journal

apocalipsis en espanol

2010-01-11T21:50:38Z

The Spanish publishing house Ediciones San Juan, which has been publishing new Spanish translations of von Speyr’s works, now presents their latest volume—Apocalipsis de San Juan.

For von Speyr scholars, her commentary on the Book of Revelation continues to be a source of profound mystical insights and acute theological perceptions. What is also interesting about this commentary is not only that it was dictated while in a state of mystical prayer like her other commentaries. Rather than a collected, quiet dictation like the others, this one was dictated in apocalyptic anxiety. The visions and the dictation began in 1945 while von Balthasar and von Speyr were in Estavayer-le-Lac, which is on Lac-de-Neuchatel. They were giving the Ignatian spiritual exercises to their newly founded secular institute.

Von Balthasar says that on August 9, 1945 von Speyr had torrential mystical visions in which, “She was caught in a strange tension for she saw simultaneously the earthly evening sky, which was quite calm, and the other, totally agitated landscape [as in the Book of Revelation] which she was experiencing interiorly.” (von Balthasar, First Glance at Adrienne von Speyr, pgs. 90-91). These visions were “the beginning of that unique, truly apocalyptic dictation” (Ibid, pg. 93), which became her commentary on the Book of Revelation.

When I visited Estavayer-le-Lac, the calm town and turbulent weather gave me hint of the strange tension von Speyr felt. Here’s a picture of Lac-de-Neuchatel during my visit.Lac-de-Neuchatel on the shore of Estavayer-le-Lac

While English speakers will have to wait a while for this one, those that can read Spanish will delight in this translation. You can of course read Apokalypse in the original German. It’s worth it.

where is adrienne von speyr buried?

2009-10-02T00:58:27Z

Adrienne von Speyr, who died in September 17, 1967, was buried three days later on her sixty-fifth birthday in Basel, Switzerland next to her husband, Werner Kaegi. Here's a map of the Basel cemetery Friedhof am Hörnli, which is also the same cemetery where Karl Barth was buried.

View Friedhof am Hönli in a larger map

Here is the location of her tombstone in the cemetery.

View Tombstone of Adrienne von Speyr in a larger map

When you visit, you will see her unique tombstone, which symbolically represents the circumincession of the Trinity. It was carved by Albert Schilling, who also carved the altar in the Basel Allerheiligen church.

Tombstone of Adrienne Kaegi - von Speyr (1902-1967)

"I believe as best I can; I hope as best I can; I love, finally, as best I can. But the Son's love--and in it the love of the triune God--is infinite, accompanying the dying through death and leading them to their place in eternal life" (Adrienne von Speyr, The Mystery of Death, 114).

what is your favorite adrienne von speyr book?

2009-09-24T17:55:04Z

As a growing number of works by Adrienne von Speyr are being translated, a richer picture of her thought is being painted in the English-speaking world. No matter how many books of Adrienne von Speyr you have read, what book of hers is your favorite?

Please post it in the comments section below.

For those of you wondering about me, my favorite is Handmaid of the Lord. You can see my other favorite von Speyr books here.

What is your favorite Adrienne von Speyr book?

von speyr's spirituality influenced the founding of heart's home

2009-07-15T14:26:40Z

For me one of the great blessings of this website is meeting all of you who read it. Since moving to New York City, I have had the pleasure of meeting the living saints who work for Heart's Home USA, which is an international charitable organization and Catholic ecclesial movement. The reason for featuring them on this website, which is dedicated to all things Adrienne, is that the founder of Heart's Home or Points-Coeur, Rev. Thierry de RoucyRev. Thierry de Roucy, was significantly influenced by Adrienne von Speyr's spirituality in creating this ecclesial movement.

Founded in France in 1990 and now in twenty countries, the international movement is truly spreading a culture of compassion inspired by Speyrian spirituality. Père Thierry who usually works from their International Center for a Culture of Compassion in Woodbourne, NY leads retreats, gives talks, and offers schools of community that are usually based on Speyrian themes and writings. Père Thierry, of course, has written about the spirituality of Adrienne von Speyr (e.g. Adrienne von Speyr: Théologienne de toujours plus and Jésus, les Chrétiens et la Confession: Essai sur le Fondement Christologique de la Confession chez Adrienne von Speyr) and when you meet him and others from Heart's Home you know that von Speyr's spirituality, particularly her understanding of the evangelical counsels, is being lived concretely.

Laetitia Palluat of Heart's Home with a friend from a nursing homeTheir good, loving works are many. For example at their house in Brooklyn, NY, with which I am the most familiar, the priests, sisters, young lay men and women care for those who are sick, disabled, poor, or homebound. They visit with these suffering people offering whatever they can, but most importantly as Sr. Regine Fohrer likes to say, they offer compassion that shares these peoples' suffering just as Mary intimately shared in Jesus' suffering. Here in New York City, they also engage in a profound evangelization of culture through their ministry to artists. I think for example here of the work of Fr. Paul Anel. You will also find them, especially Père Thierry, giving presentations and retreats that are imbued with Speyrian spirituality: unreserved readiness for anything, obedience as performative love, confession as a profound way of being present within God, and the importance of compassionate engagement with the secular world.Heart's Home Volunteer

As you learn more about Heart's Home, please consider volunteering with them in the US and internationally. Above all, pray for them that they always reside in the heart of Jesus, sharing his love with all.

presentation on balthasar and speyr

2009-05-19T13:49:20Z

On May 29, 2009, I will be presenting a paper called "Paul's Theology of Charism and the Ecclesial Relationship between Hans Urs von Balthasar and Adrienne von Speyr" at the annual meeting of the College Theology Society.

