| I
thank the Father Paul Lachance o.f.m. who gave me the permission to
put on Internet the pages on the Franciscan mystics, published in the
magazine franciscaine.Ce gift of the Father Lachance has been given
for the whole Franciscan Family of the world to make better know our
brothers and Franciscan sSurs, capuchins, conventual in the 3 Orders
to tell us that we can have again today in the world of other Franciscan
mystics to the Oeuvre.Je asks you book the numerous books that the Father
Lachance wrote on the mystic, the Blissful Angèle of Foligno; t I have
myself a devotion for her since 1964.
Mrs. Denise Christiaenssens o.f.s.
Flowers picked in the garden of the
Franciscan mystic. (13-14 century)
The stigmata of S. François act as banner surging through
ages, recall constant to the conversion and to the total transformation
in the love of Christ crucified. The Franciscan mystics / are refer
themselves sometimes very explicitly of it and other times will serve
themselves of it only as defer-bottom and as stimulant to their mystical
ascension.
THE LIGHTS OF THE FRANCISCAN FAMILY: THE MYSTICS
Unfortunately, these lights of the Franciscan family are, for most,
unknown today. He/it is big time to make emerge them of the rays of
libraries covered with dust and to show them so that them / they illuminate
and put fire to our own recherche.Mais the pantheon of the Franciscan
mystics / are vast, one cannot listen to them all. Let's satisfy ourselves
at present of a fast skimming to pick some flowers in this immense garden.
Later we will have the opportunity to deepen some of it / are. The strong
times of the Franciscan mystic are first in the beginning, the Franciscan
spring of the first generations (13e-14th centuries); then the 16th
century in Spain and 17th century in France
.The mystics of the first generations
In the first place, there is Co Claire, the most faithful echo of S.
François, "his/her/its small plant". Intimately linked to the founding
experience; she/it brings the feminine complement there. His/her/its
mystic will be marked by a more bridal note, more centered on Christ's
love, that the one of S. François of which the vision, finally, is more
Trinitaire. She/it will love between other the symbol of the mirror.
Here is an excerpt of his/her/its third letter in Agnès of Prague:Place
your mind before the mirror of the eternity; Lets your soul bathe in
the splendor of the Glory. You will manage thus to feel that that only
discern his/her/its friends. You will taste the hidden sweetness that
God himself has since the beginning, reserved to those that like it,
B.Gilles Of foundation (d.1261)
One of the first mates of S. François and most bohemian. The subjects
that one collected him are quite tasty. They make the sentences of the
Fathers of the desert think. Here is one of it: The man makes himself/itself
God's picture that corresponds to his/her/its desire; but God is always
as he is.
S. Bonaventure (d.1274)
The big master of the Franciscan thought, the "mystic's prince". One
tells it that "it was S. François who forgets itself to philosophize."
His/her/its united Suvreses in ten volumes marked the Franciscan and
Christian spirituality deeply. How all it can he/it make himself/itself,
do you ask? Interrogate the grace and no the science; the desire and
no intelligence; whining of the prayer and no the survey of the books,
the spouse and no the master; God and no the man; the obscurity and
no the clarity; no the light that shines but the fire that scorches
entire and that transports in God by the unctions of the ecstasy and
most burning affections. This fire it is God himself, and" his/her/its
home is in the Jerusalem saint. It is the Christ who lit it by the devouring
devotion of his/her/its Passion, and that one only receives the attacks,
that exclaim indeed of it: "My soul wished to take his/her/its flight
and my bones asked the death." Anyone wants such a death can see God,
because one cannot question the truth of this speech: " The man won't
see me while alive" therefore Pimpernels and let's enter in darkness:
let's impose silence to the preoccupations, to the concupiscence and
to the sensitive imagination. Let's pass with Jesus crucifié"de this
world to the Father." After having seen the Father, we will declare
with Philippe: "It is sufficient us." And we will hear to say like Paul:
"My flesh and my cSur défaillent, oh Lord eternally and that the whole
people exclaims: TRUSTED, that he/it is made thus! Amen.
In the previous article, we picked some mystical flowers at Co Claire,
the B. Gilles of foundation and S. Bonaventure. We continue here the
skimming of the Franciscan mystic, in the first generations.
 Saint
Antoine of Padua 0.f.m.(d .1231)
The most known Franciscan saint after S. François. Doctor of the
church, big popular preacher ("the hammer of the heretics") the thaumaturge,
one turns toward him to get some miracles and to recover lost objects.
It is a pity for his/her/its teaching on the mystical way. Here is an
excerpt of it: Those that dedicate themselves completely to God are
as birds of the sky, because they are raised in the heights by the wings
of one holy life and discern the King in all his/her/its glory. They
are transported until the third sky and see with the eyes of the mind
the God's majesty three times saint, hear with the ears of the cSur
of the inexpressible words. God's enjoyment in the contemplation is
more precious than all terrestrial reality passing everything that one
can want without comparison; because, when one is held before God and
that one finds his/her/its happiness there and taste his/her/its delights,
it is whereas in truth one reaches the paradise.
Jacopone of Todi (d. 1306)
 The
most important poet of his/her/its time after Dante. A mad of God. His/her/its
poems reveal his/her/its tormented life - "the love messed up of a cSur
in fire" - until he/it reaches the rest of the "crystalline heaven."
In some very struck verses, he/it condenses the Franciscan doctrine
on poverty: Poverty, it is not to have anything. It want anything; and
it possess all things in mind of liberty. Jacques of Milan (last half
of the 13 ième siècle)Célèbre to have written the Stimulus Amoris or
Sting of love, a vade mecum of the medieval spirituality. One will note
the idea of Jesus' spiritual motherhood there, very widespread notion
to the means ages: As a mother, him (Christ) gives me the milk of his/her/its
breasts, clear his/her/its hands, carry myself in his/her/its arms,
comfort myself of his/her/its kissings, warm myself on his/her/its lap
B. Raymond Lulle (d. 1315)
 The
illuminated or fanciful doctor, Known by these two stocks of glory,
a recalling us the superhuman enterprises that he/it tempted to spill
the gospel in all corners of the horizon, including the Moslem world
(a part of his/her/its Suvreses is written in Arabic); and the other
suggests us the mystical love that it radiated during fifty years, since
his/her/its conversion until the martyrdom. Among the numerous writings
of spirituality of this love" "pilgrim, as himself describes itself,
the most famous is the Book of the friend and the beloved
. Has an excerpt of it
L 'Love illuminated the cloud that was between the friend and the beloved
and made it thus luminous and resplendent as the moon in the nuit70;le
sun in the day. And in this resplendent cloud, the friend and the beloved
spoke themselves. And the beloved said: "If you other lovers, want fire,
come to my cSur and light your lamps there; and if you want water, come
to my eyes that pour the tears, and if you want thoughts of love, come
to take them in my meditations.
Margherita copySanta Cortona da ofs 1_small.jpg
Co
Marguerite of Cortone (d. 1297)
The Marie - Franciscan Madeleine.brother Giunta Bevegnati, wanted
that she is" the third light of the order of S. François; this last
being the first in the order of the Minor Brothers, the blissful Claire,
the second in the order of the Nuns, and Marguerite, the third in the
order of the Penitents". has some sentences that he heard him dire:O
infinite goodness of my Dieu!O day promised by the Christ and impatiently
attendu!O speech of an unspeakable suavity! Jesus called me: "My Daughter!"
His/her/its biographer, the Bse.
