Latest / Autobiography of Madame Guyon / 45 - Autobiography of Madame Guyon by Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon

Transcript

45 - Autobiography of Madame Guyon by Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon · Autobiography of Madame Guyon

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Volume two, chapter fifteen, of the Autobiography of Madame Kuillon.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. The Autobiography of Madame Killon by
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: gene Kion, Volume two, chapter fifteen. Among so great number
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of good souls.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: On whom our Lord wrote much by me, some were
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: given me only as plans to cultivate. I knew their state,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: but had not that mere connection with them, or authority
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: over them, which I had over others. It was then
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: that I comprehended the true maternity, beyond what I had
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: done before. For those of the latter kind were given
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: me as children of whom Some were faithful I knew
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: they would be, so they were closely united to me
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: in pure charity. Others were unfaithful. I knew that of
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: this some would never return from their infidelity, and they
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: were taken from me. Some, after sleeping aside, were recovered.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Both of them cost me much distress and inward pain. When,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: for want of courage to die to themselves, they gave
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: up the point and revolted. From the good beginning, they
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: had been favored with our Lord among some multitudes as
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: follow him or earth had few true children. Wherefore he
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: said to his father, those that thou gavest me I
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: have kept, and none of them is lost, but the
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: son of Pertition, showing that he lost not any besides
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: of his apostles or disciples, though they sometimes made false steps.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Among the friars who came to see me, there was
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: one order which discovered the good effects of grace more
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: than any other. Some of that very order had before this,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: in a little town where Father la Combe was, in
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: the exercise of his mission, been actuated with a false
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: zeal and violent in persecuting all the good souls which
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: had sincerely dedicated themselves to God, planking them. After such
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: a manner as can scarce be conceived, they burned all
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: their books which treated of silence an inward prayer, refusing
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: absolution to such as were in the practice of it,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: driving into consternation and almost into despair, such as had
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: formerly led wicked lives, but were now reformed and preserved
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: in grace by means of prayer, becoming spotless and plameless
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: in their conduct. These friars had proceeded to such an
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: excess of one zeal as to raise a sedition in
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: that town, in which a father of the oratory, a
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: person of distinction and merit, received strokes with a stick
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: in the open street, because he prayed extempoary in the evenings,
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: and on Sundays made a short, fervent prayer which insensibly
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: habituated these good souls to the use and practice of
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: the like. I never had so much consolation as to
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: see in this little town so many pious souls, who,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: with a heavenly emulation, gave up their whole hearts to God.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: There were girls of twelve or thirteen years of age,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: who industriously follow their work almost all the day long
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: in silence, and in their employments, enjoyed a communion with God,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: having acquired a fixed habit. As these girls were poor,
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: they placed themselves two and two together, and such as
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: could do it, read to the others who could not.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: One saw there the innocence of the primitive Christians revived.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: There was in that town a poor laundress who had
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: five children and a husband. Paralytic, lame in their right arm,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: and yet worse distemper in mind than in body. He
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: had little strength left for anything else than to bid here.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: This poor woman bore it with all the meekness and
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: patience of an angel. While she by her labors upon
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: him and his five children. She had a wonderful gift
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: of prayer, and amid her great suffering and extreme poverty,
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: preserved the presence of God and tranquility of mind. There
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: was also a shopkeeper and one who made locks, very
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: much affected with God. These were close friends. Sometimes the
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: one and sometimes the other read to the laundress, and
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: they were surprised to find that she was instructed by
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: the Lord himself in all they read to her and
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: spoke divinely of it. Those friars sent for this woman
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: and threatened her much if she did not live off prayer,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: telling her it was only for churchmen to pray, that
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: she was very bold to practice. She replied that Christ
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: had commanded all to pray, and that he had said
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: what I say unto you, I say unto all Mark thirteen,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: verse thirty three and thirty seven, without specifying either priest
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: or priars. But without prayer she could not support her
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: crosses and poverty. That formerly she had lived without it,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: and then was very wicked that since she had been
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: in the exercise of it. She had loved God with
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: all her soul, so that to live off prayer was
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: to renounce her salvation, which she could not do. She
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: added that they might take twenty persons who had never
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: practiced prayer, and twenty of those who were in the
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: practice of it. Then said she inform yourselves of the
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: lives of both swords, and ye will see if ye
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: have any reason to cry out against prayer. Such words
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: as these from such a woman, one could think might
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: have fully convinced them. But instead of that, it only
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: irritated them. The more they assure her that he should
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: have no absolution till she promised them to desist from prayer.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: She said that depended not on her, and that crisis
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: master of what he communicates to his creatures, and of
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: doing with it what he pleases. They refused her absolution,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: and after railing at a good tailor who served God
