The Art of Listening to One's Own Heart
In the series "Autobiographical Spiritual Notes of Marie Petyt", we want to present a certain form of "vocation" of this Carmelite tertiary: to live her relationship with God in a special way through her spiritual notes; and also one of the possible ways of spiritual guidance that Marie Petyt received from the Carmelite Father Michael of St. Augustine: guidance through letters.
Marie Petyt (1623–1677) from Flanders, a Carmelite tertiary, for about thirty years made detailed notes about her spiritual experiences at the request of her spiritual leader Michael of St. Augustine. With great storytelling talent, she outlined her spiritual life with all its peaks and depths: the overwhelming love for God, delightful feelings of happiness on one side, but also profound abandonment and despair, even thoughts of suicide on the other. Marie wrote to clarify for herself what she was experiencing. With unrefined sincerity and almost anxious precision, she went through a long journey of often painful self-analysis that led her deeper into union with her divine Creator. She did not think of a broader audience, but sought intimate spiritual sharing with her confessor. The extraordinary literary strength of her expression, however, made Marie Petyt one of the greatest prose writers in the Dutch-speaking world of the seventeenth century.
After various negative experiences with guidance: she briefly belonged to the Augustinian sisters in Ghent, but due to a visual impairment, she was dismissed from their monastery; she lived for three years in the community of beguines under the guidance of a Carmelite who was not very knowledgeable in spiritual guidance, finally found in 1647 in Michael of St. Augustine a leader and confidant who could provide decisive direction to her spiritual journey. Michael taught her the art of listening to her own heart and following the call of God's love that comes from her own depths. Naturally, Marie did not want to lose this beneficial guidance when Michael left Ghent after just a year:
When my esteemed father stood up only a few days before his departure, I was moved to ask him to allow me to remain under his guidance and to be my spiritual father forever. I was only concerned with continuing in the same spirit and on the same path that he had introduced me to. At first, he was very reluctant..., but when he saw my great desire and my eagerness to continue on the path in his spirit, he was internally moved to accept us, and allowed us to write to him every four months and report what had happened in our inner life during that time, albeit briefly. When something changed in prayer or new graces and inspirations appeared, I had to note everything down briefly and send it to him at the agreed time so that I could hear his judgment on these matters. This is necessary – he said – to prevent the danger of self-deception or too much reliance on my own thoughts and wisdom. He indeed guided my soul along safe paths, in complete innocence, submission, and relativization of my own understanding.
(1) This refers to Marie Petit and another sister Catherine van Oorsaghe.
Excerpted from the book: Grundkurs Spiritualität des Karmel
Editor: Michael Plattig and Elisabeth Hense, 2006
Translated and edited by: Norbert Žuška, OCarm.