Angèle of Foligno (d. 1309)
The "mistress of the theologians" and one of the biggest mystics
of the Franciscan tradition. In the Memorial that contains the narration
of his/her/its spiritual itinerary, she/it describes a vision in which
she/it saw all creation being resplendent of God's glory: On the field
the eyes of my soul were open. I live God's fullness in which I kissed
the entire universe, the in that and the beyond the seas, and the abyss,
and the ocean, and all things. In all these things, I only saw the divine
power, and I saw it of an impossible vision to describing. Then, my
soul capable to contain his/her/its admiration, exclaimed: This world
is big of God! One often mentions this speech that Angèle heard Christ
to pronounce to him one day: "It is not to laugh that I liked you".
Hubertin of Casale (d. 1329/32)Homme very controversial, he/it was one
of the leaders of the Spiritual or Zelanti that burned goodwill for
the absolute fidelity to the ideal of poverty of S. François. Let's
mention a part of his/her/its prayer to get poverty; she/it is in his/her/its
Tree of life crucified of Jesus: Oh! Who would not like lady therefore
over it Poverty all things! It is why I ask you in your name, oh very
poor Jesus, as special and perpetual privilege, to give us, to me and
to mine, the grace not to possess anything in essence under the sky,
and to have never, so much that we will be in this miserable flesh,
that a poor use of the another's property
(Quote extracted of the Franciscan Mystics by Ivan Gobry, Paris, Franciscan
Editions, 1959), p.83
Of this time, the 13 and 14 centuries,
one could add the names of Jean of the Alverne, Pink Co of Viterbe,
Léon of foundation, David of Augusbourg, Angel Clareno, Roger Bacon,
Gilbert Tournai, Pierre Olivi, Jean of Calibus,le B. Hugues Panziera
of Prato and so many others that decorated with flowers the first spur
of the Franciscan tree at the moment.
Magazine Franciscan November - December 1986 page 417 to 420 & copy
Straight ahead author is for the Franciscan Fathers
The author, the Father Paul Lachance,
In the last release a set of articles started on the Christian Mystics.
The author, the Father Paul Lachance, is possessor of a doctorate in
spirituality, in Rome, for a thesis on the spiritual itinerary of the
Bse Angèle of Foligno. After having treated the present obstruction
for the mystics and to have identified some false ideas on the mystic,
the author enters to the cSur of his/her/its mystical sujet.La, that
what is?
If all price was necessary to give a definition, one could say that
the mystic, it is what is to the cSur of the religion; the experience
of the living God. We let side, at present, the question difficult to
know if this experience is identical or different in all religions,
we want to indicate what is the mystic for a Christian merely. The task
is not easy, one is far from having arrived to a definition that makes
the unanimity. First the mystical word comes us from the ancient Greece.
Mystikos means mystery. The word meant what is hidden, secret, merely
bound to the religions "to mystery". Mystery: Cachée.Dans presence the
New Will, the mount "mystery" is used to mean what many consider today
as being the mystic: the presence hidden of God and the Christ in the
writing, the sacraments and the daily events. Saint Paul, in the letter
in the Ephésienses, tells us that he confided "him to put in full light
the dispensation of the Mystery, hidden since centuries in God: the
one of the Christ's impenetrable wealth (Eph. 3. 8-9). "thereafter,
the Fathers of the church will use the "mystical" word to indicate the
experience of the invisible world that is revealed us by Jesus Christ
in the Bible and the sacraments. Thus, they will speak of the "mystical
sense of the Writings", and of the Eucharist as "mystical banquet".
Experience privilégiée.Sans ever to lose this sense first, following
the influence of a monk Syriaque of the end of the fifth century, the
Pseudo Denys, the mystical term started donning a special sense designating
a privileged experience, in which the soul knows or feel, on a world
that passes strengths and the human capacity, the presence or God's
action in it. To really understand that that is the Christian mystic
it is necessary to keep in head these various components that are bound
A light of fire extremely lightning newcomer by discovered sky spilled
through all my brain and inflamed all my cSur and all my chest like
a flame that doesn't burn, but that warms, to the manner whose sun heats
an object on which it shoots his/its rays, and again, I heard a voice
of the sky that told to me: Announcement therefore and écris.Sainte
Hildegarde of inexpressible BingenAmour, unimaginable goodness. non
measurable light is resplendent in my cSur.
All Christian is called to the mystical life, whatever is his/her/its
vocation; the Christian is solicited to deepen, to internalize and to
live the mystery of Jesus Christ and "his/her/its impenetrable wealth".
Lives by this mystery since his/her/its baptism, the Christian can discover
the heights and the depths progressively of it with the help of the
Writings, thanks to the involvement to life sacramentaire, especially
the Eucharist; and he/it is given him to concretize it always by his/her/its
love more perfect of God and the neighbor. Guided and illuminated by
the mind, this communion of life with and in the Christ, by the dynamism
that is clean to him, blooms to the measurements trinitaires. As Saint
Jean says it: "If someone likes me, he/it will keep my speech, and my
Father will like it and we will come toward him and we will make a home
at home (Jn. 12,24). God's home in the âme.Cette solemn promise of mystical
experience pronounced by Jesus in his/her/its speech of the last cène
addresses to all Christian. However all doesn't make the same type of
experience of God's home in ;
For the maturity and most of the time, the conscience of the divine
presence stays implicit, hidden otherwise absent. The Christian receives
some indications, of small gleams of divine light, all the same of it
through a faith that, even though she/it can vacillate, défaille not;
he/it receives a hope that perseveres through the tests again of it,
and through a capacity of love that stops growing and to testify that
an Other lives it; or in some moments-keys of life; birth of a child,
call has a special vocation, recovery of an illness that seemed incurable,
an unforeseen help, a strong time in the prayer or in the Eucharist
etc. One will say whereas it is only God who can accomplish such marvels.
It passes our capacities on the other hand humaines.Une experience of
God more directe.D'autres and these are the mystics - makes an experience
more direct and immediate of God's presence.
As a medieval mystic of the Franciscan family said it, the Bse Angèle
of Foligno,: "The true supporters feel, penetrate, feel something of
the incarnate Verb." By the mystics, God is not merely a concept, a
beautiful idea, but a living reality; they have a conscience more quick
and intense to have met God and to discern that all comes of Him, is
filled of Him, and return to Lui.Voie and mystical State Seduced and
upset by this meeting, the mystics only have a desire to the cSur, God's
research that becomes the only reality that counts. Of various manners
and according to the depth of the call and the answer, they or they
enter in a process of purification, illumination and union with God.
This process is often accompanied by secondary phenomena as visions,
ecstasies, revelations, etc. It is the entry and the progression in
the way or the mystical states to the more restricted sense, that little
by little served to define this or these experiences. He/it imports
to signal that the initiative of the mystical ascension, like all Christian
gait, comes of God who grants his/her/its grants to that, how and when
it the veut.Les saints: not all of the mystiques.Comme we already indicated
it, all Christian is called to the holiness, to perfection of the love,
but the saints are not all of the mystics; not all makes the experience
of these states privileged of union with God. The holiness of Theresa
saint of Avila or Jean saint of the Cross is not the holiness of Elisabeth
saint of Hungary or Vincent saint of Paul. There are canonized a lot
of saints that are not mystics. The essential for every Christian is
the fidelity to his/her/its own mission, the truth that is his, the
answer of love to the received love, the quality of the grant of oneself.
He/it remains that all authentic Christian life aims that whose mystics
testify in a way: "My soul is thirsty of the living God. When would
I see it face-to-face"?