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: with his whole heart, they order all the books without exception,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: which treated on prayer, to be brought to them. They
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: burned them with their own hands in the public square.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: They were very much elated with their performance, but all
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: the town presently arose in an uproar. The principal men
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: went to the Bishop of Geneva and complained to him
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: of the scandals of these new missionaries, so different from
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: the others. Speaking of Father la Combe, who had been
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: there before them on his mission, they said that this
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: seemed as if they were sent to destroy all the
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: good he had done. The Bishop was forced to come
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: himself to that town, and there to mount the pulpit,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: protesting that he had no share in it, and that
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: these fathers but pushed their zill too far. The friars
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: on the other side declare they had done all they
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: did purshuan to the orders given them. There were also
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: two none young women who had retired together, being poor villagers,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: the better to earn their lovelihood and to serve God.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: One of them read from time to time while the
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: others were at work, and not one went out without
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: asking leave of the eldest. They wove ripants or spun
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: the strong supporting the weak. They separated these poor girls
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: and others beside them in several villages, and drove them
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: out of the church. It was the friars of that
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: very order whom our law made use of to establish
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: prayer in I know not how many places. Into the
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: places where they went they carried a hundred times more
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: books of prayer than those which they brethren had burned.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: The haunt of God appeared to me wonderfully in these things.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: One day, when I was sick, a brother who had
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: skilled in curing diseases came for a charitable collection. But
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: herein I was ill, came in to see me and
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: gave me medicines proper for my disorder. We entered into
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: a conversation which revived in him the love he had
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: for good, which he acknowledged had been too much stifled
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: by his occupations. I made him comprehend that there was
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: no employment which should hinder him from loving God and
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: from being occupied within himself. He readily believed me, as
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: he already had a good share of piety and of
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: an interior disposition. Our Lord conferred on him many favors,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: and gave him to be one of my true children.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: I saw at this time, or rather experience, the ground
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: on which God rejects sinners from his bosom. All the
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: cause of God's rejection is in the will of the sinner.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: If that will submits, however horrible he be God purifies
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: him in his love and receives him into his grace.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: But while that will rebels, the rejection continues. For want
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: of ability seconding his inclination, he should not commit the
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: sin he is inclined to. Yet he never can be
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: admitted into grace till the cause ceases, which is this
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: strong will rebellious to the divine law. If that once
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: submits God then totally removes the effects of sin which
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: stain the soul, by washing away the defileness which he
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: had contracted. If that sinner dies in the time that
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: his will is rebellious and turn towards sin, as death
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: fixes forever the disposition of the soul and the cause
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: of its impurity is ever subsisting, such soul can never
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: be received into God. Its rejection must be eternal. As
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: there is such an absolute opposition between essential purity and
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: essential impurity, and as this soul, from its own nature
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: necessarily tends to its own center, it is continually rejected
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: of the Lord by reason of its impurity, subsisting not
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: only in the effects, but in their cause. It is
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: the same way in this life. This cause, so long
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: as it subsists, absolutely hinders the grace of God from
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: operating in the soul. But if the sinner comes to
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: die truly penitent, then the cause which is the wrong
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: will being taken away. There remains only the effect of
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: impurity caused by it. He is then in a condition
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: to be purified. God of his infinite mercy has provided
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: a laver of love and of justice, a painful lavor
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: indeed to purify this soul. And as the defilement is
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: greater or less, so is the pain. But when the
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: cause is utterly taken away, the pain entirely ceases. Souls
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: are received into grace as soon as the cause of
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: sin ceases, but they do not pass into the Lord
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: himself till all its effects are washed away. If they
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: have no courage to let him in his own way
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: and will thoroughly clings and purify them, they never enter
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: into the pure divinity. In this life. The Lord incessantly
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: solicits this will to cease to be rebellious, and spares
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: nothing on his side for this good end. The will
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: is free, yet grace follows it. Still. As soon as
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: the will ceases to rebel it finds Grace at the door,
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: ready to introduce its unspeakable benefits, Oh, the goodness of
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: the Lord and baseness of the sinner, each of them
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: amazing when clearly seen. Before I arrived at Grenoble, the
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: lady my friend so in a dream that our Lord
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: gave me an infinite number of children, all uniform only glad,
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: bearing on their habits the marks of candor and innocence.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: She thought I was coming to take care of the
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: children of the hospital. But as soon as she told me,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: I discerned that it was not that which the dream meant,
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: but that our Lord would give me, by a spiritual fruitfulness,
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: a great number of children. That they would not be
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: my true children, but in symbolicity candor and innocence, so
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: great an aversion I have for artifice and disguise and
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: of Chapter fifteen Athens, Greece, the twenty seventh of April
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: of two thousand nine,