I gave an undergraduate-friendly version of this presentation a few months ago. Here is the abstract of my upcoming presentation:

Many systematic theologians acknowledge the relationship between Hans Urs von Balthasar, the significant twentieth-century Catholic theologian, and Adrienne von Speyr, the Swiss physician and Catholic mystic. There is, however, difficulty understanding the actual character and purpose of this relationship. What precisely does von Balthasar mean when he calls the greater part of his writings "a translation of what is present in more immediate, less technical fashion in the powerful work of Adrienne von Speyr" (Hans Urs von Balthasar, My Work in Retrospect, 105)?

I argue in this paper that Paul's theology of charism, particularly dealing with double mission charisms, will help us understand correctly the ecclesial relationship between von Balthasar and von Speyr. While Paul's theology of charism (1 Cor 12-14) speaks mostly of singular missions (preaching, teaching, etc.) for the building up of the church, he also sees a necessary place for double missions. For example, the charism given to the interpreter of tongues accompanies the one who speaks in tongues "so that the Church may be edified" (1 Cor 14:5). This Pauline theology of the mutual dependence of charisms will provide a way for understanding the inextricably interwoven relationship between Hans Urs von Balthasar and Adrienne von Speyr.

The presentation is my small effort to advance the essential insight that the joint work of von Balthasar and von Speyr is inextricably connected. To be comprehensive and valuable, interpretations of their work must acknowledge this connection.

von speyr in spanish

2009-03-07T02:53:14Z

For those of you interested in reading Adrienne von Speyr in Spanish, I am happy to tell you about a new publishing house called Ediciones San Juan.Ediciones San Juan

Their purpose is mainly to publish von Speyr's works in Spanish. The translators know well her theology and mysticism so they are able to provide good faithful translations.

At the time of this post, these editions are available:

Ancilla Domini
El cantar de los cantares
Elías
La confesión
La creación
La misión de los profetas
La Palabra se hace carne: Meditaciones sobre el Evangelio de Juan, 1-5
La santa misa
María en la redencion
Palabras de la cruz y sacramentos

Thanks to Alberto Valero for alerting me to this important work.

new translation - man before god

2009-03-03T17:59:28Z

Man Before God by Adrienne von SpeyrThanks to the translation of David Schindler Jr. and Nicholas J. Healy, we have a new translation of Adrienne von Speyr's short work the way of sanctification, Der Mensch vor Gott. The book, Man Before God, published by Ignatius Press provides a one-volume summary of her theological anthropology, i.e. how she views the human person in light of his encounter with God.

Readers of Hans Urs von Balthasar will see in her book similar themes from his work Heart of the World. If I allow myself any time to reflect upon my existence as a man before God, I begin to know deeply my finitude, my limitations, and my nothingness. Yet, since God has become man, I am now able to find within my finitude a way toward the infinite. I stand before God as a finite man longing for the infinite, but Jesus Christ, who has taken on my position of finitude, stands before God as the perfect man who is perfectly infinite.

If you read this book, you must know that her title has a double meaning: it means Man (as in a human person) before God, but it also means The Man (Jesus Christ as the perfect man [Der Mensch]) before God.

the ecclesial relationship between von balthasar and von speyr

2009-02-05T20:36:39Z

I am happy to present to you a very imperfect presentation I gave to the St. John's University chapter of Theta Alpha Kappa Society (a theology major and minors honors society). There is nothing more humbling than listening to yourself speak. There are some minor misstatements that I would like to revise, but you may enjoy hearing this informal presentation on Hans Urs von Balthasar and Adrienne von Speyr.

Here is an unedited mp3 of my presentation called "The Ecclesial Relationship between the theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar and mystic Adrienne von Speyr."

To introduce my presentation, I used this PDF handout.

Please tell me what you think in the comments section below. Enjoy!

lumina and new lumina

2009-01-19T21:11:56Z

Lumina and New LuminaA new translation is available of the small but valuable work, Lumina und Neue Lumina. Published by Ignatius Press, this book, Lumina and New Lumina, which is a collection of aphorisms, really contemplative 'insights', should be graciously welcome in the English-speaking world.

"To get or to understand people always means: to look at them from God's angle, from the point of view communicated through Him. It is not a science but a pure grace."

"Christian hope is a vessel in which faith lives; love carries it."

"Only when you are familiar with silence have you learned to speak; what you have to say can ripen only in silence."

a new year of graces

2009-01-02T19:11:04Z

Happy New Year! In celebration, here is an excerpt from a prayer of Adrienne von Speyr's called "Thanksgiving after Confessing at the End of the Year":

Lord, ... we should have sought you in all things, we should have relished the year's joys as coming from you, we ought to have taken on ourselves its sufferings as willed or permitted by you, we ought to have followed every path you opened to us.

And yet there is no need to look back dolefully on this year, for like every year it was a year of your grace. A year in which you helped us, ceaselessly encouraged us, and showered us with joys and an endless number of good gifts. ...

Therefore, we thank you for having done everything for us exactly as we needed, we thank the Father, who let you become man for our sake we thank the Holy Spirit, whose constant effort has been to realize your mission in our existence.

Amen.