Mysticism, A Question of Today

...My own opinion is that the only way by which order can be introduced into a domain where now reigns the utmost confusion, is by restoring the term "mysticism" to its traditional meaning, through its application to a purely religious order of things, and more especially to all that concerns the closest intercourse between us and our Maker...

...and all the series published by the Benedictine or Jesuit Fathers...

...But here again we find that the term mysticism is more abusively applied to a totally different order of things and attributed, in matters of art, literature, psychology and even medicine, to all manifestations of human activity deprived of clearness and of intellectual, moral or physiological equilibrium...

...In addition to the detached and individual publications that are springing up on all sides are found periodical reviews, whose contents place within our reach, in ever-renewed forms, the rich treasures of Christian mysticism with the many secrets it holds concerning God's love for man, and man's love for God...

...In the eyes of crowds of people, mysticism stands for whatever is abnormal, obscure, unconscious, inconceivable, inexplicable—they look upon it as the unexplored region of mystery and of the unknown...

...Faber's All for Jesus, Growth in Holiness, Spiritual Conferences, etc...

...The Church has always had in its midst a certain number of mystically favored men and women...

...of Saint-Jure, La Connaissance et l'Amour de Jesus-Christ...

...With regard to the latter, a doctor's thesis, called Saint John of the Cross and the Problem of Mystic Experience, was held up at the University of Paris November 21, 1924...

...The names of Saint John, Saint Paul, of Augustine, of Bernard, of Francis of Assisi, of Catherine of Sienna, of John of the Cross, of Teresa of Avila, shine like so many stars in the sky of religious history...

...An accredited master of divine science, Father Tanquerey, who formerly held a post of professorship at the seminary of Saint Mary in Baltimore, and is now Superior of the novitiate of the French Sulpiciary near Paris, has issued a muchneeded book under the title, Precis de Theologie Ascetique et Mystique—a work as clear as it is complete, and which can be used as a manual by students in theology...

...and exclusive of these it is well known that whole multitudes of others whose names have never reached us, have lived and carried within themselves a like amount of the same living fire...

...With regard to French books written on these weighty matters, be it sufficient to recall, as concerns the last three centuries, the well known name of Saint Frangois de Sales (Introduction a la Vie Devote et Traite de l'Amour de Dieu) of Cardinal de Berulle (Discours de l'Etat et des Grandeurs de Jesus) of Condfen (L'idee du Sacerdoce et du Sacrifice) of Olier (Catechisme Chretien pour la Vie Interieure) of Eudes (La Vie et le Royaume de Jesus dans les Ames Chretiennes) of Bossuet (Instruction sur les Etats d'Oraison, Elevations sur les Mysteres, Meditations sur l'Evangile) of Fenelon (Lettres de Direction) and to quote, as belonging to a very slightly inferior order, the principal works of Lombez, Traite de la Paix Interieure...

...but our heart is itself greater than the world and all that the world contains...

...But it would seem as though our own epoch (in compensation, perhaps, of its profounder misery) had received of God the privilege of taking a greater interest in the mystic souls of yore in relation to the possibility of producing others of the same category, and of earnestly dwelling both on the doctrine and life of the great mystics...

...le Mysticisme Allemand, a posthumous article by Victor Delbos, the late professor of philosophy in the Sorbonne...

...The long standing demand has now been answered...

...This permanent vogue of ancient writ on mystical subjects in no way prevents the appearance of new ones, and there is no exaggeration in saying that each fervent Christian's bookshelves keep on growing richer with every passing year...

...The ever increasing number of souls inclining towards mysticism (or showing a wish to understand its nature) made it desirable that an equal number of masters should be found capable of giving these souls the needed instruction touching a science of such profound nature and—more important yet—a guide to direct them and to facilitate their advancement, or at least preserve them from stumbling in these arduous ways...

...Only after death are we destined to a direct vision of God which will make us absolutely happy—the beatific vision...

...But it did not form part of ordinary classroom studies, and there was no special and complete treatise of mystical theology equivalent to the Treatise of Morals and Dogma...

...and these are, properly speaking, the mystics...

...of Lallemant, la Doctrine Spirituelle...

...l'Orientation Religieuse de Maine de Biran et le Probleme de la Passivite Mystique, by J. Paliard—which work one can see in the hands of all earnest seekers after religious truth...

