Adrienne Von Speyr

The Word Becomes Flesh

John

These meditations on the Gospel of Mark, with the exception of the second part on the Passion, were given by Adrienne von Speyr between 1945 and 1958 to members of the Community of St. John, which she founded with the renowned theologian, Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar. Adrienne is speaking to young adults who have decided to live the state of the evangelical counsels in a secular profession, as part of a recently established secular institute. Nevertheless this contemplative commentary can be very useful for all who seek to meditate on Holy Scripture. As always, Adrienne here draws from the abundance of her own contemplation which keeps continually in view the harmonious unity of Christian dogmatic truth; she gives to others what has been offered to her in contemplation, without exegetical notes or any attempt at scholarship. Since she is speaking to novices, the train of thought is simple and practical, yet rich in depth. The points for meditation are not primarily for spiritual reading, but an introduction to personal prayer. They are meant only to point out a path, because it is the Holy Spirit who directs contemplative prayer in all liberty. As one reads through this book, he will find in it a kind of synthesis of Adrienne von Speyrs spirituality. This work will also be very useful to preachers, catechists, pastors, communities and institutes who have understood with Pope Benedict XVI that It is time to reaffirm the importance of prayer in the face of the activism and the growing secularism of many Christians engaged in charitable work.

Meditations for a Community

Mark

Von Speyr's book does not lend itself to any classification that I can think of. It is not dogmatic theology; still less is it exegesis…. There is nothing to do but to submit oneself to it; if the reader emerges without having been crushed by it, he will find himself strengthened and exhilarated by a new experience of Christian sensibility. —T.S. Eliot Adrienne von Speyr wrote an acclaimed four-volume series of meditations on Saint John’s Gospel, and this volume presents her reflections on the Prologue (1:1–18). Her insights embrace the whole Christian revelation as well as its acceptance and rejection by men. This work is a spiritual meditation of the highest quality, the fruit of prayer, discernment, and communion with the sacramental life of the Church. It provides rich nourishment for both theological reflection and contemplation.

A Meditation on the Prologue to Saint John's Gospel

The Word

The first of von Speyr's scriptural commentaries, focusing on her reflections on the first five chapters of John and the beginning of the public life of Our Lord. She shares moving meditations on such profound and dramatic scenes as the witness of John the Baptist, the call of the disciples, the wedding at Cana, the cleansing of the money-changers in the temple, the Samaritan woman, etc. The combination of the Scripture verses and her meditations provide rich nourishment for prayer and spiritual reading. This series is particularly important because the spirituality of St. John, the Apostle of Divine Love, was the central source of von Speyr's own inspiration and spiritual life.

Meditations on John 1-5

The mystic Adrienne von Speyr provides profound and original meditations on each verse of St. Paul's rich summary of the meaning of the Christian faith. The eighth chapter of St. Paul's letter to the Romans, a radiant trumpet-call in the tremendous symphony of the Pauline writings, proclaims the ultimate victory of the love of God through Christ in the Holy Spirit in the faithful united as the Church. In our age, which has become focused on the darker side of man, von Speyr shows how the Christian needs nothing more urgently than the courage, inspiration and hope that God offers to us through these writings of St. Paul.

A Meditation on Romans 8

The Victory of Love

Three Women and the Lord presents three key figures in Saint Luke's Gospel: Mary Magdalen, the unnamed woman who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears, and Mary of Bethany. As Adrienne von Speyr meditates on the Gospel passages about these three women, she explores the particular, personal mission that the Lord gave each one and links it with one of the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and love. Through the stories of these women, von Speyr demonstrates that every person who encounters Jesus and receives his mercy is changed by him and given a unique way to reveal his identity as Savior and Lord.

Three Women and the Lord, 2nd Edition

Combining rich philosophical insight with the spiritual discernment of a true contemplative, Adrienne opens the reader to Our Lord's desire for our total surrender to His Love. As a remarkable contemporary woman teacher of the Church, she points out the many ways we flee from the demands of our vocation.

Vocation and Asceticism

They Followed His Call

Following up her book, THE WORD: A Meditation on the Prologue of St. John's Gospel, this beautiful work by the mystic Adrienne von Speyr continues these meditations to the end of chapter five. Von Speyr reflects deeply on the text, taking it sentence by sentence, but this precise adherence to the words is developed into a much broader picture. The meditations are confluent with the scenes and themes of the Gospel itself, and perhaps the most characteristic note of her meditations is determined by the author's use of the whole imagery of St. John to convey his thought. The result is that her thought is not presented to us in a language of abstraction but retains the living, moving and dramatic quality of the original language from the Gospel. In these meditations the imagery of St. John is everywhere seen as leading into eternal life, and that life as beginning here and now.

Adrienne Von Speyr

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