gate and a path leading unto life (Matthew 7:14), and experience accords with this. So now we have: 1. Revelation. 2. Experience: (a) A wicket gate (Crisis) (b) A narrow path (Process).
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Julian of Norwich, anchoress (1342 - 1443)Revelations of Divine Love
"Some of us believe that God is almighty, and may do everything; and that he is all wise and can do everything; but that he is all love, and will do everything - there we draw back. And as I see it, this ignorance is the greatest of all hindrances to God's lovers." writes Julian of Norwich in her book of revelations which she received. Mother Julian was a recluse who lived in Norwich in the fourteenth century. On the eighth of May 1373 - it was the third Sunday after Easter, and the day after the festival of St John of Beverley - when she was already a woman of considerable spiritual maturity, she received an answer to her prayers to know God more intimately.
Mother Julian summarises her revelations fifteen years later, "This book was begun by the gift and grace of God. I do not think it is done yet. We all need to pray God for charity. God is working in us, helping us to thank and enjoy him. Thus does our good Lord will that we should pray. This is what I understood his meaning to be throughout, and in particular when he uttered those sweet cheering words, 'I am the foundation of your praying.' I knew truly that the reason why our Lord showed it was that he wants it to be better known than it is. It is by our knowing this that he gives us grace to love and to hold to him. He regards his heavenly treasure on earth with so much love that he wants us to have all the greater light and consolation in the joys of heaven. So he draws our hearts away from the sorry murk in which they live."
Mother Julian teaches about God, prayer and sin through her retelling of the revelations. She sees God as maker, sustainer and lover of our lives. God plays the role of both Father and Mother, of creator and nurturer. God functions, too, in Trinitarian fashion, according to her, 'The Father may, the Son can, the Holy Ghost will' do whatever God wills. On prayer, she writes, "our Lord God's will is that we should have a real understanding of prayer, and in particular of three things. The first is to know through whom and how our prayer starts. He shows through whom when he says, 'I am the foundation', and he shows how, when by his goodness he says, "it is my will.' The second is to know how we should best use prayer. The answer is, in fact, that our will should be joyfully subject to the will of the Lord. This is the meaning of 'I make you to will it.' The third is that we should know what is the outcome and purpose of our prayers, namely, that we should be united with our Lord and like him in everything. This is the intention and reason behind this loving lesson." Regarding the subject of sin and evil, she writes, "All our Lord does is right, and what he permits is worthwhile. These two definitions embrace both good and evil, for all that is good is done by our Lord, and all that is evil is permitted by him. I am not admitting of course that evil has any worth. I am merely saying that our Lord's tolerance of it has, for in this way his goodness is always known in its wonderful humility and gentleness; and that because of his mercy and grace."
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Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)Practical Mysticism
Anglican mystical poet and writer, born in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, C England, UK. She studied at King's College, London, and became lecturer on the philosophy of religion at Manchester College, Oxford. She led religious retreats, was a religious counsellor, and wrote numerous books on mysticism, including The Life of the Spirit (1922), volumes of verse, and four novels. Her Mysticism (1911) became a standard work. (http://www.biography.com) Evelyn Underhill wrote Practical Mysticism in 1914 when she was 39. It marked the end of a period of intense study and writing in which some of her best known works were composed. It also marks a transition in her spiritual development.
Evelyn translates the spiritual relationship into secular terms. For example, she explains the mind-boggling paradox of Free Will and Determinism, "Perhaps you always fancied that your will was free -- That you were actually, as you sometimes said, the 'captain of your soul.' If so, this was merely one amongst the many illusions which supported your old, enslaved career."
Evelyn describes the steps to a fulfilling, spiritual relationship: You are going to do it by an educative process; a drill, of which the first stages will, indeed be hard enough...Recollection, the art which the practical man is now invited to learn, is in essence no more and no less than the subjection of the attention to the control of the will. She describes the First Form of Contemplation as a discovery of your fraternal link with all living things, a down-sinking of your arrogant personality into the great generous stream of life. The Second Form of Contemplation yields the discovery that each separate living thing...is the outbirth of another power, of a creative push: that the World of Becoming in all its richness and variety is not ultimate, but formed by Something other than, and utterly transcendent to, itself. Sooner or later, the Third Form of Contemplation, if you are patient, will come to you through the darkness: a mysterious contact, a clear certitude of communion and of possession.
