04-12-2009, 10:22 PM
Madame Guyon
True religion is that which binds the soul to God, and supplicatory prayer binds the soulless than any other form of approach. It is necessary, how necessary, but how often it can fail to bind truly. Meditation and Communion are of infinitely more value.
How few wait on Me. Many pray to Me. They come into My Presence feverish with wants and distress, but few wait there for that calm and strength that contact with Me would give.
I am your Lord, trust Me in all. Never doubt My keeping Power. Remember that Healing, Divine Healing, is not so much a question of praying on your part, and of granting on Mine, as of living with Me, thinking of Me, sharing My Life. That contact makes you whole. Go forward gladly, go forward unafraid.
Madame Guyon's Autobiography
In the history of the world few persons have attained that high degree of spirituality reached by Madame Guyon.
Born in a corrupt age, in a nation marked for its degeneracy; nursed and reared in a church, as profligate as the world in which it was embedded; persecuted at every step of her career; groping as she did in spiritual desolation and ignorance, nevertheless, she arose to the highest pinnacle of pre-eminence in spirituality and Christian devotion.
She lived and died in the Catholic Church; yet was tormented and afflicted; was maltreated and abused; and was imprisoned for years by the highest authorities of that church.
Her sole crime was that of loving God. The ground of her offense was found in her supreme devotion, and unmeasured attachment to Christ. When they demanded her money and estate, she gladly surrendered them, even to her impoverishment, but it availed nothing. The crime of loving Him in whom her whole being was absorbed, never could be mitigated, or forgiven.
She loved only to do good to her fellow-creatures, and to such an extent was she filled with the Holy Ghost, and with the power of God, that she wrought wonders in her day, and has not ceased to influence the ages that have followed.
Madame Guyon was born at Montargis in 1647 and died at Blois in 1717. she was educated in a convent and desired to enter a religious order. However her mother opposed to this, forced her to marry Jacques Guyon, twenty two years older than her. At the age of 29 she was a widow and this gave the opportunity to engage into a spiritual quest. She always had an inclination to spiritual things and her difficult marriage and widowhood gave her the ground to deepen her spiritual life.
Madame Guyon wrote extensively, her smallest book -A Short and Easy Method of Prayer- is a classic which has been read and meditated by scores of believers ever since its first publication in 1685. She wrote commentaries on all the books of the Bible 18 volumes, Letters 9 volumes, Poems and Canticles 4 volumes, an autobiography 3 volumes, and many others.
Today her influence is still quite important among those believers who seek a deeper relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
True religion is that which binds the soul to God, and supplicatory prayer binds the soulless than any other form of approach. It is necessary, how necessary, but how often it can fail to bind truly. Meditation and Communion are of infinitely more value.
How few wait on Me. Many pray to Me. They come into My Presence feverish with wants and distress, but few wait there for that calm and strength that contact with Me would give.
I am your Lord, trust Me in all. Never doubt My keeping Power. Remember that Healing, Divine Healing, is not so much a question of praying on your part, and of granting on Mine, as of living with Me, thinking of Me, sharing My Life. That contact makes you whole. Go forward gladly, go forward unafraid.
Madame Guyon's Autobiography
In the history of the world few persons have attained that high degree of spirituality reached by Madame Guyon.
Born in a corrupt age, in a nation marked for its degeneracy; nursed and reared in a church, as profligate as the world in which it was embedded; persecuted at every step of her career; groping as she did in spiritual desolation and ignorance, nevertheless, she arose to the highest pinnacle of pre-eminence in spirituality and Christian devotion.
She lived and died in the Catholic Church; yet was tormented and afflicted; was maltreated and abused; and was imprisoned for years by the highest authorities of that church.
Her sole crime was that of loving God. The ground of her offense was found in her supreme devotion, and unmeasured attachment to Christ. When they demanded her money and estate, she gladly surrendered them, even to her impoverishment, but it availed nothing. The crime of loving Him in whom her whole being was absorbed, never could be mitigated, or forgiven.
She loved only to do good to her fellow-creatures, and to such an extent was she filled with the Holy Ghost, and with the power of God, that she wrought wonders in her day, and has not ceased to influence the ages that have followed.
Madame Guyon was born at Montargis in 1647 and died at Blois in 1717. she was educated in a convent and desired to enter a religious order. However her mother opposed to this, forced her to marry Jacques Guyon, twenty two years older than her. At the age of 29 she was a widow and this gave the opportunity to engage into a spiritual quest. She always had an inclination to spiritual things and her difficult marriage and widowhood gave her the ground to deepen her spiritual life.
Madame Guyon wrote extensively, her smallest book -A Short and Easy Method of Prayer- is a classic which has been read and meditated by scores of believers ever since its first publication in 1685. She wrote commentaries on all the books of the Bible 18 volumes, Letters 9 volumes, Poems and Canticles 4 volumes, an autobiography 3 volumes, and many others.
Today her influence is still quite important among those believers who seek a deeper relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.