1. Banished from the presence of my Beloved, my Bridegroom, how could I be happy! I could not find access to Him, and I certainly could not find rest out of Him. I knew not what to do. I was like the dove out of the ark, which, finding no rest for the sole of its foot, was constrained to return again, but, finding the window shot, could only fly about without being able to enter.
2. I henceforth take Jesus Christ to be mine. I promise to receive Him as a husband to me. And I give myself to Him, unworthy though I am, to be His spouse. I ask of Him, in this marriage of spirit with spirit, that I may be of the same mind with Him– meek, pure, nothing in myself, and united in God's will. And pledged as I am to be His, I accept, as a part of my marriage portion, the temptations and sorrows, the crosses and the contempt, which fell to Him.
3. The misfortune is that people wish to direct God, instead of resigning themselves to be directed by Him. They wish to take the lead and to follow in a way of their own selection, instead of submissively and passively following where God sees fit to conduct them. And hence it is that many souls, who are called to the enjoyment of God Himself and not merely to the gifts of God, spend all their lives in pursuing and in feeding on little consolation--resting in them as in their place of delights, and making their spiritual life to consist in them.
4. Oh how excellent are the crosses of Providence! All other crosses are of no value.
5. I did not wish to speak of my troubles to others, or to make them known in any way. God had taught me to go to Him alone. There is nothing which makes nature die so deeply and so quickly as to find and to seek no earthly support, no earthly consolation.
6. I was then, indeed, only like a dead person raised up, who is in the beginning of his restoration, and raised up to a life of hope rather than of actual possession; but on this day I was restored, as it were, to perfect life and set wholly at liberty. I was no longer depressed, no longer borne down under the burden of sorrow. I had thought God lost, and lost forever; but I found Him again.
7. In You, O my God, I found it all and more than all! The peace which I now possessed was all holy, heavenly, inexpressible. What I had possessed some years before, in the period of my spiritual enjoyment, was consolation, peace– the gift of God rather than the Giver; but now, I was brought into such harmony with the will of God, that I might now be said to possess not merely consolation, but the God of consolation; not merely peace, but the God of peace. This true peace of mind was worth all that I had undergone, although it was then only in its dawning.
8. My soul was not only brought into harmony with itself and with God, but with God's providences. In the exercise of faith and love, I endured and performed whatever came in God's providence--in submission, in thankfulness, and silence. I was now in God and God in me; and where God is, there is as much simplicity as power.
9. Preach in a plain, simple manner, and let me add, that the matter is still more important than the manner. Be careful what you preach, as well as how you preach. Preach nothing but the gospel--the gospel of the kingdom of God. And it is exceedingly desirable that you should preach it as a kingdom near at hand, as something not great way off, but to be received and realized now. Aim at the heart.
Be the first to react on this!
Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon (commonly known as Madame Guyon) was a French mystic and one of the key advocates of Quietism. Quietism was considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church, and she was imprisoned from 1695 to 1703 after publishing a book on the topic, A Short and Easy Method of Prayer.
Guyon's parents were very religious people, and they gave her an especially pious training. Other important impressions from her youth that remained with her came from reading the works of St. Francis de Sales, and from certain nuns, her teachers. At one time she wanted to be a nun, but soon changed her mind.
Guyon continued belief in God's perfect plan and that she would be blessed in suffering. To this end she was, when she bore another son and daughter shortly before her husband's death. After twelve years of an unhappy marriage, Madame Guyon had become a widow at the age of 28.
Guyon believed that we should pray all the time, whatever one was doing, to be also spending time with God. As she wrote in one of her poems: "There was a period when I chose, A time and place for prayer ... But now I seek that constant prayer, In inward stillness known ..."
In the Christian dispute regarding grace and works, Guyon defended the controversial belief that salvation is the result of grace, not works. Like St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Calvin, and Martin Luther, she thought that a person's deliverance can only come from God as an outside source, never from within the person himself or herself.
Madame Guyon's most devout disciples after her death were to be found among the Protestants and especially the Quakers. Evangelicals such as Spurgeon were also influenced. Her works were translated into English and German, and her ideas, forgotten in France, have been read in Germany, Switzerland, England, and America.
Jeanne Marie Bouvieres de la Mothe Guyon was the leader of the Quietist movement in France. The foundation of her Quietism was laid in her study of St. Francis de Sales, Madame de Chantal, and Thomas a Kempis. At age 16, she married Jacques Guyon, a wealthy man of weak health, 22 years her senior. Until his death in 1676, her life was an unhappy one, partly due to the difference in their ages, and partly due to a tyrannical mother-in-law. Her public career as an evangelist of Quietism began soon after her widowhood.
Her first labors were spent in the diocese of Geneva, at Anecy, Gex, and Thonon, and in Grenoble. In 1686 she went to Paris, where she was at first imprisoned for her opinions, in the Convent of St. Marie in the Faubourg St. Antoine; she was released after eight months at the insistence of Madame de Maintenon. She then rose to the zenith of her fame. Her life at all times greatly fascinated those around her; the court, Madame de Maintenon, and Madame de Maintenon's College of Ladies at Cyr, came under the spell of her enthusiasm. But the affinity of her doctrines with those of Michael Molinos, who was condemned in 1685, soon worked against her.
Her opinions were condemned by a commission, of which Bossuet was president. She then incurred Bossuet's displeasure by breaking the promises she had made to him to maintain a quiet attitude and not return to Paris. She was imprisoned at Vincennes in December 1695, and the next year moved to Vaugirard, under a promise to avoid all receptions and correspondence, except by special permission. In 1698, she was imprisoned in the Bastille for four years. She spent the remainder of her life in retirement with her daughter, the Marquise de Bois, at Blois. She had numerous visitors of all ranks, some from foreign countries, and had a considerable correspondence. Her works fill some 40 volumes.