| Madame Guyon |
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| Written by Administrator | |||
| Saturday, 31 January 2009 23:25 | |||
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Programs, books rarely change people. They are but tools. They are but avenues to direct people to the true essence. In the case of Christianity, the truth is God. Our aim as Christians is to know God. This knowledge goes deeper beyond the superficiality of a mere religion. This knowing of GOD is the experience of God as ultimate TRUTH and REALITY in our life; body, soul and spirit. A God experience breaks us into His divine presence; where it leads to our life transforming moment; a turning point in life. I have found the writings on Quietism intriguing. They lead me to thirst for more of God's presence, intimacy and reality. I believe when divinity touches humanity, something powerful happens. When God's divinity touches our frail humanity, that's when we truly know what it meant when it says, "We love because He FIRST loved us." My prayer is that as you read some of the excerpts on my research on Quietism, it will evoke a deep hunger and thirst for the REAL thing. May we be overwhelmed with His love and allow His love to transform the way we live out our faith. Quietists embraced the ideology of dying to self and living unto Christ to reach the “state of pure repose and contemplation where God flows in and becomes the inward reality and inaugurates whatever action is acceptable to His perfect and holy will[1].” Passivity is understood in the context of active surrendering to Divinity where pure love, pure faith and pure prayer unite the believer to God in intimacy and union. Madame Guyon’s Biography Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Mothe came from a well known French family in Montargis. The parents brought her up in pious religious training which took place in the home, school and convent. There, she was influenced by her own reading of St. Francis de Sales and Madame de Chantal, as well as her interactions with the nuns and teachers. At a young age, she wanted to become a nun but was dissuaded by her sister. Married at a young age of sixteen to a wealthy man of whom was twenty-two years her senior, she thought it would have been a blissful life and marriage. Yet, her life was plagued with suffering and the constant abuse from her mother in law, husband and maids. There, after twelve years of marriage, she was left as a widow of three children after losing her two children and husband in succession. The crucibles of suffering in marriage and in life did not shatter Madame Guyon. The painful events of life were testing ground and seedbed for her Christ-like character and deep spirituality. The lack of love in her marriage drove her deeper into the love of God. Her love for God gave her resilience in an environment of persecutions as she sought to carry her crosses in denial of her sinful nature. Her love for God and her willingness towards a life of crucifixion formed the fundamental pillars of her spirituality. Madame Guyon’s ministry began after her husband’s death. Under the Bishop D’Aranthon, Guyon devoted herself to religious work in Geneva. There, she felt a call to proclaim the doctrine of entire sanctification through faith in the Saviour. Although Father De Lacombe was her spiritual director, Guyon was the main impetus for this new spirituality. Father La Combe was then convinced and hence became an activist in his preaching. This created a religious stir which led to Bishop D’Aranthon expelling the both of them from his diocese. Guyon followed Father La Combe to Turin, then returned to France and stayed in Grenoble on her own[2]. There, she spread her teaching; published her ‘Short and Easy Method of Prayer’ and aroused the displeasure of the Bishop of Grenoble. At his insistence, Guyon had to leave. She proceeded to Vercelli to rejoin Father La Combe and subsequently the pair returned to Paris in 1686. Her influence grew there, even to be felt by the aristocratic circles, and it subsequently came to the attention of King Louis XIV. This marked a dramatic turn of increased oppositions to Guyon. Louis XIV was pivotal in the condemnation of Molinos’ Quietism in Rome and he would not allow such similar mysticism in his own capital. Father La Combe was hence sentenced to life imprisonment. Father La Mothe, Guyon’s step brother, was vindictive and upon realizing that he could not fault Guyon for failure in moral conduct; instigated a series of false allegation. Guyon was then arrested and subjected to fierce interrogation by theologians. In October 1688, when Guyon was released from prison, she met Fénelon who became the most famous of her disciples[3]. Madame Guyon called herself the mother and Fénelon the child. Guyon and Fénelon began a series of correspondences of one hundred and thirty-nine letters; where she revealed her teaching and the secrets of her spirituality[4]. Guyon faced constant violent oppositions from the Roman Catholic Church because of her doctrinal differences. In 1693-4, Fénelon in his defense of Madame Guyon and her writings, clashed with Bossuet; which subsequently led to a permanent exile to his own diocese[5]. Guyon, on the other hand, was examined by Bossuet and was eventually imprisoned in Vincennes, Vaugirard and behind the twelve feet thick walls of the infamous Bastille in Paris. Guyon was finally banished from Paris to Blois where she lived for fifteen years in silence and isolation until she died in 1717[6]. Guyon was indeed a controversial figure in history. She has been called “a quietist, a mystic, a saint, a neurotic, a hysterical degenerate[7]”; yet she was also recognized as one of France’s greatest spiritual teachers. Blessings in Jesus, Rev. Bryan Tan Bryan Tan Ministries
Lifting People into their Destinies [1] Rus M. Jones, “Quietism”, The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 10, No. 1. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1507338. (Accessed 17 November 2008); Internet. [2] William Fairweather, Among the Mystics (Edinburg: T. & T. Clark, 1936), 75. [3] Antoine, Dégert, Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07092b.htm. (Accessed 18 November 2008); Internet.[4] Dorothy L Gilbert and Russell Pope, “The Abbé and the Lady: The Correspondence of Fénelon and Mme Guyon,” The Journal of Religion, Vol. 21, No. 2, 155 -156. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1199392. (Accessed 18 November 2008); Internet. [5] Sherwood E. Wirt, Spiritual Disciplines: Devotional Writings from the Great Christian Leaders of the Seventeenth Century (Illinois: Crossway Books, 1983), 68. [6] Rus M. Jones, “Quietism”, The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 10, No. 1. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1507338. (Accessed 17 November 2008); Internet. [7] Sherwood E. Wirt, Spiritual Disciplines: Devotional Writings from the Great Christian Leaders of the Seventeenth Century (Illinois: Crossway Books, 1983), 170.
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