The most engaging collection of the French mystics' writings now available
Twenty-first century Christians are now discovering the wisdom of this controversial theologian and spiritual thinker. Fenelon showed how it was possible to have devotion and faith in the original Age of Reason. In many respects, rationality still rules today in religion and culture, and as a result, Fenelon speaks to modern Christians wanting deeper faith and a meaningful inner life.
His writings have never been as accessible as they are now in these lively new translations. The Complete Fénelon includes more than one hundred of Fenelon's letters of spiritual counsel, as well as meditations on eighty-five other topics. Also translated here into English for the first time are Fenelon's personal reflections on twenty-one seasons and holidays of the Christian year. An introduction from bestselling translator Robert J. Edmonson and in-depth recommended reading and bibliography make this the first place to start in any study of Francois Fenelon.
François Fénelon was a seventeenth-century French archbishop who rose to a position of influence in the court of Louis XIV. Amid the splendor and decadence of Versailles, Fénelon became a wise mentor to many members of the king's court. Later exiled for political reasons, he set out to improve the lot of peasants of his diocese. His letters of counsel and spiritual meditations have found a wide audience for more than three centuries.
The most complete and engaging one-volume introduction to the Little Flower Following a thorough introduction to the saint's life, The Complete Therese presents her classic, The Story of a Soul, in complete and unabridged form. Then, unique to this edition is a portion of the original edition rarely seen, describing the saint's final days as seen through the eyes of the Sisters of the Lisieux Carmel; plus a poignant collection of over seventy firsthand anecdotes about Thérèse recounted by the Sisters following her death.
Also included a comprehensive selection of prayers, letters, and poems written by Therese, and in both French and English, the poem that inspired her to call herself the Little Flower. Further appendices give important dates for her life, taking the reader up to 1997, one hundred years after her death, when Pope John Paul II declared her to be a Doctor of the Church. Beautiful engravings and photographs throughout the book give the reader a view of the Little Flower's childhood home and family, her growing-up years, life at Carmel, her death, and the original gravesite.
Millions of hearts have been touched by St. Thérèse of Lisieux's desire, not to be mighty and great, but to be a humble, little flower that would gladden God's eyes as he glances down at his feet. Now, yours will be, too.