To Evelyn, the purpose of this venture is two-fold. Surely it is your business, so far as you may, to express in action something of the real character of that universe within which you now know yourself to live. Mystics are asked to think celestially; and this, not when considering the things usually called spiritual, but when dealing with the concrete accidents, the evil and sadness, the cruelty, failure, and degeneration of life.
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Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911)The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life
aka The God of All ComfortHannah Whitall Smith was a Quaker born in Philadelphia in 1832. Her book, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, has become a classic. Published in 1870, it was a beacon of encouragement in the age in which it was written, and continues to inspire men and women to a more joyful life with Christ.
Hannah Whitall Smith begins her book, "I was once talking on the subject of religion with an intelligent agnostic, whom I very much wished to influence, and after listening to me politely for a little while, he said, 'Well, madam, all I have to say is this. If you Christians want to make us agnostics inclined to look into your religion, you must try to be more comfortable in the possession of it yourselves. The Christians I meet seem to me to be the very most uncomfortable people anywhere around. They seem to carry their religion as a man carries a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but at the same time it is very uncomfortable to have it. And I for one do not care to have that sort of religion.' This was a lesson I have never forgotten, and it is the primary cause of my writing this book."
She continues, " It is our ignorance of God that does it all. Because we do not know Him, we naturally get all sorts of wrong ideas about Him. We think He is an angry Judge who is on the watch for our slightest faults, or a harsh Taskmaster determined to exact from us the uttermost service, or a self-absorbed Deity demanding His full measure of honour and glory, or a far-off Sovereign concerned only with His own affairs and indifferent to our welfare. Who can wonder that such a God can neither be loved nor trusted? And who could expect Christians, with such ideas concerning Him, to be anything but full of discomfort and misery?"
"But I can assert boldly, and without fear of contradiction, that it is impossible for anyone who really knows God to have such uncomfortable thoughts about Him. Plenty of outward discomforts there may be, and many earthly sorrows and trials, but through them all the soul that knows God cannot but dwell inwardly in a fortress of perfect peace."
"It is to try to help my readers to come to a knowledge of God in the plain matter-of-fact sort of way of which I have spoken, and to the convictions which result from this knowledge, that this book is written. I shall first try to show what God is, not theologically, nor doctrinally, but simply what He is in actual, practical reality, as the God and Father of each of us. And I shall also point out some of the things that seem to me the principal hindrances to becoming really acquainted with Him."
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Thomas James Merton (1916-1968)Contemplative Prayer
Catholic monk, writer; born in Prades, France. Following his mother's early death, he was raised in France, England, and the U.S.A. After earning bachelor's and master's degrees in English from Columbia University, he converted from agnosticism to Catholicism and in 1941 entered a Trappist monastery at Gethsemani, Kentucky. USA, taking the name Louis; his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), became a best-seller and made him a Catholic folk hero. He continued to write poetry and religious works, and after ordination (1949), he served as master of students, then master of novices. In later life he was increasingly preoccupied with social concerns and he became a major figure in the 1960s antiwar movement. Also drawn to solitude, he won permission to live as a hermit on his monastery's grounds (1965). In 1968 he was allowed to pursue a growing interest in Oriental mysticism by visiting the Far East; while attending a religious conference in Thailand he was apparently electrocuted by a faulty fan in his hotel room. (http://www.biography.com)
Thomas Merton writes, "...in meditation we should not look for a "method" or "system," but cultivate an "attitude," and "outlook": faith, openness, attention, reverence, expectation, supplication, trust, joy. All these finally permeate our being with love in so far as our living faith tells us we are in the presence of GOD, that we live in Christ, that in the Spirit of GOD we "see" GOD our Father without "seeing." We know him in "unknowing." Faith is the bond that unites us to him in the Spirit who gives us light and love.
Some people may doubtless have a spontaneous gift for meditative prayer. This is unusual today. Most men have to learn how to meditate. There are ways of meditation. But we should not expect to find magical methods, systems which make all difficulties and obstacles dissolve into thin.air. Meditation is sometimes quite difficult. If we bear with hardship in prayer and wait patiently for the time of grace, we may well discover that meditation and prayer are very joyful experiences. We should not, however, judge the value of our meditation by "how we feel." A hard and apparently fruitless meditation may in fact be much more valuable than one that is easy, happy, enlightened and apparently a big success."
"Without true, deep contemplative aspirations, without a total love for GOD and an uncompromising thirst for his truth, religion tends in the end to become an opiate."
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