Revue Franciscan March-April 1986 page 375 to 278
The mystics, witnesses of the love fascinated of God,
Before delivering us the big secrets of some Franciscan mystics, from
the next number, the Father Paul Lachance, doctor in spirituality, present
here the last part of his/her/its introduction on these beings to the
passionné.Contribution cSur of the Mystics to our questionsCe that the
mystics bring us different and of original, it is the amplification
of the fundamental Christian experience. Them / they are signs placed
on our road to indicate us what can be a fully in full bloom, realized
and authentic Christian and human life.
The Mystics are the religious geniuses, of big lovers of history, in
fact, that that them / they tell us, it is the history of the love fascinated
of God for every humain.Témoins being of the living and true God.
The mystics illuminate our progress for several reasons;
First, by that that them / they have to tell us on God. Their testimony
assures us that so God is "more present to us than us are it ourselves",
he is also always transcendent, beyond what one can imagine or to say.
Here is why when them / they speak of their experience, them / they
constantly repeat themselves, speak in paradoxes, create a new speech,
mumble or are quiet before what can express itself. Of big lovers of
history. Far from being on the contrary of the escaped prisoners of
history, the mystics, penetrate the cSur. Inserted in the dialectics
of the death and Christ's resurrection, oscillating between moments
of presence of the ineffable and moments of absence, their progress
makes them discover that the divine love illuminates and transform all
aspects of life, even plainest, the most sublime and most awful. These
beings of light are signs of the eternity in the time, for them the
sky tore itself, their message is essentially the same: everything that
God created is good, the love and the truth will have the last word.
Justice and peace himself embrasseront.Voilà why the mystics appear
often in history during moments of crisis. Advanced by radical situations
in themselves and in the society that surrounds them, them / they enter
in the abyss of the human suffering to live it in themselves, to decipher
the sense of it. Fighting in a terrifying fight with the powers of the
pain, these beggars of the absolute leave from it victorious, lights
for their time and the centuries to venir.De big ferrymen between two
mystical rives.Les are thus the big pioneers, the ferrymen between two
strands, the big reformers. Marie of the incarnation, for example, will
feel named to emigrate from France to Quebec, a country that she/it
imagines to be "as much pathetic that awful." And, it is in this non
reclaimed earth that she/it will discover "the stream in herself that
without end recoule in his/her/its divine source for himself of it perdre70;
"
Saint Catherine of Siena won't fear to hammer severely to the Pope and
to the big of his/her/its time, the truth that she discovered in God.
http://www.franciscaincapucin.ca/lien_cap.html
Saint Theresa of Avila and holy Colette of Corbie will sow to all wind
of new monastic foundations, Saint François of foundation, the man of
the century to come, will often inaugurate a new spring in the church
and the society of his/her/its temps.Répondants with excess to the excessive
love of Dieu.Très the mystics take to awful penitences; it is not because
them / they search for the suffering as such but because, seize by the
love of Jesus crucified, them / they want to identify itself/themselves
of it to grow in love, to discover in him the power of resurrection
and liberation. Of the men and women fascinated, intoxicated of God,
answer an excess of love by an excess of love. As Jesus, these mad of
God, these beings who like God to the madness, will be at their despised
tower, put in jail, accused of madness or heresy, their truth makes
shock. But what treasure and what impetus find in them / them, those
that give themselves the pain to listen to them. The fruits are "the
perfect joy", the peace that passes all knowledge", of it. (S. Paul)
Of
big sinners aussii, if the mystics constantly repeat that them / they
are sinned, vile, useless, it is that dazzle by God's light, them /
they know, more that all other, what in themselves have of non true
and of unauthentic. More them / they advance in their progress more
them / they discover their own nothing bound to the disclosure of the
impenetrable abyss of the living God. Of the extraordinary experiences
but secondaires.Comme we signalled it, the progress of the mystics is
often accompanied by extraordinary phenomena: visions, revelations,
ecstasies, etc. Them / they are the first to repeat that all it is secondary,
that it is not necessary to stop itself/themselves of it. Angèle of
Foligno will say: "to what serves the beautiful feelings, the consolations,
the visions, the ecstasies! All it is useless if we don't have the true
knowledge of God and us - same". The essential: the permanente.L'essentiel
conversion of that that the mystics teach us - because them / they are
of big masters of spiritual life - is in the living demonstration of
the conversion process: how God's action fits in the human effort, complete
it and leads it to his/her/its perfection. If one listens to their testimony
attentively, one can find, each in his/her/its way, the obstacles in
ourselves for one life more authentic and more human. Them / they are
living calls to pass us ourselves, to go until the tip of our own research,
the mystics convene us to unify our life and to become free in love.
This is not our deepest dream?
Of untiring walkers
In short, the mystics are, as Nicolas of Cuse tells it, "of the big
walkers", to us. These pilgrims of the absolute cannot stop walking,
and taken by the certainty of that that misses to them, know about every
place and every object that it is not that that it is necessary; they
know that one cannot reside here, nor to be content with that. Animate
by a deep desire always purified, them / they know that it is necessary
to get lost, to come out of oneself and to go farther in dark trails
and non tracings, elsewhere. The God that the mystics search for and
find with so much certainty, home at a time everywhere and nowhere.
Inhabited by this Other that them / they can name less and less, them
/ they are driven and are absorbed in more and more intimate communion
with and in the God three times One. The mystics, then, invite us to
take the road and as François of foundation, to let behind us everything
that we possess, all that to what we hold on and to slackness to put
under way, on a road that leads toward the infinity. Each and each,
in his/her/its way, tells us: "Come, hear, feel, touch, taste as is
good the Lord."
| Mr.
Eckart
God likes himself/itself himself and wants that we entered
in the round of his/her/its love. |
Silésius
angelus
So God stopped thinking about me, I would stop existing. |
Karl
Rahner.
The Christian of the future will be a mystic, or won't be
of all. |
Jean - Joseph Surin.
I want to be going to run among the world or I will live like a lost
child; I took the mood of a vagabond soul after having spilled all my
good, this I am all one that I live or I die. He/it is sufficient me
that the love I stay. If of the sea I touch the beach, and that the
love of there voguer allowed, in a vessel without veil and without stringings,
I will go everywhere in spite of my enemies. This I am all one that
I live or I die, He/it is sufficient me that the love I stay. Happy
death, happy burial, of this Lover in the absorbed love, that doesn't
see anymore nor grace nor nature, but the only gulf to which he/it fell.
This I am all one that I live or I die. He/it is sufficient me that
the love me demeure.Revue Franciscan May - June 1986 page 310-311-312-313©
Straight ahead author is for the Franciscan Fathers
Charles Baudelaire. The Flowers of the Pain.
As
we tried to indicate it in the previous articles, the mystics are signs
placed on our road to unveil us what can be a fully in full bloom, realized
and authentic Christian and human life. These beings of light are like
lights that banish themselves through the time to illuminate history
and each of our God's vies.Don to the humanity, God's big lovers has
for mission to reveal the essential and to act as barometer of the quality
of our lives and our loves. After having conversed with them, one cannot
be content anymore with the mediocrity, all as in other domains, one
can seize comfortably, while comparing them, that of the Bach or the
Mozart, it is neither the Trina Turner nor the Michael Jackson; Giotto
or Michel - Angel, it is not the Diet-Pepsi; a good Québecois maple
syrup, it is not some sugary water that one would have colored. Beings
of fire and blood, the mystics call on the best of ourselves, maximally
of the powers of our cSur.
The mystics fascinate and frighten.
