Hadewijch: The Complete Works

By Mother Columbo Hart and Hadewijch

Book Overview

"Each volume has been critically chosen, lucidly translated and excellently introduced by internationally acknowledged scholars. (The publisher) must be praised for its selectivity, overall book format, original cover designs by contemporary artists, and indexes for each volume." Theological Studies Hadewijch: The Complete Works translation and introduction by Mother Columbia Hart, O.S.B., preface by Paul Mummers, S.J. "May God give us a renewed mind For noble and free love, To make us so new in our life That Love may bless us And renew, with new taste, Those to whom she can give new fullness; Love is the new and powerful recompense Of those whose life renews itself for Love alone." Hadewijch (A Beguine of the 13th Century) Belonging to the early thirteenth century, Hadewijch brings us a spiritual message of extraordinary power. She was endowed in no less degree than St. Teresa of Avila with the gifts of visionary mysticism and literary genius. She felt herself strongly a woman, as can be seen from her choosing to join the women's movement of her day, that of the Beguines, who dedicated themselves to a life of true spirituality without taking the veil. Hadewijch understood that she was called to communicate to others the profound knowledge of the things of God granted to her in her mystical life. She directed her apostolate to some younger Beguines, and nearly all her writings, both prose and poetry, were intended for them. She mentions other spiritual friends, some in distant countries. Her experiences and her message, however, however, remained hidden; she attained to no celebrity among her contemporaries. The way of immediate fame was for other women mystics. St. Hildegard (1098-1179), the visionary and writer, enjoyed high reputation Clairvaux, and crowned heads. Hadewijch's contemporary, St. Lutgard (1183-1246), was widely known for her visions of the Sacred Heart, which won her the friendship of persons like the Master General of the Dominican Order and Duchess Marie of Brabant (daughter of King Louis VIII of France), and after her death made her tomb a place of pilgrimage. Where Hadewijch was buried, however, no one knows and her writings, after passing through the hands of John of Ruusbroec and his circle, were lost to sight until the nineteenth century. Since the rediscovery of Hadewijch, her importance has been progressively appreciated, and the hidden dimension of her life is now open so that we may share it according to the particular needs of our own day. +

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809122979
• ISBN13: 9780809122974
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Paulist Press
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

GOD IS LOVE, and our souls yearn painfully to reunite with their Creator in Love

As we await eagerly the soon publication of a new biography of Reverend Mother Benedict Duss, Founder of the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut, let us revisit other publications which have flown from that wonderful profound and pure source of life. The cover and chapter headings of this present volume are beautifully and meaningfully illuminated by the great artist and Benedictine nun of that Abbey, Mother Placid Dempsey, OSB. Please view the inside illustrations iconically as reflecting the visions of mystical love reported so well by the Belgium 13th century Catholic nun Hadewijch, of whom so little remains but her profound mystical writings. We know so much of Saint Teresa of Avila, whose report of similar esctatic visions of mystical Love are even famously depicted in sculture in Rome. Yet of Hadewijch we know so little biographically, and have her only major work, her complete writings, including poetry, letters and prose, preserved for us now, translated and edited by the very able hand of Mother Columba (nee Elizabeth) Hart of the Abbey of Regina Laudis, as intelligent, spiritual, solidly theological and scholarly as an American Dorothy L. Sayers. Hadewijch passes a much more painful vision of mystical Love, as she opens herself to experiencing the pain of a profound Love in exile, awaiting the earnestly longed for Divine Beloved. Hadewijch sees that as we grow in generous Love, as described in the sixth chapter of Saint Luke, loving generously those we most have reason to hate, so do we grow ever loser to the Divine Beloved, God, and capable of receiving God's infinite and pure love. For example, in this comprehensive and excellent volume's page 103, we read: I will tell you without beating around the bush: Be satisfied with nothing less than Love. (. . .) Never must any difficulty hinder you from serving people, be they insignificant or important, sick or healthy. And the sicker they are, and the fewer friends they have, the more readily must you serve them. And always bear with aliens willingly. As for all who slander you, contradict them not. And be desirous to associate with all who scorn you, for they make the way of Love broader for you. As you can see from this citation, Mother Columba`s able translation makes this 13th century Belgian mystic`s words, exhortations and spirituality immediately comprehensible and applicable for us now in the new millenium. Hadewijch was a contemplative nun of the Beguine women`s movement which focussed on the mystery of Love mysticism, as Mother Columba fully and understandably explains in this excellent book of the Catholic Paulist Press`s Classics of Western Spirituality series, which also includes major works on, for example, Julian of Norwich, Saint Bonaventure, Origen, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Catherine of Siena, etc., whose names are so familiar but writings, teachings and spirituality less so. I highly recommend this now quarter century old work by Mother Columba presenti