The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage

...the material of this masterpiece with the architectural structure of a Gothic cathedral. Certainly, the subject matter that Ruysbroeck treats is often difficult, but his presentation is simple and clear. One must work one’s way into the material, just as one does with geometry or any other subject. One must choose the Blessed one original: "den Seligen"; referring to Jan van Ruysbroeck, who was beatified in 1908 as one’s master, feel oneself to be a student, and receive his words in humility, reflecting upon and contemplating them. And once one has read through The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage Ruysbroeck’s most famous work, also known as The Spiritual Espousals, has gained an overview of the material, and noted the division into chapters (which the table of contents is intended to facilitate), then one must begin reading again from the start. Above all, one must put into practice what the master teaches in the first book of his primary work. This work by no means contains only "saccharine pieties," as Maeterlinck claims, but rather deals with the active or foundational life, "which is necessary for all people who wish to be saved."

For those who are familiar with the writings of Saint Teresa Saint Teresa of Avila (1515–1582), a Spanish mystic and Doctor of the Church known for her writings on the soul's journey to God, it will be a joy to compare her teaching on the four stages of prayer with Ruysbroeck’s explanations. They will find in the twenty-fifth chapter of the first book an introduction to the first stage of prayer, to contemplative prayer. In the eighteenth chapter of the second book, the second stage of prayer, the prayer of quiet, is described, after the prayer of recollection had already been discussed in the ninth chapter. The third stage of prayer, spiritual intoxication original: "geistlichen Trunkenheit"; a mystical state of overwhelming divine love or joy, is the subject of chapters nineteen through...