Witnesses of God's holiness by strength and the intensity of their experience,
the mystics fascinate us and frighten us at the same time. One would
like to follow them, so them / they are appealing, but one resists to
listen to their message, a little the same way that one resists to listen
to the scream of the injury in each of us, the scream of the poor, Jesus'
scream on the cross. One is lived of so many heaviness and fears! The
Bse Angèle of Foligno notes it in the beginning of his/her/its itinerary:
"Oh! With what heaviness we progress toward God! That we are heavy!
One does drag only, or at most one advances to all small steps!. "
How to choose?
But how to choose among these innumerable stars that populate the nights
of the Christian history? What are those and those, among the mystics,
who can we help more to advance and to widen our horizons? There are
ways so to approach God, to probe Christ's riches. One cannot choose
them all. For a reason or for another, each must find a master, a mother
or a spiritual father who teach him the way, and give him the necessary
indications to pass on the other rive.L'ermite Franciscan layman, the
Bx Pierre Pettignano (d. 1289), the merchant of combs of Siena famous
returned article by Dante, tells us that he/it had seen in a vision:
" A superb procession with, to the head, the Bse. Marie virgin followed
the apostles, the saints and the martyrs, all, while walking, scrutinized
the land very attentively in order to follow with big goodwill Christ's
traces. At the end of this cortege, he/it saw the face of François of
foundation, barefoot and in rags, him only walked of a sure and light
step in Christ's very traces. "S. François, Father of the mystical Franciscaine.Pierre
Petignano is a vivid example of so many men and women through the centuries
- we will see it - that have been illuminated and flaming by "the sun
been born on the Mount Subasion (Dante), the small poor of foundation.
Seduces there by his/her/its mind recovering an interior affinity, these
men and these women refer to St. François as their spiritual master.
It is he the guide that orients their gait, indicate the main axes around
of which them / they get involved in this new way that he/it drew to
follow Christ and to discover the living God and vrai.La poverty, Franciscan
way to go to God. The way initiated by S. François distinguishes itself
of all other in the Christian spirituality by the choice of poverty
conceived like means of liberation and opening of the cSur to the deepest
truths of the life of God and the human condition. There is what S.
François had discovered while walking with an incomparable ardor, in
the traces of Jesus Christ, the next one as far as reproducing in his/her/its
body the mystery of his/her/its passion and his/her/its cross. There
is also the source of the joy of the Poverrello that explodes in ecstatic
praise of the Trinidad and the whole creation. There is also the secret
of his/her/its universal fraternity that stops delighting the world.
Here is, finally, the foundation of his/her/its message of peace, that
he/it continues to address to all, small and big. The echo of the message
of S. François resounded with burst through ages. Those and those that
have the more intensely sensible his/her/its call and one makes relive
were the Franciscan mystics, a common denominator nearly unites all
these "lights" of the Franciscan family: the stupefaction before the
stigmata, the event consécrateur of the whole life of S. François. Nearly
all big Franciscan, some mystics who are their divergences of temperament,
between them, and S. François stigmatized is the dominant symbol - the
mandala - of the Franciscan way.
This cruciform injury and translumineuse was like a constant recall
of the itinerary to follow to go circa God. S. Bonaventure, for example,
writes in the beginning of his/her/its Itinerary of the soul toward
God that he/it had come to the Alverne to understand like S. François
had found the secret paix.Le, he/it finds it in the experience of the
stigmata, and he/it will make the center promoter of all his/her/its
book of it: "to our father's example holy François, I was all out of
breath in search of the peace, me poor sinner, make indignant successor
of the blissful father, since his/her/its death, seventh general of
his/her/its brothers. It is whereas an inspiration, toward the third
thirty birthday of his/her/its death, drove me aside on the Alverne
mount, as in a place of rest, with the desire to find the peace of the
mind there. There, while I meditated on l57;élévation of the soul toward
God, I recalled myself among other things, the miracle arrived to François
saint himself: the vision of the winged seraph in the shape of cross.
However he/it seemed me as soon as this apparition represented the ecstasy
of the blissful father and indicated the itinerary to follow to arrive"
there. A little later, Jacopone da famous Tadi, in his/her/its way,
S. François stigmatized: "The injury to your side is like a vermilion
rose. All those that see it cry some and marvel. The resemblance to
the one of the Christ is such that it makes melt the cSur in an abyss
of love. " In the same way, to the sixteenth century, Jean of the Angels,
Spanish Franciscan mystic will write after a meditation: "The love transforms
the lover in the object of his/her/its love as the seal and the stamp
are transformed in wax softened by the action of the heat of the sun
and fire. So the love operated in our father S. François and it became
the "Christ's living portrait. The stigmata of S. François act then
as banner or standard spreading out through ages, like a recall constant
to the conversion and to the love of Jesus crucified. The Franciscan
Mystics will be the door-banners of it and will retake the event from
them counts each in his/her/its way and according to the culture of
the time. It is what we are going to see in the articles that will follow.
Magazine Franciscan July - August 1986 page 346-347-348
Saint Pascal Baylon o.f.m.
Flowers picked in the garden of the Franciscan mystic: François of Osuna;Bernardin
of Laredo;S. Pierre of Alcantara; S. Pascal Baylon;Jean of Bonila..
Jean of the Anges;Nouses passes to the sixteenth century in Spain, the
second strong time of the flight of the Franciscan mystic.
Brother porter of his/her/its convent, he/it knew all his/her/its life
a stupendous reputation of brother of the poor people, of thaumaturge,
of seer, of fervid worshipper of Jesus Hostie, before which he/it spent
every day several hours in prayer. He/it was proclaimed by the Pope
Léon X111, boss of the Conventions and Ruvres Eucharistiques. Here are
some verses that he/it composed in honor of the Saint Sacrament: Say,
my God, since you created as and came to purchase me, and as bread give
you to eat, and you are made the host of my soul, I know that you won't
hunt me. Sinner, you will be able to me there to make remain if you
want. My God, since I am a small poor, and a nervous pilgrim, remain
with me, although he/it is late, I received you in my manor: don't leave
;Reste, Lord, remain with moi70;-sinner, you will be able to me there
to make remain, if you want. Say me, my God, why you of this cSur leave
that you aimes?-sinner, you will be able to me there to make remain
if you want. (Gobry, Mystics Franciscan p.118)
François of Osuna (d.1540)
His/her/its Alphabet book, six in all, are chiefs-d'Suvre of this century
of gold of the Spanish mystic. From what she/it tells of it to us in
his/her/its autobiography, it is while reading the third alphabet book
of Osuna that Co Theresa of Avila learned to pray. In these alphabet
book of which the divisions of the treaties correspond to the 22 letters
of the Spanish alphabet, one finds good returns for all sauces; to each
to choose what there is of better to advance. What one kept the more
these is the teachings of Osuna on the means to reach the récollection
or the unification of the whole personne.Voici, what he/it says on the
degrees of the prière:La vocal prayer that is like a letter someone,
in the meditation one sends a messenger in the récollection (or contemplation),
one returns him a personal visit. To arrive to the state of récollection,
Osuna counsels between other: Don't think about anything, not even to
God but adds: for God's love.
Bernardin of Laredo (d.1540)
Brother
layman and physician, his/her/its mystical doctrine is marked by an
emotional impetus, in his/her/its most important book. The ascension
of the Zion mount, very valued him also by:
Teresa Santa Gesu di (of )4_small.jpg Avila
Co Theresa of Avila, he/it writes
Who wants to follow the Christ, doesn't must himself endormir.70;
Who will detach me of me,
Oh my God, to give me to Toi?Ah!
If I could lose all to look for God without manières!Ah!
If I could win the high seas, and there, more ramer.Ah!
If I could not like what only has appearance of the êtreAh more!