...High above them smile the gentle features of the sort-lived Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus, who, born in 1875, was canonized in the month of May of the present year...

...The intensity of this supernatural life can become so great as to allow the soul that lives it to bathe almost perpetually and consciously in the light of the Divine presence...

...This list of modern works should be followed by a list of such ancient ones as have fortunately been lately reprinted...

...in answering fully and unreservedly every call of grace...

...in always acting in conformity with our faith, and in becoming more and more conscious of the divine life already lying latent within us, which, at the time of our death, will open into full splendor...

...But even in this world certain souls are enabled by a quite special privilege to feel His sensible presence and contemplate something of His infinite essence and perfection...

...of Monsignor Gay, Vie et Vertus Chretiennes, Elevations sur la Vie et la Doctrine de Jesus-Christ...

...The best known among these reviews are La Vie Spirituelle, founded in 1919 by the Dominican Fathers and La Revue d'Ascetique et de Mystique, directed for the last five years by the Jesuit Fathers...

...Mysticisme Chretien et Mysticisme Paien, by an anonymous writer...

...Every man must, of course, be allowed to give a word the meaning he prefers, provided he give the definition thereof...

...This year one of them, called Philosophies, has dealt with the subject throughout nearly all the pages of two recent numbers...

...The everyday Christian possesses this light in a far lesser degree and indeed becomes conscious of it only during his rare moments of passing fervor...

...The modern works are not all of equal value, but many among them are truly remark444 THE COMMONWEAL September 16, 1925 able, as, for instance, de Maumigny's Pratique de l'Oraison Mentale, Henri de Tourville's Piete Confiante and Lumiere et Vie, A. Poulain's Des Graces d'Oraison, R. Plus's Dieu en Nous, Charles Sauve's Dieu Intime, A. Saudreau's Les Degres de la Vie Spirituelle and l'Etat Mystique, and, finally, Cardinal Mercier's La Vie Interieure...

...This tendency of our contemporaries, however elevated it may in itself be, is none the less exposed to many illusions and subject to going astray along perilous roads—occultism, spiritualism, theosophy, Christian Science, new (so-called) forms of Buddhism, of Mohammedanism, and endless kinds of orientalisms —American readers will be at no loss to complete the list...

...whereas, to the mystics, union with God is such that it absorbs every thought of theirs, and the whole of their hearts...

...Elliott's Spiritual Life...

...W. Ullathorne's Endowments of Man...

...It was implicitly given through spiritual conferences and personal direction to young candidates preparing themselves for priesthood or religious life...

...It consists chiefly in self renunciation in order to follow Jesus Christ...

...By the side of these doctrinal works are issued, with greater success, vast quantities of histories of saints of all times, some of which point to mystic life in action, while others treat both of its theory and practice...

...it corresponds, in its essence, to what in the Christian language is properly termed the life supernatural (or sanctifying grace...

...Still these various forms of pseudo-mysticism somewhat resemble the true mysticism in this—that they aim at establishing a correspondence between man and the invisible and higher power—in short, with God...

...This work is about to be published in other languages (a translation into English is already comSeptember 16, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 445 menced under the direction of Father Vieban, professor at the Sulpician seminary of the Catholic University of America) and will, beyond doubt, contribute to the progress of pious souls...

...Mystic life is the life of the soul in God, and the life of God September 16, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 443 in the soul...

...it spread philosophical and historical considerations of the greatest importance over 200 pages...

...of de Caussade, L'Abandon a la Divine Providence...

...Newman's Meditations and Devotions...

...Next, we would place Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916...

...For five hours, between the candidate and the best masters of the faculty and in the presence of a picked audience, there was a discussion of a nature to carry one back to the Sorbonne of the time of Bossuet or Saint Thomas Aquinas...

...According to John the Apostle, a God is greater than our heart...

...442 MYSTICISM, A QUESTION OF TODAY By FELIX KLEIN NEVER before, perhaps, in the course of the world's history, have all questions relating to mysticism been as generally talked of as they are at the present time...

...Other periodicals, though not making these questions their sole object, treat them frequently (among these are Les Etudes Franciscaines of the Capuchin Fathers) while non-religious ones are given to devoting whole issues to the same...

