Hans Urs von Balthasar - First Glance at Adrienne Von Speyr

HANS URS VON BALTHASAR
FIRST GLANCE AT ADRIENNE VON SPEYR

HANS URS VON BALTHASAR

Translated by

ANTJE LAWRY & SR. SERGIA ENGLUND, O.C.D.

IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO

Title of German original:
Erster Blick auf Adrienne von Speyr
1968 Johannes Verfag, Einsiedeln

Cover by Victoria Hoke Lane

With ecclesiastical approval
1981 Ignatius Press, San Francisco
All rights reserved
Second printing 1986
ISBN 978-0-89870-003-9
Library of Congress Catalogue Number 81-167170
Printed in the United States of America

PART I
LIFE, MISSION AND WORK
OF ADRIENNE VON SPEYR

The Sources

Early Youth

Gymnasium in La Chaux-de-Fonds

Three Years of Illness

Gymnasium in Basel

Study of Medicine

Marriage

Conversion

The New Graces

The Later Years

Her Death

Her Character

1. The Fundamental Attitude

2. The Theological Locus

Obedience of the Son

Triune Life

The World of Prayer

The Mystery of Holy Saturday

3. The Charismatic Gifts

Ecclesiastical Obedience and Authority

The Prayers of the Saints

The Diversity of Spiritualities in Holy

Scripture

The Fishers Net

Experiential Dogmatics

Theory of Mysticism

The Apocalypse

Bodily Manifestations

The Form of Her Work

Works in Manuscript Form

Dictated Works

a. Commentaries on Scripture

b. Other Writings

c. The Twelve Posthumous Works

Published Articles

PART II
STATEMENTS OF ADRIENNE VON SPEYR
ABOUT HERSELF

1. The Mother of God Vision

2. Encounter with Ignatius

3. On the Eve of My Conversion

4. Adrienne on Her Statements about Herself

5. Adriennes Relationship to Death

6. Adriennes Prayer as a Small Child

7. The Growth of Charity in Adriennes Childhood

8. Development of the Relationship Between Love of God and Love of Neighbor in Adriennes Youth

9. Adrienne and Holy Scripture

10. Held in Reserve

11. A Conversation with the Fifteen Year Old

12. Certainties

13. The Three Great Graces of Her Life

14. The Manner of Prayer before Conversion

15. Adriennes Relationship to Human Faults

16. Adrienne and Confession

17. Adriennes Disposition in Confessing

18. Adrienne and the Saints

19. Adrienne, the Saints and the Mission

20. Adriennes Interior Disposition

PART III
ADRIENNE VON SPEYR:
PRAYERS

1. Morning Prayer

2. Prayer at the Beginning of Mass

3. Prayer before the Sermon

4. Prayer after Communion

5. Evening Prayer

6. Before the Tabernacle

7. Prayer to the Risen Christ

8. Prayer for the Renewal of the Spirit

9. Prayer for Indifference

10. Prayer of Thanksgiving after Confession at the End of the Year

11. Prayer in the Realm of Time

12. Through Mary to Christ

13. Prayer for the Right Use of Sickness

14. Prayer for the Time of Fatigue

15. Prayer of an Elderly Woman Religious

16. Prayer as Death Draws Near

17. The Suscipe of St. Ignatius

18. Prayer Which St. Ignatius Taught Adrienne

19. Prayer for Constancy

20. Prayer for Those Who Have Turned away from You

21. Prayer for Deliverance from Self

22. Prayer for Usefulness

23. In the Passion

24. Surrender of What I Do Not Own

1. The Glory of God Gave It Light, and Its Lamp Was the Lamb

2. The Wall of the City Had Twelve Foundation Stones on Which Were Written the Twelve Names of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb

3. The Book of Life of the Lamb

4. In Thanksgiving for the Apocalypse

5. Prayer of Adoration of the Servants before the Throne of God and the Lamb

6. The Lord God Is Their Light

7. Our Father

8. I Am the First and the Last

9. Let Him Who Hears Say, Come!

Adrienne von Speyr in This Hour of the Church

How Does One Read Adrienne von Speyr?

