Term Paper on "French School of Spirituality and Francis Libermann"

Term Paper 5 pages (1607 words) Sources: 10 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

French School of Spirituality and Francis Libermann

Western Catholicism takes pride in the fact that it has a large number of special schools dedicated to the understanding of Christianity and each had something different to offer. Some of the most well-known schools have been the Augustinian, the Benedictine, the Franciscan, the Dominican, the Ignatian and the Carmelite. Then there were some other special schools that were named after the location where they originated such as the English School (Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton); the Rhineland School (John Ruusbroec, Henry Suso, John Tauler); and, the French School.

In the Roman Catholic tradition, special schools are formed on the basis on their understanding and articulation of the common teachings of the faith including repentance, prayer, meditation on scripture, devotion to the sacraments -- but its expression of these foundations includes a distinctive typology of styles and emphases.

Special schools thus contain the essentials of a gospel, a Christian and a church-oriented spirituality, but they enable people so attracted to them to personalize these basics in a special, even intense manner that at once awakens them to God in a new way and facilitates their ongoing formation.

The French School also known as the Berulle School focused on the intersection between human experience and Divine Mystery and in this pursuit tried to unlock the meaning of humanity and indicating why French mystics had such a concentrated fascination for the mystery of the Incarnation.

The School had four masters during the period- Pierre Cardinal de Berulle, Jean-Jacques Olier, John Eudes and Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph. Berulle had been the pioneer of this school of spirituality. He was the man who while still very young, introduced Carmel to France, who acted as a guide in the saintly parlor of Mme Acarie, who proposed to the Church an ideal of the priesthood which must certainly be regarded as unsurpassable, and founded the Oratory. Some of his works have been exceptionally influential. His elevations a Jesus sur jes principaux etats et mysteres, his treatise Sur l'etat et la grandeur de Jesus (1623), and his exquisite Vie de Jesus, which unfortunately he did not complete, are considered the best works in the field of spiritual literature. By the time he met his death in 1629, the fundamental features of the French School had been established.

Somewhat new is the attention given Mother Madeleine de Saint? Joseph, the first French prioress of the Great Carmel in Paris. She was enormously influenced by Cardinal Berulle, and also seems to have exercised considerable influence over the Cardinal. Something of Father Condren also radiates out from the Mother. Clearly she belongs to the foundational center and deserves to be more commonly recognized in this capacity. At the same time, she somewhat represents the very important contribution women have always made to the thought and vitality of the French School.

These four men were all related in thought although there existed perceptible differences between them. On the whole, the paths they offered to Christians were more rugged than earlier paths. They certainly did not imply, as some Protestants and Jansenists did, the wholesale condemnation of human nature. But they also knew that man, whose greatness they did not fail to recognize, was steeped in weakness and misery -- 'the glory and the outcast of the universe,' said Pascal, who was a follower of Berulle. Cardinal Berulle stated the fundamental definition in these incomparable words: 'What is man? A mere nothing, capable of reaching God!' All the masters of the French School developed this belief according to their individual genius. Nothingness -- that is man's condition; to rise from it Berulle advised him to adore, so that he might lift himself up towards God. Condren says man must get the measure of his weakness, the pit-less darkness from which God drew him by creation. Olier counseled him to become conscious of his sinful state.

Before the nothingness that is man stands God. And the Berullians cannot find adequate words to exalt Him and to acknowledge the enormous distance which separates us from Him. But He is a God who knows man, who has loved man and who has created him; He 'looked upon this miserable nothingness and set about forming our being'. The first and only duty of man then is to give back to God what He has given to us, in recognizing Him as man's only Master, 'the true centre of the world'. This absolute and final theocentrism means, therefore, that everything is to be related to the one and triune God.

This theocentrism could be discouraging. If God is so far away, how can we hope to reach Him? But the French School did not lead to despair. This nothingness that is man is capable of reaching to God-that must not be forgotten. And between man and God there is a mediator -- Christ, God made man. It was towards Him that all the masters of the School turned their eyes; their spirituality was as Christocentric as it was theocentric. Father Bourgoing, one of Berulle's successors, said of him: 'He was sent, like another John the Baptist, to point out Jesus.' The mystery of the Incarnation inflamed them all. Through Him humanity was consecrated, sanctified and redeemed; it was the divine exaltation of a genuine humanism. Through Christ we adore the Father, Berulle emphasizes. Through Christ in the Blessed Sacrament we offer the Father the only meritorious sacrifice, adds Condren. Hence there is but one way to bridge the abyss which separates man in his nothingness from the divine infinity: 'to clothe himself with Our Lord; to annihilate within himself all interests other than those of God, according to the example of Christ Himself'. To Him alone must we adhere: that was the word the French School wished to propagate, and that doctrine was traditional. Does it differ from the words of St. Paul, who declared: 'And I live, yet not I; but Christ liveth in me'? It was the same doctrine, expressed with incomparable vigour and completeness.

The French School as a term can be used rather loosely to embrace all those who have been deeply influenced by the founding mystics of that School. Even a sampling of texts from all such spirituals would be impossible in one volume, for this School's influence extends well into our own century. We have chosen to concentrate upon the glowing center of the School, the founders and foundress. By undisputed consensus Cardinal Pierre de Berulle is the originating influence. Jean-Jacques Olier and John Eudes drink deeply from Berulle's well, but they are never mere imitations; their creative adaptations also serve as sources for the later followers. Readers normally think of Charles de Condren as belonging to the founding circle too, and we would agree, but the paucity of writings by Father Condren has led us to emphasize the other "principals." If you will, Father Condren surfaces chiefly through those whom he influenced.

It was a school of the interior life, of eminent spirituality based on dogma, and especially on the Incarnation. During the whole of the seventeenth century, and up to the time of the Regency, it left a profound impression on the French mind, and even outside France. There is no doubt that its teachers contributed more than any others to the laying of the foundations of that modern Catholic spirituality which is still practiced today.

The French School usually became, not the major influence, but an important formative influence over some religious "families," theologians, and those in quest of a spiritual life in general (excepting those who perhaps choose to allow this school the major voice). Here I have in mind those who explicitly refer to the School and/or its representatives, although one could make the case that in some instances the… READ MORE

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