Paperback: The stresses and strains of contemporary life leave so many of us thirsting for peace and clarity of mind and heart. While we may sense that constant distraction hinders spiritual growth, we may find it hard to cultivate attitudes of peace and stillness. We may long to experience closer communion with God, yet feel overwhelmed by the many demands on our attention.
This book invites us to nurture a spirituality of silence through the words and wisdom of the 19th-century Carmelite and mystic, Sister Marie-Aimée de Jésus. Sister Marie-Aimée de Jésus was drawn listen deeply to the sounds of silence and allow them to direct her on her way to giving all to God.
Silence directs us away from only doing for God, and towards being with God. Silence pulls us along, slowly and surely, to its ultimate aim: the peace and selfless joy of abiding solely in God.
Through a combination of her measured insights and exercises for personal application by author and spiritual teacher Lucinda M Vardey, the reader is invited on a twelve-movement journey into a silent and intimate union with God.
An introduction and biography of Marie-Aimée de Jésus explores her influence on other well-known Carmelites such as the saint and martyr Edith Stein.
The Twelve Degrees of Silence (2012) is an original translation from the French by Françoise Reuter and Lucinda M Vardey, who also edited this book. Additional reflections and introductions by Lucinda M Vardey can be found in this English translation.
About the author: Sr Marie-Aimée de Jésus (1839-1874) was a Discalced Carmelite in Avenue de Saxe (today "the Carmel of Créteil") in Paris. Her hagiographers report that she has several mystical experiences and the experience of the dark night of the soul. She is the author of various spiritual works which marked her time, and which are always reissued. Some of these publications have been the subject of musical adaptation such as "The Twelve Degrees of Silence" which gave rise to an organ work by Christophe d'Alessandro, and a concert in Paris with Markus Noisternig.
At the end of her life, she was the victim of several attacks and criticisms (until the day before her death). Contradictory and slanderous rumours, sometimes coming from ecclesiastical circles, spread, going so far as to question her writings. These attacks forced the apostolic nuncio to intervene. She died of pleurisy on 4 May 4 1874 in the odour of holiness, according to the testimony of the nuns present.
About the translators: Lucinda M Varley has written on Catholicism and contemporary spirituality with special emphasis on the works and writings of holy women. Her books include the compilation of the international bestseller of Mother Teresa's A Simple Path, an anthology of women's prayers entitled The Flowering of the Soul, Travelling with the Saints in Italy: Contemporary pilgrimages on ancient paths, and with her husband, John Dalla Costa, Being Generous: The art of right living. She is familiar with beauty and benefits of silence. Her website is www.dallaluce.com
Françoise Reuter was educated in Dominican and Jesuit schools in Marseille. In 1973, she emigrated to Canada, where she taught at the Toronto French School as well as being a private tutor. She is married to classics scholar and philosopher Mark Reuter and lives a quiet, secluded life of contemplation and study of the sacred.
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