If I could become attached without return to The invisible that only
est70;
The
world and his/her/its consolations are birds of passage.
St. Pierre of Alcantara (d. 1562)
One of the most fascinating faces of Spain of the sixteenth century.
Reformer, preacher, mystical life master, he/it frightens by the bitterness
of his/her/its asceticism and his/her/its mortification. He/it writes:
"I made a contract with my body; am as a long time that I on earth,
this one must suffer without rest and when I will reach the sky, I will
grant him the eternal rest"; in fact he/it only slept some hours per
day, seated in a cell, very narrow of four feet and half, and ate a
little greenery to every three days. The text that follows is indicative
of the quality of his/her/its absorption in God: That a man jails himself/itself
in his/her/its own one, in the center of his/her/its soul in which home
God's picture; and there that he gets to God's monitoring as someone
that speaks him of a high tower, or as if he was already in his/her/its
cSur. And as if, in the whole creation, he/it had anything else there
that God and his/her/its soul.
Jean of Bonilla (end of the 16th century)
In one his/her/its books, the trail of the Paradise, this big Franciscan
mystic elaborates a whole doctrine and a method of spiritual blossoming,
in these impetuses of prayer, one can hear the echoes of the praises
of St. François owing l' ineffabilité of God. Here is an excerpt of
his/her/its teachings on the prayer: "When, on the wings of your thoughts
and your desires, he/it will take you desire to aim right to God to
unite you to him and to rest you in him by this union, don't imagine
it in comparison of the terrestrial and finished things; give him neither
term nor face, as having neither extremity nor limited heights, as being
present in all things, and all things subsisting some him, you must
represent yourselves that it is an absolute Extent, a very inexhaustible,
an infinite Being, an Abyss without bottom, an inconceivable Marvel,
an incomprehensible World,: there is the topic of your contemplations,
or rather of your admirations."
(Gobry, Mystics Franciscan p.119)
Jean of the Angels (d. 1609)
The most prominent mystical Franciscan of the end of the sixteenth century.
In one his/her/its Suvreses, he/it tells us that the mystics are the
true support of the monde:Je say that there was always, and that there
will always be some of the souls in love with Christ, and one will never
see to miss the demonstrations of these blissful desires; one will always
be thirsty of lui.Toujours one will have desire to see it; will have
soft sighs always, faithful witnesses of the ardor of the cSur. He/it
is more possible than light misses in the sun that the world lacks souls
that like and adores Christ, because this love is the support of the
world, and it is he that holds it as by the hand, so that it doesn't
come to falter, because the world doesn't exist, otherwise insofar as
it will be in it someone that burns for Jesus-Christ.(Gobry, Mystics
Franciscan p. 121)
During the century of gold of the Spanish mystic, there would be other
names of the Franciscan family well to add. Let's mention some of it:
Diego of Estelle; Alphonse of Madrid, Barnabé of Palma, Gabriel Toro,
The P. Nicolas Factor etc. We will continue this skimming in a next
article.
& copyToutes the pictures therefore the title is in Latin or in
Italian, belongs to them, their permission is necessary for the prendres,
a simple @ in Italian and all go back in the order, s.v.p. made in the
same way. Thank you
|
%20di%20Corbie%202.jpg) Co
Colette of Corbie (d.1417)One of the biggest
faces of the Franciscan history; at the Clarisseses, only Co Claire
passes it. In the first twenty years of his/her/its life, she/it led
recluse's life during four years. Then she/it received the mission
of the reform of the three orders. His/her/its action was especially
efficient by the Clarisseses where it founded or reformed about fifteen
monasteries in France and to Netherlands. This "small ancelle and
serviteresse of the Lord" was, it also, blazing of goodwill for poverty.
God's reign cannot miss us if we don't miss to the holy poverty.
Co Catherine of Bologna (d.1463)
Clarisse as Co Colette, she/it composed a mid-autobiographic Suvre,
mid-didactics; The weapons necessary to the spiritual fight. This
written book in a simple language, knew in all the Italy, during the
centuries that followed his/her/its release, an exceptional success.
Co Catherine was hit on her turn by the stigmata of St. François.
On
the day of the feast of François saint, one wondered if it was a Seraph
or really Christ who granted to S. François the consecrated stigmata.
Some say that it was not Christ but a Seraph transformed in Him. The
answer that I give is this one. It was really Christ transformed in
the shape of Seraph. To another demand about the significance of the
six wings of the Seraph, I answer: the two wings that spread out,
one toward the right and the other toward the left, mean how the good
reappointed of this holy religion must take his/her/its flight toward
the Orient and toward the west so that in all parts of the world she/it
covers multiple places and a big number of brothers and sSurs. The
other wings that himself élongent means straight ahead upwards that
this religion must reach the summits of the contemplation, to which
must not miss the brothers and sisters who make part of it. The two
other wings that fall downwards mean the holy poverty. If these wings
are a load too heavy to carry, they cannot fly off. He/it agrees whereas
the brothers and the sSurs of this religion walk as slightly as possible
with nothing heavy on the conscience. With a cSur all happy as S.
François and Co Claire, them / they can advance without obstacle.
But if poverty is not observed, all falls in ruin (translation of
the author of this article)
Henri of Herep Harphius di (d.1477)
The most famous Franciscan name among the spiritual of the fifteenth
century. His/her/its spirituality, that looks a lot like the one of
the big Rusbroech, enjoys a big influence by the Franciscan mystical
authors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in Spain and in
France. His/her/its main Suvre was The mystical theology. One of his/her/its
contributions to the spirituality of his/her/its time was the teaching
of aspiration exercises, that means short prayers to stimulate and
to warm the desire of God's love. Here are some of it: Oh Lord, when
I would like you perfectly?
Oh Lord, when I would be completely and perfectly immersed and absorbed
in you?
Bse Battista Varani (d.1527)
Again another clarisse that reaches the summits of the contemplation
and exercise a big influence; she/it excels in the descriptions of
the Christ's interior pains, especially to the garden of the Olivier,
Jesus' mental pains, title of the most known of his/her/its Suvreses,
contains the following teaching: My child, that your poverty is this
one: to want during your life something else that Jesus crucified,
Oh! That he/it is rich that doesn't have something else that God.
Co Catherine of Genoa (1510)
Woman married, tertiary Franciscan, gifted of a strong and complex
personality. The Baron Von Hugel, his/her/its biggest biographer,
in his/her/its two volumes henceforth classic: The Mystical element
in Religion, writes about his/her/its case: " One could say, simply,
that she/it became holy because she/it didn't have the choice. It
was the only way so that his/her/its personality if contrasted makes
wreck. Constantly fighting against a sensitivity too to live and uneasy,
she/it succeeded in producing the most beautiful fruits of love and
reason."
The saint of Genoa is famous for his/her/its treaty. Purging and the
purgatory, the fruit of his/her/its purification experience. She/it
combines a very intense interior and mystical life with the service
of the poor people in a hospital or she/it served like director to
a certain moment.
Here is an excerpt of his/her/its treaty on
the purgatory:
Stripped once of all his/her/its imperfections, the soul finds its
rest in God, with no characteristic that is clean to him, since through
the purification the me interior is stripped. Even though the soul
stayed in fire, it would not feel it like a suffering; because it
would be about the flames of the divine love of the eternal life,
as enjoy some beatified them at the sky. Ettore Vernazza that transcribed
his/her/its writings made the observation suivante:Imaginez! In Genoa,
a saint in the administration! Does can - him to be there has luck
for us?
