Ruysbroeck Collection: A Christian Mystic

Catalog # SKU3837

Publisher TGS Publishing

Weight 3.00 lbs

Author Name Blessed John of Ruysbroeck, Dom Vincent Scully, Maurice Maeterlinck, Evelyn Underhill

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$32.95

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Description

The
Ruysbroeck Collection:
A Christian Mystic

Two Volumes

by
Blessed John of Ruysbroeck
Dom Vincent Scully
Maurice Maeterlinck
&
Evelyn Underhill

A collection of works translated into English from one of the rare Christian mystics whose manuscripts have survived the centuries. Those critized for his lack of 'education' by theologians of his time and theologians of modern times, his works continue to transcend the mediocrity of religion and theology. Besides, when did the Master choose the 'educated scholar' as one of his disciples?

Print size, 14 point font

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EXCERPT

Volume One
Works of the Blessed John of Ruysbroeck

The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
The Seven Steps of Divine Love
The Kingdom of the Lovers of God
The Book of the Twelve Beguines
The Sparkling Stone
The Book of Supreme Truth

Volume Two
Critiques, Analysis, and Biographical

A Mediaeval Mystic by Dom Vincent Scully
Ruysbroeck and the Mystics by Maurice Maeterlinck
Ruysbroeck by Evelyn Underhill

The student of history is well aware of the many and startling contrasts and contradictions presented by the Middle Ages. It was an epoch of magnificent virtues and of gross vices, of splendid heroism and of unspeakable cruelty, of superb generosity and of disgusting meanness, and, which is more to our point at present, of intense devotion and of the most revolting vagaries in doctrine and morals. While also on the one hand there was much genuine zeal, much earnest endeavour to reform crying abuses in Church and State; on the other hand hypocrites and fanatics abounded, who aimed at the destruction of the principle of authority on the plea of amending those in power, or who, the while they inveighed against the futility of a merely exterior religion and insisted on the supreme need of purity of heart, themselves fell into the excess of neglecting all external form, and at times all outward decency and observance of morality.

Consider: when a simple Christian observes the Law and the Commandments of God because He so orders and wills, and not by custom or constraint, he is just and pleasing to God in the inferior degree of the spiritual life. Then, when he rises to a higher stage and interiorly acquires numerous virtues, which ornament the Soul so as to make it like God, His Angels and Saints, and all the Just, by esteem for Virtue and hate of vice, and also in view of eternal Life and peace of Conscience, as for the joy and well-being he tastes in the sincerity of his life, then he is far more agreeable to God than the common run of those in the inferior Choir. But when, lifted above all exterior good works and all interior virtues, he fixes his inner regard on God with great confidence and Christian Faith, loving and seeking Him above all things, attaching him self to Him above all else, then he reaches the third stage, where all active life is consummated. Truly the Soul there resembles the Angels of the third Choir in the inferior Hierarchy, who bear the name of Virtues, for the virtues are perfected when thus offered to God, loving and desiring Him beyond them all.

Such is the perfection of the active life, composed of three stages leading to Eternal Life, from higher to higher, as we profit by the grace bestowed and according to our merits, as before God. If you have any experience of this inner life, strive to keep it and dwell in it; self must be emptied out, and detachment from creatures obtained; more than all must the Soul rest in God, seek and love Him, desiring His Glory far above all else. In this way the Soul remains established before the Face of God in Eternal Reverence.

The Lesson from the Ant

I will give a brief parable to those who live in continual ebullitions of love, in order that they may endure this disposition nobly and becomingly, and may attain to a higher virtue.

There is a little insect which is called the ant; it is strong and wise, and very tenacious of life, and it lives with its fellows in warm and dry soils. The ant works during summer and collects food and grain for the winter, and it splits the grain so that it may not become rotten or spoiled, and may be eaten when there is nothing more to be found. And it does not make Strange paths, but all follow the same path, and after waiting till the proper time they become able to fly.

So should these men do; they will be strong by waiting for the coming of Christ, wise against the appearance and the inspiration of the enemy. They will not choose death, but they will prefer God's glory alone and the winning of fresh virtues. They will dwell in the community of their heart and of their powers, and will follow the invitation and the constraint of divine unity. They will live in rich and warm soils, or, in other words, in the passionate heat of love, and in great impatience. And they will work during the summer of this life, and will gather in for eternity the fruits of virtue. These they will divide in two - one part means that they will always desire the supreme joy of eternity; the Other, that by their reason they will always restrain themselves as much as possible, and wait the time that God has appointed for them, and so the fruit of virtue shall be preserved into eternity. They will not follow strange paths or curious methods, but through all storms they will follow the path of love, towards the place whither love shall guide them. And when the set time has come, and they have persevered in all the virtues, they shall be fit to behold God, and their wings shall bear them towards His mystery.

Softcover, 7 x 8½ , 672 pages
Perfect-Bound - 2 Volumes

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