A Mediaeval Mystic Part 5

Secret

May the intercession of Blessed John, who in offering the Sacrifice merited to overflow with heavenly delights, make us worthy, we beseech Thee, Lord, of the bread of angels.

Post-Communion

We beseech Thee, Lord, by the intercession of Blessed John, grant to us who are refreshed with the heavenly banquet, that, delivered from worldly desires, we may be ever fervent in Thy love.

Footnotes

[1]By Earle Bailie. London: Thomas Baker. 1905.

[2]_Cf._ the Polish sect of _Mariavites_, or _Mystic Priests_, under the misguidance of the woman Mary Frances, whose extravagances were condemned by Rome, September 1904, and again April 1906.

[3]Provost is the equivalent in a College of Clergy of the Abbot in a Monastery; though many Congregations of Canons Regular have borrowed the t.i.tle and style of Abbot from the monastic inst.i.tute.

[4]Translation by J. P. Arthur. _The Founders of the New Devotion._ Kegan Paul. 1905.

[5]Especially: _Outlines of the Life of Thomas a Kempis_. By Sir Francis Cruise. _C.T.S._ of Ireland. _Thomas a Kempis_. By the same. London: Kegan Paul. _Life of the Venerable Thomas a Kempis_. By Dom Scully.

London: Washbourne. _Thomas a Kempis and the Brothers of the Common Life_. By Kettlewell. London: Kegan Paul. _Thomas a Kempis, His Age and His Book_. By De Montmorency, London: Methuen.

[6]Father Sharpe, in his recent admirable volume, _Mysticism: Its True Nature and Value_, writes thus of the mystic teaching, properly so called, of a Kempis's world-famous masterpiece: "_The Imitation of Christ_ ... probably owes much of its vast popularity to its constant recurrence to the elementary duties of religion and morality, and its insistence on the necessity of their performance as the prerequisite of the more exalted spiritual states. The 'purgative,' 'illuminative,'

and 'unitive' ways are seen, so to speak, together, and are dealt with as aspects or const.i.tuents of the Christian life as a whole, to the completeness of which all three are necessary and, in different ways, of equal importance. The purely mystical pa.s.sages are comparatively few and short; and the abundance of practical directions the book contains has sometimes caused its mystical character to be entirely overlooked. This disproportion, however, is quite sufficiently to be accounted for by the character of the work, which is that of a directory of spiritual life in general, and not a scientific treatise on any particular department of it. In such a book attempts at describing the indescribable phenomena of mysticism would obviously have been out of place, whereas the practical details of the lower and preliminary states admit of and require minute explanation. But the tone of the whole book is mystical, and the most commonplace duties and the most humiliating strivings with temptation are in a manner illuminated and glorified by the brilliancy of the result to which they tend. Thus, in point of fact, the higher and lower elements, the mystical and the non-mystical, the purgative, the illuminative and the unitive, are blended in actual human experience" (pp. 188, 189).

[7]The whole subject of mystic theology is excellently well treated by Rev. A. B. Sharpe, M.A., in a volume ent.i.tled _Mysticism: Its True Nature and Value_, already quoted, just published by Sands & Co. There is frequent reference to our Saint and his writings.

FINISH