After a biography of Blessed John Ruysbroeck we come to the heart
of the books itself. THIS book touches the culminating point of the
trilogy formed by the three treatises addressed by the author to
the same person. Certain indications prove this to have been
Margaret of Meerbeke, Precentor in the Convent of the Poor Clares
at Brussels. The manuscripts do not contain any precise affirmation
on this point, it is true, but the title of chapter xii., "Of
Celestial Melodies," seems to allude to the charge filled by the
Religious in her Convent. Besides, the whole of the treatise
sufficiently shows that the writer is address ing one person in
particular, and the counsels that he gives her, although applicable
to any soul aspiring to perfection, belong more particularly to the
Religious state. The form and name of the book is by no means new
in mystical literature. The mysterious ladder which appeared to
Jacob, flying from the anger of his brother Esau, has often served
to illustrate the way to be travelled by the soul from earth to
Heaven. This illustration is found in use from times of primitive
Christianity-witness the Acts of St. Perpetua and St. Felicity. St.
Benedict makes use of it in his Rule where he speaks of twelve
degrees of Humility, and St. John Climacus at a later date develops
the same thought in his book entitled the Ladder of Holiness. But
it was, perhaps, principally from St. Bonaventura that Blessed John
Ruysbroeck borrowed the idea of spiritual steps. His object, like
that of the Seraphic Doctor, is to raise a ladder of Sanctity, of
which the seven rungs, or degrees, lead up to God, and to a love so
elevated as to be called transformation and quietude. At such a
height Divine Love resembles Eternity, and it is sometimes
difficult to decide if Blessed John Ruysbroeck is speaking of
Eternity, or ifhe is still among things of time. The different
halting- places from which the soul climbs to these extreme heights
are those of Goodwill, Voluntary Poverty, Purity, Humility, and
Nobility of Virtue. At this Fifth step Blessed John Ruysbroeck
stops, and in the next seven chapters studies the different ways of
exercising this love, with the aid of the Angelic Hierarchy,
attentively lending their help thereto. He explains two ways that
lead to God, adding warnings against the illusions of a false
Mysticism, and finally describes the Four Modes of Celestial Song.
The Sixth step is called by the author the" Return to the Primitive
Purity of the Intellect." One of the thoughts recurring most
frequently in BlessedJohn Ruysbroeck's writings is that the Soul is
never wholly created, but that as the Son of God is spiritually
conceived and brought forth at every instant, so, too, the Soul is
created each moment, without ceasing to be in can tact with its
Origin, ceaselessly receiving of His Essence, and formed by Him to'
the uncreated image and example, ever in the Eternal Mind, of each
one of us. Perfection and Beatitude consist in returning absolutely
to this uncreated Ideal; not by a confusion of our created Being
with the Divinity, nor by a transformation of Essence, which would
partake of the errors of Pantheism. It is not a question of
abdicating our created Being and transforming it essentially into
the uncreated and Superessential, in which, in the Divine Mind, we
have been from all Eternity, for this would lead to Quietism by
Pantheism; but, what is quite another matter, it means a return and
transformation by Knowledge and by Love of all our Being to that
Ideal which God has of us.
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