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This second edition of von Balthasar's book is a personal introduction to Adrienne von Speyr, a contemporary Swiss convert, mystic, wife, medical doctor, prolific spiritual writer, and co-foundress with Balthasar of a secular institute. Fr. von Balthasar, her spiritual director for 27 years, includes an appraisal of her contributions to theology and spirituality, a complete bibliography, her prayers, and passages from her more than sixty books. This book contains three main sections. In the first, three subdivisions offer: 1) a short account of Adrienne's life; 2) a description of her charism and of her most important theological concerns; 3) an overview of her published and unpublished works. The second section presents a collection of some enlightening statements that Adrienne made about herself which illuminate and vivify her exterior as well as her hidden, interior life from varying angles and which also clearly indicate where she herself put the greatest emphasis and how she herself wished to be understood. A third section contains prayers she herself wrote which best reveal her spirit.
Prayer was a way of life for Adrienne von Speyr, one of this last century's great Catholic mystics. In this major work on prayer, edited by Hans Urs von Balthasar, Adrienne discusses the many aspects and kinds of prayer, the vocation of every Christian. The fundamental theme of this work is that prayer, like everything else that comes to man through God's self-revelation in Christ (such as grace; faith, hope and love; or the realtionship between Christ and the Church), is ultimately rooted in God himself and in his triune exchange of life. Beyond all purely creaturely motives and needs, Christian prayer is a participation in the inner life of the Trinity, which is revealed, prepared and acco...
In this second edition of her profound book on confession, which theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar calls "one of her most central works", Adrienne von Speyr discusses the moral and practical aspects of this sacrament in great depth. The most complete spiritual treatise on confession ever written, the book covers conversion, scruples, contrition, spiritual direction, laxity, frequency of confession, confessions of religious and lay people, and even confessions of saints. The most intriguing element in von Speyr's understanding of confession, fully developed in this volume, is its trinitarian and christological basis. The Cross is the archetypal confession, and Christian sacramental confession is thus an imitation of Christ in the strict sense. Confession examines the enormous fruitfulness of this dogmatic basis from many perspectives, giving a wealth of suggestions that both the theological expert and the layman will find very helpful. Its practical applicability to one's own confession emerges from every page.
Adrienne von Speyr, a renowned mystic and spiritual writer from Switzerland, was received into the Catholic Church at the age of 38 on the Feast of All Saints, 1940, by one of the theological giants of the 20th century, Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar. He became her spiritual director and confessor until her death in 1967 during which time Adrienne was favored with many gifts of authentic mystical prayer. Balthasar considered one of the central characteristics of Adrienne's prayer to be her transparency to the inspirations she received from God, along with a deep personal communion with the saints. Over a period of many years, Adrienne would see the saints (and other devout people) at prayer, and...
Stirring and provocative look at death and its many meanings
Three Women and the Lord presents three key figures in Saint Luke's Gospel: Mary Magdalen, the unnamed woman who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears, and Mary of Bethany. As Adrienne von Speyr meditates on the Gospel passages about these three women, she explores the particular, personal mission that the Lord gave each one and links it with one of the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and love. Through the stories of these women, von Speyr demonstrates that every person who encounters Jesus and receives his mercy is changed by him and given a unique way to reveal his identity as Savior and Lord.
ÊThe contemporary mystic and physician von Speyr gives an account of her early years which reveals her extraordinarily rich and integral personality. Written at the request of Hans Urs von Balthasar, the 50 year old von Speyr reflects on the significant events of her younger years, including some of her mystical experiences, which shaped the two key elements of her life: her unshakable resolve to become a doctor against incredible obstacles in order to help others, and her unquenchable longing to belong completely to God. Written in an upbeat and lively manner, this is an authentic first hand picture that reveals the boundless spirit and deeply sensitive soul of an extraordinary woman who was completely dedicated to her patients and yet lived (and wrote much about) a deeply mystical life.
In Man Before God, the mystic Adrienne von Speyr offers her reflections on this personal encounter with the God who is eternal love. Acknowledging the limitations of man in the face of the boundlessness of God, she considers both the various ways God continues to speak to man--through his Word in Scripture, through his Son in the sacraments, though saints and neighbors--as well as the necessity for man to respond. Through her guidance, we come to see every circumstance as an invitation to encounter and worship God. From this perspective she explores with clarity and simplicity such topics as: the meaning of prayer and contemplation living in the Word the relationship between discipleship and Eucharist the place of Mary and the Church the meaning of work and the religious life, joy and truth, knowledge and darkness
Adrienne von Speyr was one of the most important mystical theologians of the last century. However, her work has been eclipsed in many ways by her personal connection to Hans Urs von Balthasar. Heaven Opens provides one of the first comprehensive accounts of von Speyrs theology. Matthew Lewis Sutton argues that the eternal, immanent relations of the Triune God ground the mystical theological vision of von Speyr. Here, von Speyrs work is for the first time given an independent hearing, expositing its content, features, and connections, and assessing its contribution to contemporary Catholic theology.
The mystic Adrienne von Speyr, drawing on her very special God-given charism of being able to experience the interior states of persons, shares her profound insights on the suffering, loneliness and loss Christ endured for love of us during His Passion. These unique experiences and insights of von Speyr on Christ's redemptive sufferings, and the people and events surrounding Him, offer rich and moving material for meditation and adoration. She also presents rare and beautiful mediations on Christ's mysterious presence in the Eucharist, as well as a kind of "theology of the body," echoing John Paul II's emphasis on the dignity and importance of the human body in our relationship to God.