Close friends ground us and keep us from thinking that what we have is our own accomplishment. One of their recent posts, transgenderism isnt a thing is in the same vein of subjects weve written about here on spiritual friendship. Spiritual friendship cistercian studies series marsha l. Aelred writes in the prologue to his best known work, the treatise on spiritual friendship, that. My pro posed answer for a spirituality at the junction of modernity and post modernity is a spirituality of mercy. Saint aelred of rievaulx cistercian monk britannica. The idea suggests knocking on the door of a cell which will forever remain closed. When i was still just a lad at school, and the charm of my companions pleased me very much, i gave my whole soul to affection and devoted myself to love amid the ways and vices with which that age is wont to be threatened, so that nothing seemed to me more. The first clairvaux collection, adventall saints, translated by theodore berkeley and m. Weekly spiritual guidance tarot reading april 19 2020. Tlc stands for to love christ and is a twoyear certificate training that kristi and i lead for pastors and ministry leaderscaregivers in. Spiritual friendship by saint aelred of rievaulx librarything. Life in the medieval cloister, continuum publishing 2009 leyser, henrietta.
Spiritual friendship cistercian fathers by aelred, marsha l dutton, lawrence c braceland isbn. The spiritual status of samesex attraction governed paradoxically by a rule of celibacy is a fascinating concept. Ignatian spirituality is given through guided meditations, weekend, 8day, and 30day retreats based on the spiritual exercises of st. Over the years aelred rose to considerable prominence in england, and his counsel was sought out by church. Spiritual friendship cistercian fathers book 5 kindle. Among spiritual writers, i think that aelred of rievaulx has been largely overlooked. He references cicero and his treatise on friendship which i picked up for later reading, but presents his thoughts on friendship, sharing his experiencemostly from his aelred was a. When the friendship has these characteristics, it can be said to be a true friendship, a spiritual friendship, one which builds up both parties and helps them journey towards god.
Aelred s ideas are a challenge to many modern concepts of the spiritual life. Spiritual friendship, by aelred of rievaulx, alban books. Aelred, 9780870612428, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Friendship, aelred teaches, is both a gift from god and a creation of human effort. He is regarded by anglicans and catholics as a saint. I have written my share of essays which use friendship as models for discussion, and in time, i too, will post them online. Aelred of rievaulx is one of the most important influences on my vision for the spiritual friendship blog. The man who hopes for anything else does not understand what true friendship is. Patricia carroll ocso draws our attention to aelred of rievaulx, a cistercian saint and spiritual writer who specialised in writing about friendship as an image of the relationship between god and each person. Ignatian spirituality serves the contemporary world as people strive to develop a friendship with god. Saint aelred of rievaulx is currently considered a single author. Finding love in the church as a celibate gay christian. His most famous work is perhaps his spiritual friendship, a treatise. Spiritual friendshipis today the best known and perhaps most influential of the thirteen surviving works of aelred, abbot of the great english cistercian abbey of rievaulx from 1147 1167.
Spiritual friendship is today the best known and perhaps most influential of the thirteen surviving works of aelred, abbot of the great english cistercian abbey of rievaulx from 11471167. Aelred, of rievaulx, saint,11101167, friendshipreligious aspectschristianity, england, history, great britain, importance. Speculum caritatis the mirror of charity, which aelred wrote at bernards insistence, is a treatise on monastic life. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading spiritual friendship cistercian fathers book 5. In 1095, the council of claremont had forbidden the ordination of the sons of priests. Of noble birth, aelred was reared at the court of king david i of scotland, whose life. Pour into our hearts, o god, the holy spirits gift of love, that we, clasping each the others hand, may share the joy of friendship, human and divine, and with your servant aelred draw many to your community of love. A reading log is a simple and helpful tool for studying a book and recording your favorite quotes. And aelred takes a further significant step when he moves from affirming that god is love to. Spiritual friendship, cistercian pubns 27 copy quote. His name was not, however, saint aelred it was aelred. Aelred was born in hexham, northumbria, in 1110, one of three sons of eilaf, priest of st andrews at hexham, himself a son of another eilaf, treasurer of durham. Some of those topics, will overlap with spiritual friendships ongoing discussions around the place of sexual minorities in the church.
The interaction between spiritual friends is a mutual love and desire to see each other become all that god intends for them to become. The dnb notes that as a child, aelred prophesied the death of a bad archbishop of. I recently received a copy of wesley hills spiritual friendship. During this period, aelred wrote his best known work, spiritual friendship. True spiritual friendship, friendship that incarnates christ among us, perfects love. Friendship as spiritual encouragement geralyn july 1, 20 at 8. If one or more works are by a distinct, homonymous authors, go ahead and split the author. What aelred discovered is that happiness does not exist without friendship. The dialogue structure of spiritual friendship immediately shows the importance of others in the spiritual life.