To
the fifteenth century, among the Franciscan mystics at least would
be necessary to add S. Jean of Capistran, big preacher. St. Bernardin
of Siena also, that spilled the devotion to Jesus' Saint Name. Magazine
Franciscan January - February 1987 page 23-24-25
Flowers picked in the garden
of the Franciscan mystic. It is with the testimony of Co Véronique
Giuliani that we conclude, in this number, our course of the Franciscan
mystic through the centuries.
Sainte Véronique Giuliani (d. 1727)
 This
ecstatic Italian and clarisse holds a place of honor in the tradition
of the Franciscan mystic, His/her/its enormous Newspaper, 8 big volumes
- 22,000 pages in the Italian edition - contains the most detailed
narration of the mystical states that one can find in all the Christian
hagiography. A principle enlivens its spirituality: The suffering
is the key of the love. As his/her/its father spiritual S. François,
she/it received the stigmata, mark of the love crucified of Jesus
in his/her/its body.
Here it is as describes the event:
"All of a sudden, I heard a rolling of thunder with a violent wind:
our cell became all resplendent. How it made itself, I don't know:
I remained out of my senses, I had the vision of Jesus crucified then:
he/it had a so majestic and so beaming aspect that I could not look
at it. However he/it attracted me to him, I don't know too how. I
cannot say anything, with the feather, more or less of what I felt
and of what occurs in this instant. My unique to remember, it is that
I live to take Jesus' wounds five ardent rays, They sprang toward
me; one landed on my cSur the other on my hands and on my feet. I
felt a quick pain and he/it seemed me that one had transfixed me the
cSur with a sharp spear, the hands and the feet with big nails.
I
came back to me, anxious to suffer, with a new knowledge of myself
and the desire of the conversion of the sinners. While looking at
me, I perceived the extended arms, and the cell was filled of a big
light; the injury of the cSur was open and produced a big abundance
of blood: I felt a quick pain of it, I could not move in any way because
of the suffering and the pain that I endured to the hands and the
feet. In their middle, so much over that under, there was a big pock
like a pea. When I live these outside stigmata, I cried a lot and,
to the bottom of the cSur, I asked the Lord to really want to hide
them to the eyes of all. My God! What grief made me all it! Of best
that I was able to, I wiped the injury of the cSur and I erased the
blood of soil as well as to the places where he/it had sprung.
He/it
remembers that, suddenly, I fell again in ecstasy: I live Jesus crucified,
and he/it tells me not to annoy me because of it, because it was his/her/its
will that these stigmata remain expositions at the sight of all; so
would be confirmed that he/it spread his/its kindness to the ungrateful
themselves of which I was, so long as they are prepared of all their
cSur to his/her/its holy will. (Gobry, Mystical Franciscains,p.164s)
%20da%20Bologna%201.jpg) With
this shattering text of Co - Véronique Giuliani, we finish our skimming
of the Franciscan mystic. We tempted, along our pilgrimage through
the centuries, to pick here and there some flowers that have rejoice
our eyes little and to warm our cSur. But the garden opened by the
charisma of S. François is immense and magnificent. We picked here
and there, while passing, it is never necessary to forget it. As one
was able surely to note it, the Franciscan mystical tradition took
the various colorations, according to the times, the countries and
the temperaments.
ConclusionNous carried our look on three strong moments of our tradition:
1
- the one of the origins, the 13rd and the 14th centuries.
2 - the 16th century in Spain
3 - the 17th century in France.
These are the centuries of
the most marvelous flowering. Will rise thereafter here and there,
especially to the 18th century, of éminent(e)s mystical franciscain(e)s,
but little by little the impetus is going to lose the breath and the
size, to disappear finally nearly completely to the last two centuries.
Will we have this grace, in this end of the 20th century so full of
torments, to see to emerge and to ignite of new lights in the Franciscan
wake? Our time would be illuminated some, because the Franciscan mystical
tradition has many again to learn us.
We
conclude this set of articles that lasts since more of two years,
by the narration of the experience of the stigmata at Co-Véronique
Guliani, deliberately. This text hands us in memory an affirmation
of the first articles, to know that the stigmata of S. François are
and stay the dominant event of the whole Franciscan mystical tradition.
Event that, besides, has value of symbol. How S. François, begging
the absolute, did he/it reach the summit of the mystical life? It
is what we will see in this same magazine, after an interruption of
some months. Until then, you can express me your impressions, in French,
below to the address.
Flowers picked in the garden of the Franciscan mystic
Bse. Marie - Crescence Hoss70;Bse. Marie - Madeleine Martinengo70;Ambroisse
of Lombez.. Marie of Nativity A lot less rich than the one qu preceded
it, the eighteenth contains Franciscan mystics of mark nevertheless.
We chose some of it:
Bse. Get married Crescence Hoss (d. 1744)
Born in Bavaria, she/it lived all his/her/its life in a very intense
intimacy with the Christ and was gifted of numerous mystical graces,
She/it had a lot to suffer in the community of the Franciscans that
she/it lived. Here is some circa pulled of a Hymn that she/it composed:
Oh soft hand of God, you encourage my cSur. You make that I laugh
of the sufferings. He/it seems me that God plays the bullet with me.
More he/it hits strong, more I go up loud! (Gobry, Mystics Franciscan
p. 169)
Bse
Marie - Madeleine Martinengo (d. 1737)
 A
very big Italian Clarisse. His/her/its love passionate of the" Christ
suffering" drove it to the highest visions of the God Trinitaire.
Of the very beautiful pages of his/her/its Autobiography, we chose
this passage: My soul got the grace so much wanted of the wife of
the Hymn of the Hymns, when it said: " Kiss me of the kiss of your
bouche; has three operations "In the kiss: the first, the movement
of the lips; the second, the touch of the person kissed; the third,
the heat that feels in very ;acte of the kiss.
These three things, I felt them in this sublime operation, I explain
it as this; the movement of the Father's infinite power, that while
being immobile, tilt so to speak in order to kiss the soul. But say
me, Father that you have in your divine mouth to kiss me without making
melt me completely in the love. It is the Verb that accomplishes the
second operation, by a so delicate and at the same time so powerful
touch that he/it attracts the soul in God, so that she/it becomes
only one thing with him. The third operation that follows is full
of and that the mind shoots go up in spiral in the âme70;
Ambroise
of Lombez (d. 1778)
. With Benoît of Canfeld, the biggest name among the spiritual masters
capuchins, one tells it that he/it was" the S. François of Dirty of
the eighteenth century." His/her/its Suvreses had a large diffusion.
His/her/its Treaty of the joy of the Christian soul didn't know less
than 22 French editions and translated in various languages; in the
brief excerpt that follows, it delivers us a secret of the spiritual
life: the importance to walk in the confidence. Walk as to the gleam
of the lightnings; that the first step drives you at the end of the
path; then, remain there to wait for the other. Follow the step-by-step
providence; you only worry about the first that you have to make.
Beata
Vergine Maria del Monte 3.jpg
Marie of the Nativity (d.1798)
Life and the revelations of this visionary Breton that carried Jeanne's
name The Royer before entering at the Clarisseses, fill four three
volumes. In the passage that follows, she/it describes us his/her/its
behavior to one moment where she/it had "the death to the cSur." Lord,
you know the miserable state where I follow, but my God, the faith
teaches it to me, you are a powerful God in yourself, a God filled
of glory and majesty, that the angels and the saints adore and like
infinitely, You will be eternally a glorious and full God of eternal
happiness. To these words I told: "oh my God! With a big desire to
like you, I have the misfortune not to like you; but, oh my God! You
are and it is sufficient me." In my tribulation, I repeated several
times in succession: "God is and it is sufficient me" I changed some
time while saying: "God is eternal", and while repeating: "God is
eternally happy; I want to like it in himself and for himself. For
me, I will become everything that he/it will please to him." I wanted
to say by those feelings that I put all my strength, all my happiness,
even my paradise, in God's eternal being; and in it my soul tressaillait
of joy and rejoicing, saying all my cSur,: "God is, and it is sufficient
me". (Franciscan Gobry Mystiques, p.181)In the next number, we are
going to finish our skimming of the Franciscan mystic by the vivid
testimony of Co Véronique Giuliani, one of the biggest mystics of
the whole tradition descended of S. François.