The Problem of Publication

This book is an eyewitness account. It describes what I experienced in twenty-seven years of close collaboration with Adrienne von Speyr. More than fifteen of those years we lived under the same roof. It is a very summary portrayaltruly just a first glancebased on a large collection of unpublished records. It is not intended as publicity or propaganda, but rather as a source of objective information. I cannot prevent anyone from questioning the veracity of my statements. There will be people with a personal interest in finding them to be false, for whom nothing can be which ought not to be. There will be many others who will at once attempt to illuminate the entire matter through the methods of depth psychology and so make it supposedly understandable, or who will dismiss it all as completely out-of-date and therefore neither interesting nor credible. Finally, there will be those who will be very annoyed about a charismshould it prove to be a charismwhich does not conform to the conventional trends in Christianity today. To all these persons I must say in advance that (in the sense of 1 Cor 4:1 f.) their opposition does not trouble me, for, when I state the facts known to me and continue to state them in the future, I am simply doing what I must do, principally in order to present them for the appraisal of the Church, to whose judgment, of course, I submit myself in every respect.

Although at the time of Adriennes death thirty-seven of her books were in print, and thirty-four of them available in bookstores, up to now no one has taken serious notice of her writings. No newspaper except Lucernes Vaterland deemed her worthy of even a brief obituary notice. The few reviews of her books were mostly drab; no one was willing to compromise himself. At first, this surprised Adrienne slightly because, despite this reception, she was still aware of having a mission in the Church. Gradually she came to understand that during her lifetime it was her lot to talk into thin air, to work without any evident effect. As a result of this general indifference, many of those who might have known about her today do not at all and must, therefore, be introduced first of all to the fundamental principles of her mission. On the other hand, there are so many persons who knew and highly regarded, indeed, even revered, Adrienne von Speyr that the opportunity still exists to make inquiries about her life, her character and her influence.

A word about our relationship. When, in 1940, I gave her instruction in the faith, I found that while, to be sure, she plainly did not know the things I told her, she immediately and directly recognized them as valid and true for her. For thirty-eight years she had sought them with all her might, had groped her way toward them in darkness, had prayed ceaselessly, so that the outline of Catholic truth was, as it were, hollowed out in her like the interior of a mold. A slight indication was all she needed in order to understand and accept with all her heart and in exuberant joy. In this way it may be that at that time and later, in our conversations about spiritual matters, I had some influence upon the formation of her ideas and attitudes. But even previous to her conversion and all the more after it, she had her own mysterious relationship with our holy father Ignatius (who is often designated in the following pages simply as SPN, Sanctus Pater Noster ) from whom she learned far more than from me. I, on the other hand, was without hesitation already making use of the insights she shared with me in the first books I wrote after her conversion. Heart of the World (1945), Christ and Fear (1951), Science, Religion and Christianity (1956), etc., reflect Adriennes earliest experiences of the Passion and of hell. She often gave me suggestions for sermons, conferences and so on, but only rarelyand with increasing blindness, less and less oftendid she read my books. On the whole I received far more from her, theologically, than she from me, though, of course, the exact proportion can never be calculated. As her confessor and spiritual director, I observed her interior life most closely, yet in twenty-seven years I never had the least doubt about the authentic mission that was hers, nor about the unpretentious integrity with which she lived it and communicated it to me. I not only made some of the most difficult decisions of my lifeincluding my leaving the Jesuit Orderfollowing her advice, but I also strove to bring my way of looking at Christian revelation into conformity with hers. If it had been otherwise, many an article in the Essays in Theology and, especially, the basic perspective of Herrlichkeit would never have existed (though Adrienne had not the least part in their actual composition). Today, after her death, her work appears far more important to me than mine, and the publication of her still-unpublished writings takes precedence over all personal work of my own. I am convinced that when these works are made available, those who are in a position to judge will concur with me about their value and will thank God with me that he has granted such graces to the Church in our time, too.