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‘The prophetycal lyf of an heremyte’: Elijah as the Model of the Contemplative Life in The Book of the First Monks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2013

Valerie Edden
Affiliation:
Theology Department Centre for the Editing of Texts in Religion, Birmingham
E. A. Jones
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Summary

‘You are at our shoulder, …

… cautioning us

to prepare not for the breathless journeys

into confusion, but for the stepping

aside through the invisible

veil that is about us into a state

not place of innocence and delight.’

(R. S. Thomas)

The ende of þe wyche lyf [þe relygyous lyf of an heremyte] is doble: on þe wych we getyn be the grace of God, helpynge be our labour and vertuows exercyse, and that is to offeryn to God an hooly herte and a clene fro actual fylthe of synne, wych ende we atteyne & neyhyn when we arn perfyth & in Caryth … Anothyr ende of thys lyf ys of þe clene ʒyfte of God ʒeven vnto vs, þat is for to seyne not alonly aftyr deth but now in thys dedly lyf sumwhat to tastyn in herte and prouyn in sowle þe vertu of þe presens of God and þe swetnesse of euerelastynge blysse.

(II ii, fol. 50v)

IN THIS WAY The Book of the Institution of the First Monks describes the aims of the Carmelite life, proposing Elijah as the model of the spiritual life. The Carmelite life is presented as one of solitude, contemplative prayer, a life led to allow the best opportunity for experiencing fully the presence of God in this life.

Type
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Information
The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England
Papers Read at Charney Manor, July 2004 [Exeter Symposium VII]
, pp. 149 - 162
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2004

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