Franciscan November-December 1987 page 202-203
Flowers
picked in the garden of the Franciscan mystic
Constantin of Barbanson-Boniface Maes-Marie of Agreda-St. Charles
of Sezze-Bartholomew of Saluce
We
saw how much the torch of the Franciscan mystic shone an astonishing
way to the seventeenth century in France. But this country doesn't
have the exclusive rights of it. In Spain, in Italy, in Germany, to
the countries Flemish, Belgian and exist eminent representative examples
of the mystical inheritance initiated by S. François elsewhere also.
We chose some of it.
Constantin of Barbanson (d.1631)
Member of the province nasturtium of Flanders, he/it climbs the summits
of the mystical life very quickly and taught the way of it in his/her/its
spiritual Suvreses, He/it was very clever in the use of the metaphor
to attract the attention. For example, in one his/her/its books The
secret trails of the divine love, he/it compares the faculties of
the soul to the cogs of a clock, will being the main wheel; the spiritual
regions would be the earth of the promises, all "overflowing of milk
and honey". Or, he/it compares the soul in a mountain to the various
altitudes, a city with his/her/its outskirts, a multi-story house
provided with communication media. In another of his/her/its books.
The anatomy of the soul, he/it writes: "If one made the anatomy of
all oneself, one would find God there only, discerning the all until
the most intimate marrows. "Boniface Maes (d. 1706) him also a Flemish,
a Récollet. His/her/its mystical Theology, that he/it published in
1668, had such a success that she/it counted ten editions in some
years and was translated in several languages. His/her/its teachings
are full of common sense. Here is an example of it: "We must with
a lot of effort and very energetically to make violence to our cSur,
but this violence must be exercised with a lot of discretion, in order
to not to make any wrong in the nature".
Marie of Agreda (d.1665)
Hardly aged of 25 years and already abbess of a community of Conceptionnistes,
(nuns descended of the Franciscan family) in Spain she/it felt named
to write the Virgin Mary life, The mystical City of God or Divine
Life of the a lot of Virgin Mary Marie. This immense work, in six
columns in the French edition, was translated in all languages since
the seventeenth century and was constantly reissued. One finds details
of an astonishing precision there on the life of Virgin Marie.
Here
it is, for example, how she/it is described on the day of Annunciation:
" Her (Marie) had 14 years, 6 months and 17 days then. His/her/its
size was superior to those of the girls of his/her/its age; it had
the oval face, the light lines, the large forehead, the big and modest
eyes of a color between the black and the green, of an incomparable
burst moderated by the smile of the innocence; so very commensurate
and so perfectly beautiful, in a word, that it will remain without
equal. His/her/its view inspired the sympathy at a time to the praying,
a deep respect and the celestial feelings. His/her/its dress was poor
and clean, of a color of ash and a stern modesty."
St.. Charles of Sezze (d. 1670)
 In
Italy, this humble lay brother, nearly illiterate, discoursed on the
most elevated topics of the theology and the mystic, and it with such
a precision that he/it excited the admiration of the most eminent
theologians of his/her/its time. The most famous characters, the cardinals
and until the pope Clément IX himself resorted gladly to his/her/its
lights and to his/her/its advice. He/it composed a big number of spiritual
writings, in which he/it proposes the mystical contemplation as the
summit of the spiritual life; he/it hires everybody to there tender
without relaxation because according to it happiness consists in the
vision and "God's enjoyment. Let's taste these some verses that he/it
composed: The love is one, but numerous are the lovers. All receive
the love of only one Love. A Guide, but several travelers. All guided
by only one Guide. A big fountain, but several streams. All derive
only one Fountain. Our God is Trine and A that measure his/her/its
grants to all and each. Jesus teaches the law those that want to come
to God. The Saint Mind corrects them so that no one perished. The
Eternal Father reigns on all. It is He the goal of all our desires.
The soul must stay finally alone under the Father's coat, Son and
Saint Mind.
Bartholomew of Saluce (d.1617)
The biggest Italian mystic of the seventeenth century. His/her/its
Suvre consists of ten works in prose of which the famous Paradise
of the Contemplative, five compilations of poems and a set of letters.
Here is some circa pulled of his/her/its very beautiful poem title
Laudes Spirituelles: My Jesus, my Jesus. Who am I, and who is - you?
My Jesus, my soft Love. My Jesus stretch and beautiful. He/it is the
only one that burns me and that inflames my cSur. My Jesus, my Jesus.
Who am I, and who is - you? In Jesus, I want to hope. Jesus only I
want to follow, only Jesus I want to listen, only my Jesus I want
to like. My Jesus, my Jesus me who is, and you who is? I will pour
my eyes streams and fountains, and I will cry. You, my Jesus, I will
call you to discover where you are. My Jesus, my Jésus,qui am I, and
you who is? Seated among the brambles and the flat, I will be held
in woods and forests; among the wild beasts and the fawn I will call
Jesus my soft lover. My Jesus, my Jesus me who is, and you who is?
I will call all beasts to rent my dear love; I will like Jesus with
tears, I will call it by my prayers. My Jesus, my Jesus, me who is,
and you who is? While singing and while crying I will protest them
the soft Name. And Jesus, in the green foliages of the bushes, will
come to hear them. My Jesus, my Jesus me who is, and you who is? (Mystical
p Franciscan. #125-126)Dans the next article, we will approach the
Franciscan mystics of the eighteenth century.
We
leave Spain of the sixteenth for France of the seventeenth, third
strong time of the Franciscan mystic. It is especially the mysteries
capuchins who are going to shine of a way all special.
Benoît of Canfeld (d. 1610)
Henri
Bremmond, one of the biggest historians of the French spirituality
considered this big mystic capuchin as "the master of the masters
his/her/its Rule of Perfection acted as manual to two or three generations
of mystiques;; of all influences that shaped the prayer to the seventeenth
century, there is not some that passes his." For this famous capuchin,
the whole spiritual life concentrates in the effort to unite his/her/its
will to the one of God. To the first page of his/her/its Rule a picture
is that himself drew. He/it explains it as this: The face in the shape
of sun represents God's will.
The
faces inside, orderly in circle by three ranks, show the three degrees
of this divine will Outside, Interior and Essential. The first degree
means the souls of the active life, the second those of the contemplative
life, the third those of life suréminente. The clarity of the divine
will shines less on the faces of the first circle, well more on those
of the second, but it is resplendent on the faces of the third. On
the other hand, the first appear a lot, the second less, the third
point, showing that the souls of the first degree are a lot in themselves,
and little in God; those of the second degree are less in themselves,
and more in God; those of the third are not dawned nearly in themselves
but all in God, and absorbed in his/her/its God's will, teaching the
pure intention of the souls, that must look at this divine will in
all things.
The
bottom part of the picture brings up the Lord on the Mount of the
Olivier, with the disciples lulled in the rear melts and to the sky,
an angel presenting a chalice. Are above registered words: - Not my
will but her yours (Lc 22).