In fact it is so noble, incredible and rare that one could say that he refers to intimacies between persons so great that contemporary culture would be inclined to describe such relations as being soul mates or kindred spirits. Now this new edition opens up the riches of this spiritual masterpiece to a wide audience of contemporary readers who see the spiritual life not as a solitary enterprise, but one intimately connected to relationships. Reading aelred of rievaulx s little treatise on spiritual friendship as an undergraduate was a lifechanging experience for me. In short, monastic theology, like monastic friendship according to the exemplary account of aelred of rievaulx, is ideally a balanced activity of reason and will, profoundly christcentered, existentially grounded in both sensible and spiritual experience, and quintessentially expressed in. St aelred of rievaulx and friendship the dominican friars order. From line of married priests in north of england in late 11th century.
This was done in part to end the inheritance of benefices. The classic text with a spiritual commentary by dennis billy, c. Ive written about his typology of friendship, as well as the distinction between true and false friendship. Can we stop trying to push a retrospective religious agenda onto historical fact. Given that i was on vacation, i was able to dive in for long stretches of road time and finished the book off quickly. He had a life of his own outside of the canonisers. At first sight, much of the book seems to consist of a tapestry of biblical texts. The end result of this mutually nurturing relationship is a spiritual transformation that honors god.
While love is universal, freely given to all, friendship is a particular love between individuals, of which the example is jesus and john the beloved disciple. Friendship as spiritual encouragement peace theology. Weekly spiritual guidance tarot reading for november 2026. During his abbacy he built rievaulx into a place of spiritual welcome and physical prosperity, desiring to make it a mother of mercy to those in need. Spiritual friendship by aelred of rievaulx 9780879079703. This sample reading log on spiritual friendship by aelred of rievaulx is like the ones that participants complete in our soul shepherding tlc program. Aelred of rievaulx asks us to carry on the everdynamic mission of the incarnation. Given that i was on vacation, i was able to dive in for. Writing in the style of a platonic dialog aelred builds off of the insights of cicero, the writings of the church fathers, his own experience of life in common as well as his experience of the depths of friendship in order to present this series of dialogs on the joys of friendship. The dnb notes that as a child, aelred prophesied the death of a bad archbishop of york.
Those familiar with aelred may be surprised that i intend to use. Aelred of rievalux work on spiritual friendship presents the most noble presentation of friendship i have ever read. Aelred of rievaulx us from gods service, as well as deluding our understanding of spiritual friendship. C this article has been rated as cclass on the projects. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project, see a list of open tasks, and join in discussions on the projects talk page. Spiritual friendship by aelred of rievaulx goodreads. Giacomo is one of the editors at orthodoxy in dialogue and asked if id contribute. I was intrigued by a couple of the names that endorsed the book and felt i needed to read it immediately. Medieval women, orion 1995 and with thanks to paul fogarty. He may have been partially educated by lawrence of durham, who sent him a hagiography. Spiritual friendship by aelred of rievaulx is one of the all time classic books of devotion to christ.
In a threebook ciceronian dialogue aelred defines human friendship as sacramental, beginning. He is regarded by anglicans, catholics, and other christians as a saint. Spiritual friendship cistercian fathers book 5 kindle edition by aelred of rievaulx, dutton, marsha l. Aelred was a twelfth century english cistercian monk, who.
Aelred relates the three traditional levels of spiritual consolation to the three sabbaths of the book of leviticus xxiii and xxv to which he specifically refers in book iii 80. His feast day is celebrated by the cistercians on february 3. In his writings on friendship, aelred distinguished three kinds. It starts as a dialogue between aelred and ivo, with a third, christ, present with them. Aelred, a 12thcentury cistercian abbot, insists that we need to test our beliefs about friendship with scripture.
Apr 01, 2010 spiritual friendship is today the best known and perhaps most influential of the thirteen surviving works of aelred, abbot of the great english cistercian abbey of rievaulx from 1147 1167. Formerly a retreat director in gloucester, massachusetts. Aelred was born in hexham, northumbria, in 1110, one of three sons of eilaf, priest of st andrews at. Aelred of rievaulx was an heir of saxons living under norman rule, a native speaker of english daily speaking french and latin, a descendant of generations of married priests in an age when priests were forbidden to wed, an english monk in a french order, an abbot bred to service in the church but trained for service in the court. Weekly spiritual guidance tarot reading for november 2026, 2017. Throughout his life, aelred took great joy in his friends and.
Mindy caliguire is the founder of soul care, a spiritual formation ministry that exists to increase soul health in the body of christ. Spiritual friendship is today the best known and perhaps most influential of the thirteen surviving works of aelred, abbot of the great english cistercian abbey of rievaulx from 1147 1167. Aelred of rievaulx as far as we know was a real person. Written in dialogue form, aelred of rievaulx offers wise counsel on many aspects of friendship. The provision is made for spiritual friendship which promotes a mutual journey throughout life. Spiritual friendship in 300 words spiritual friendship. At the time i had just written my post how should we then live. Aelred of rievaulx is within the scope of wikiproject yorkshire, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to yorkshire on wikipedia. Those familiar with aelred may be surprised that i. Certain readings of the symposium would also assert that to ascend the sublimation ladder from physical to spiritual mean you have. This eloquent book reminds us that scripture and tradition have a high view of. Carnal friendship is a mutual harmony in vice which begins when lustful eyes allow into the mind images of beautiful bodies. A few months ago i was invited to become one of the contributors to a new eastern orthodox blog called orthodoxy in dialogue. Aelred of rievaulx 11091167 early showed signs of promise.
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