|
Wisdom Saying
You should know that every Christian called by the Lord to the inward way is, nonetheless, a Christian who is full of confusion and doubt, and one who has failed (and will fail) in this deeper level of prayer. In fact, you may get the impression that the Lord no longer helps you in prayer as He once did. You may feel you are losing a great deal of time and making no progress. Confusion and perplexity are bound to follow. Nonetheless, do not stop, and do not let anyone, even someone who is older in the faith, keep you from pursuing a deeper relationship with your Lord.
What is really happening in your life? Are you really experiencing failure? Not at all.
The Lord is calling you to walk by faith in His Divine presence. With a simple vision of your Lord and with intense love toward Him~like a little child would have toward its mother~cast yourself into the gentle bosom of your Lord. The spirit should become like a little child, and a beggar, in the presence of God.
Such a relationship with your Lord~especially in times of perceived failure~is easy. It is also the most secure relationship you can enter into with Him.
*Michael Molinos, The Spiritual Guide
My copy of the Guide has on its cover:
Anyone found in possession of this book will be excommunicated. Papal Decree 1687
|
|
Comments
Michael Molinos, or Miguel de Molinos, 1628-1696, was a Spanish priest condemned for teaching Quietism. Quietism was a doctrine that came to be considered heretical by the Roman Catholic church.
Quietist teaching appeared in different forms, Christian and non-Christian, over centuries. The term is not definite enough to condemn all quietist teaching, though some may, indeed, be worthy of censure. Historical documentation, in fact, seems to substantiate that nothing in Molinos' teaching conflicted with the teaching of the Catholic church.
Ordained in 1652, Molinos was sent to Rome. In 1675 he published his Spiritual Guide. The Guide is a small handbook teaching we receive Christian maturity by contemplation and divine help. Molinos, as other so-called "Quietists," like Madame Guyon and De Fenelon,who were his contemporaries, taught we must banish our individual wills so that the Divine will can work freely in and through us.
The Guide caused a sensation. But in 1685 at the height of Molinos' popularity, the papal police arrested Molinos. He was tried and sentenced to life in prison. He lived, records state, the rest of his life in the cell of a Dominican convent.
The above quote gives a sample of the so-called heretical Quietism. However, likely it was Molinos' great popularity among lay and clerics in Europe that led Jesuits to instigate the opposition to Molinos.
Continued... |