Séverin Rubéric (beginning of the 17th century)
Exceptional preacher and appreciated, he/it published The exercises
consecrated of Jesus' love among others... Let's mention this passage
that puts very well in relief the relation between the union to God
and apostolate: The most necessary quality maybe to the workers of
the salute of the souls, who are to be perfectly flexible between
God's hands, be excellently in the souls raised to the sacred union.
These mobile souls, ready to everything that God wants, of some side
that he wants them to turn, to life or to the death, to the glory
or to the infamy, to honor or to the laughingstock of everybody, to
the noble or vile actions, to the soft or to the laborious, to the
comfortable or to the laborious, to the actions of wisdom or madness,
prudence or silliness according to the monde;
Joseph of him Trembled (d. 1638)
Disciple of Benoît of Canfeld and his/her/its teaching on the purity
of intention, he/it is one of the mystics the most contradictory and
versatile of the whole Franciscan tradition. Provincial of his/her/its
province, prefect of the missions of the French Capuchins for the
Orient, founding of a new branch of Benedictines, Mount Calvary, and
mixed to all religious events of his/her/its time, he/it tries to
throw back the crusades. One wrote him that he/it was" one of the
six most influential men of his/her/its time.
It
is for his/her/its political activity like to counsel personal of
the dangerous Cardinal Richelieu that he/it is especially known, from
where the title, forever noteworthy, that one assigned to him: " the
Gray eminence." Even though he/it is somewhat tendentious, it is necessary
to read the novel that the big English writer, Aldous Huxley wrote
about its case, and that is titled exactly: & laquo The Gray eminence
& laquo. At the same time as he/it opened out of the activities
Joseph multiples of him Trembled was experimented very in the mystical
way. He/it let about ten works on the prayer, the eucharistie, the
asceticism, the catéchèse, all of the fruits of his/her/its experience;
ghost of one of his/her/its numerous journeys, he/it composed these
verses: I ignore where my intention, that surpasses my view, drives
me so quickly; But like an ardent star that shines in the high cloud,
He/it guides me in the night.
And on another occasion:
It is a thing to be man of good according to God, this in is another
to be such according to the men. In the next article, we will continue
our skimming of the Franciscan mystic to the seventeenth century in
France
We
continue in this article our skimming of the Franciscan mystic of
France to the seventeenth century. Another French capuchin of the
seventeenth century who deserves a lot of attention. He/it let an
abundant Suvre. For him, as for good of his/her/its colleagues, the
high perfection consists in the abandonment to God's will in union
with the Christ by love. Let's mention a passage of one of his/her/its
books. The progress of the divine love. To the summit of the building,
it is necessary that the soul detaches itself completely has all whisper
said nothing about, all complaint, all regret, remains completely
indifferent to all goods of the earth, solely attentive to the will
of God ;indifférent only livesHe/it only looks for God's will, can
accomplish as well in wealth that in poverty. He/it will know it is
necessary, of the business of the world, better other even, because
he/it will have the cSur cleared of all terrestrial preoccupations,
and better than the other, he/it will see his/its duty, to say the
will of the oneil likes, God's will. There is is necessary to reach,
there is the summit of the perfection.
Bernardin of Paris (toward 1600-1685)
The Eucharist was in the center of its spirituality. S François, his/her/its
model in the most important of the his/her/its Suvreses. The mind
of François saint formed on the one of Christ, as so many other Franciscan
mystics before it, it wanted to put in evidence the sense of the condemnation
of S.François. He/it makes it to the manner of his/her/its time. Here
is a passage of it: God's Son, wanting to associate holy François
to the Apostles and to the biggest saints of the church, chooses the
mountain of Alverne for the place, the temple and the altar where
he/it will be consumed, like a victim of holocaust by his/her/its
suffering love, by the virtue of his/her/its mind and by the impression
of his/her/its wounds.
Saint François can exclaim therefore with all saints who are his/her/its
brothers and with very Christ: "All is consumed" first on behalf of
Mount Calvary, because my celestial master cannot communicate a more
ardent charity, a mind more pure and more divine, to print me of the
holier wounds since these are his that pass him in me, all is consumed
of my part: me then to offer him cSur nor more altered of sufferings,
nor a more ardent will to leave, nor a flesh more capable to carry
his/her/its wounds. The same love that consumes the Mr. consumes the
servant, the wounds that immolate it sacrifice to me, and so ends
the consumption of my life in his, for more to live this one only,
more to like it that of his/her/its love, and more to endure his/her/its
injuries only -.
The
highest point of perfection so that the men and the women can be raised
is to stop being what they are to become in some manner what God is,
because took God's hands, they have for end to go back in the heart
of the Mount Calvary ;Sur, Christ, to consume the saints, pulls them
from them in him as in their chief, so that they exist only for his/her/its
graces of their life in his/her/its death, so that they live only
in his/her/its;C'est the big intention of God's Son on François: he/it
wants to be his/her/its consumption on the mountain of Alverne by
the suffering love, before the being to the Sky, by the love enjoying;
he/it wants completely to consume it in his/her/its wounds before
consuming it in the heart of the Divinity by fires and the flames
of the celestial love. (Gobry, Mystics Franciscan p.141)
Hyacinth
of Amiens (first half of the 17th century)
This capuchin very scientist and famous preacher was all in love of
a love fascinated for Jesus crucified. Let's listen to sing it Jesus'
cross. Ha! dear Cross, wife of my soul, the friend of my cSur, the
unique of my desires, that you are beautiful, and you have the relief
what is of more excellent above all; beautiful to God's eyes, since
he/it died between your arms; beautiful to the eyes of the men and
angels, since by you they deserved the grace and the glory; beautiful
in your leaves but more beautiful again in your fruits, yet on your
sacred branch the fruit and the delights of the whole Paradise; admirable
Cross that sustains the sky, that governs and govern the world, that
pierces until the most hollow of the hell. Blissful cross that carries
the price and the reward of the suffering souls and that serves them
of mirror to suffer well, honorable Cross and suradorable, that act
as ornament to all creatures and he/it is not one of it only that
is enriched of this noble marks since Jesus' death (Gobry, Mystics
Franciscan p. 144)
Chrysostome of saint - Lô (d.1646)
Father of the Norman mystical school of the seventeenth century, he/it
exercised a deep influence on Saint Jean Eudes, Jean of Bernière,
Mechtilde of the Saint-Sacrament and probably S. Vincent of Paul and
J.J. Olier. He/it especially teaches some methods "to himself désoccuper
of all creatures not to take care of only God." The way, it is the
union Jesus' crucified: The union with God is useful and necessary
beyond all what one can imagine, puisqu' It is our all for our justification
and for our salute; in the same way the union with Our Lord Christ
crucified us the East in a singular way, because it is on the Cross
that it drew the secret of our predestination mainly, that it got
our conversion and our justification, that it deserved us all the
grants that we will never have, that it negotiated, finished and insured
all the business of our salute; it is why, of the link that we have
with it in this mystery, depends all our happiness. (Gobry, Mystics
Franciscan p.148)
As
all these authors that we mentioned in testify, most first generations
nasturtiums - the tree of the Franciscan mystic overflows in abundant
fruits to the seventeenth century. In all justice, there would be
others well to name: such Paul of Lagny, Honored of Cannes, Laurent
of Paris, all eminent mystical. We pass them at present, in order
to give place to other witnesses coming from the outside of France
during this third strong time of the Franciscan mystic. It is what
we will make in the next article. Magazine Franciscan July - August
1987 page 135 - 138
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