...The Scale of Perfection, by W. Hilton (1396) ; the Hermits and Anchorites of England, by Miss Rotha Mary...

...The attraction exercised on us by these wondrous souls should not be solely attributed to the fact of their being our contemporaries (indeed many of their present readers were born long before them) for their biographies are neither more nor less appreciated than are those of other mystics belonging to past ages...

...the popularity of the translations of the late Abbot Marmion's works is a good index to the appreciation of such material in England...

...in loving God above everything, and our feliow creatures because of Him...

...Under the comprehensive title, What Is Mysticism...

...The whole of a late issue of one of the most enlightened Catholic organs, Le Cahier de la Nouvelle Journee, was also devoted to it...

...It would seem as though the very development of the material side of civilization and of practical discoveries had only succeeded in enlivening our deeper need, and caused the human soul to search with even greater ardor after such spiritual truths as are alone capable of quenching its thirst...

...Cardinal Gibbons's Ambassador of Christ...

...to the teaching of Saint John and of Saint Paul...

...Never has there appeared anything like the number of present translations into French of Saint Augustine, Saint Bernard, Saint Thomas Aquinas, of Saint Bonaventure, of Tauler, of Rusbroeck, of Suso, of Saint Angela de Foligno, of Thomas a Kempis, of Gerson, of Saint Catherine of Genoa, of Lessius, and of those two incomparable masters, Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross...

...We do not mean to imply that the teaching of mystical theology has so far been null...

...Well worthy of attention are also some of the biographies of our own contemporaries—biographies enriched with quotations from their personal notes, letters and diaries, all of which contribute to set forth openly and boldly the high example of their noble lives...

...In order to bring themselves down to finding an interest in temporal things, they must needs make an effort as great as the less advanced Christians when striving to forget the outside world in order to think of God...

...E. I. Watkin's Philosophy of Mysticism is but little known, and not without flaws—but courageous and deserving of better recognition...

...Father Cuthbert's God and the Supernatural...

...of Nouet, Conduite de l'Homme d'Oraison dans les Voies de Dieu...

...A phenomenon familiar to most who give retreats in and out of religious communities, is the quite startling return to topics like incorporation with Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and the supernatural life generally in the strict sense...

...It seemed fitting that every priest should be able to understand and help such souls as felt called upon to follow Christ and, hearing the voice of God, to rise to whatever heights He might choose to call them...

...la Vie et la Doctrine de Saint Jean de la Croix, by l'Abbe J. Wehrle...

...The list of historical and theoretical publications testifying to the magnitude of this movement would be enough to fill a whole volume...

...A. Devine's Manual of Mystical Theology...

...We can add most of the works of Bishop Hedley, O.S.B., and all the works of Abbot Vonier of Buckfast, O.S.B...

...They are, for instance, Cardinal Manning's Internal Mission of the Holy Ghost and Eternal Priesthood...

...It were needless for me to dwell on such of those works as, written in the English tongue, are equally well known in America and in England...

...Among them are Revelations of Love Divine, by Julienne de Norwich (1448...

...and the works of the late Baron F. von Hugel have probably done more than anything else imaginable to restore Catholic mysticism to the esteem of nonCatholics, both in England and Germany...

...To live mysti...

...Cardinal Gasquet's Religio Religiosi...

...le Probleme de la Mystique, by Maurice Blondel, the author of l'Action...

...and the surprising call for, and approval of, books like Father Martindale's Saint Paul, which puts the Apostle's highest doctrines before average readers without technicalities...

...two nuns who died, one at the age of twenty-eight, the other at the age of twentyone—Sister Marie Saint Anselm (1889-1918) and Sister Elizabeth of the Holy Trinity (1880-1906...

...Another and more striking evidence of the same fact is that the above works are always being reprinted, and that the number of the readers thereof continues to be legion...

...Hecker's Questions of the Soul...

...Christian mysticism has nothing in common with esoteric doctrines...

...and two women of the world, the first of whom, Elizabeth Leseur, has left an admirable journal, while the second, Madeleine Semer, moves us deeply through the rapidity of her mystical development, following on more than half a lifetime of estrangement from God...

...A sure proof of the interest that all these mystic authors continue to inspire is in the success obtained by an important study called Histoire Litteraire du Sentiment Religieux en France, from the able pen of the Abbe Bremont, a member of the French Academy...