Jeanne Guyon S Mystical Perfection Through Eucharistic Suffering

Madame Jeanne Guyon (1648-1717), a woman of great wisdom and worship, was filled with the richness of God's grace as she endured hardships and abuse in her married life. Blessed with children and great earthly wealth, she suffered physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually at the hands of her spiritual leaders, imprisoned unjustly for her simple yet solid faith in Christ, her Divine Confidant. Trusting in her Lord, she expressed her insights in commentaries concerning the Scriptures, seeing in them the mysteries of the holy Eucharist, the sacrificial presence of her merciful Savior. Through her intercession, we are inspired to adore the Lord, uniting our suffering to his as she did.

The first English translation of Jeanne Guyon's The Way of the Child Jesus. Many have found spiritual satisfaction in the theology of Madame Guyon (1648-1717). In this short book The Way of the Child Jesus: Our Model of Perfection, Guyon writes her theology in a helpful way. She clearly describes the interior transformation caused by the mystery of the Child Jesus and offers hope for life lived in Christ's spiritual grace. Guyon shows that the Child Jesus may cling to us and provide a shelter from the storms of life. The Spirit then reveals God's character within and makes a stable and happy home for Christ within our heart. Translated and introduced by America's leading authority on Guyon, Nancy Carol James, this book offers wisdom for all seeking a profound and prayerful relationship with Christ. "Not only is Madame Guyon a deep and profound theologian, but she invites the Christian into an ever deeper relationship with God. Madame Guyon stands alongside the greats in the mystical tradition-Mother Julian of Norwich, Meister Eckhart, and Thomas aKempis." -- Dr. Ian Markham, dean of Virginia Theological Seminary Nancy Carol James has a PhD from the University of Virginia with her dissertation written about Jeanne Guyon. Other books by Nancy Carol James include Guyon's biography I, Jeanne Guyon. James has also translated and published Guyon's poems and emblems in her famous book The Soul, Lover of God. The front cover and title page show emblems drawn by Flemish artist D'Othon Vaenius Madame Guyon used these in her 1717 book The Soul, Lover of God. Endorsed by the Madame Guyon Foundation."

'Short and Easy Method of Prayer' is a religious book by French mystic Madame Guyon about the depth of praying. The author tells about different aspects of prayer and offers glimpses of its depth. The book provides a way of understanding a deeper prayer and tells of effortlessness of coming to God in prayer. 'The Autobiography of Madame Guyon' is a memoir of Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, French mystic from seventeenth and eighteenth century. Guyon had a belief in God's perfect plan, fiercely believing that she would be blessed in suffering. She was introduced to mysticism by Fr. François La Combe, the superior of the Barnabite house in Thonon in Savoy.

In seventeenth-century France, Jeanne Guyon wrote about God, "I loved him, and I burned with his fire because I loved him, and I loved him in such a way that I could love only him, but in loving him I had no motive save himself." She called this the pure love of God. Guyon traveled throughout Europe teaching others how to pray and her books became popular bestsellers. She expressed her Christian faith that Jesus Christ lives within our interior life. As Guyon became increasingly popular, the church and state authorities used the power of the Roman Catholic Inquisition and arrested her, charging her with heresy. Guyon spent nearly ten years incarcerated, including five years in the Bastille from 1698-1703. The state authorities judged her innocent. After her release, she lived in Blois on the Loire River and welcomed visitors from Europe and the New World who talked with her about the Christian faith. This is the first English translation of Guyon's Commentary on the Gospel of Luke.

Widowed at 28, Jeanne-Marie Guyon was a French woman of the 17th century whose writings on her belief in prayer and the prayer life have been followed for many years. She was persecuted for most of her life because she believed all Christians could have a rich interior life of prayer. Her constant communication with the Lord sustained her through imprisonment and great sorrow in her personal life.

From its inception in the nineteenth century, the Wesleyan/Holiness religious tradition has offered an alternative construction of gender and supported the equality of the sexes. In Holy Boldness, Susie C. Stanley provides a comprehensive analysis of spiritual autobiographies by thirty-four American Wesleyan/Holiness women preachers, published between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. While a few of these women, primarily African Americans, have been added to the canon of American women's autobiography, Stanley argues for the expansion of the canon to incorporate the majority of the women in her study. She reveals how these empowered women carried out public ministries on behalf of evangelism and social justice. The defining doctrine of the Wesleyan/Holiness tradition is the belief in sanctification, or experiencing a state of holiness. Stanley's analysis illuminates how the concept of the sanctified self inspired women to break out of the narrow confines of the traditional "women's sphere" and engage in public ministries, from preaching at camp meetings and revivals to ministering in prisons and tenements. Moreover, as a result of the Wesleyan/Holiness emphasis on experience as a valid source of theology, many women preachers turned to autobiography as a way to share their spiritual quest and religiously motivated activities with others. In such writings, these preachers focused on the events that shaped their spiritual growth and their calling to ministry, often giving only the barest details of their personal lives. Thus, Holy Boldness is not a collective biography of these women but rather an exploration of how sanctification influenced their evangelistic and social ministries. Using the tools of feminist theory and autobiographical analysis in addition to historical and theological interpretation, Stanley traces a trajectory of Christian women's autobiographies and introduces many previously unknown spiritual autobiographies that will expand our understanding of Christian spirituality in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. The Author: Susie C. Stanley is professor of historical theology at Messiah College. She is the author of Feminist Pillar of Fire: The Life of Alma White.