Toward Sainthood Dutch Blessed Titus Brandsma, O. Carm., and Our Spiritual Heritage: A Reflection ne of Titus’ greatest passions was the rich heritage of the service comes as no surprise to !). Omedieval from the “Lowlands”, the area Titus also wrote a lengthy comparison of the spiritual thinking which is now present day Holland, Belgium, and Luxem- of Ruusbroec and Teresa of Avila and concluded they had very bourg. Not only did he appear to be nourished spiritually by similar approaches with different accents. According to him, these men and women who contributed so much to the both stress that a person must “see his inward and actual Church’s tradition, but he made it his life’s work to research dependency and origin from God, who meets him there and and teach about his spiritual forebears. reveals to him his love, wisdom and power. And as he penetrates He wrote a regular column entitled “Our Spiritual Heritage” in deeper and deeper into that dependency and origin from God’s which he endeavored to hand, there unfolds for connect his 20th c. him something of that Dutch readers with their groundless mystery of earlier medieval the birth of eternal spiritual ancestors. He Wisdom from the also traveled around bosom of the Father, Europe, studying and for in that eternal birth photographing the of the Son of God, original texts from the God recognizes earlier centuries. Indeed, himself as the image Hein Blommestijn, and ground of all that O.Carm., of the Titus will come into being”. Brandsma Institute at Scholars report that the Catholic University is likely that in the Ruusbroec’s works commented that Titus’ had some indirect photographs of these influence on Carmelite medieval texts are spirituality. We know especially precious as that Teresa read the many of the original works of Francis of manuscripts were destroyed in WWII bombing. Osuna who himself had read Ruusbroec. James Wiseman, O.S.B., Though names such as Hadewyck, who wrote in the first half of a modern day translator of Ruusbroec, suggests that similarities the thirteenth century, or Beatrijs of Nazareth, a mid- thirteenth between and the medieval Rhineland and century prioress of a Cistercian monastery, are not household Lowland mystics may have come from the influence of a Dutch names today, perhaps the name of Jan van Ruusbroec is more Franciscan, Henry Herp, who publicized Ruusbroec’s teachings. familiar. Titus, a self proclaimed “lover of Ruusbroec”, never Titus himself also worked with the texts of the seventeenth missed an opportunity to remind Dutch Catholics of the deep, century Carmelites, Maria Petyt, and John of St. Samson and rich mystical stream from which they had come! alerted his 20th c. readers to the enduring value of their works. Titus even implied that the passion and affectivity of Ruusbroec Through Titus’ passion for and research about the medieval could be a good antidote to the more sober, practical nature of the spirituality of the Lowlands, we can better appreciate our own Dutch. He wrote that Ruusbroec emphasized “the procession of spiritual genealogy and the fact that we are all dependent on all creatures from the Bosom of the Father through the birth of spiritual ancestors for the faith handed down to us. While direct the Son” and the necessity of interiority or turning inward to influences on us may be easy to identify, the stream of influential “become aware of the divine indwelling, to understand properly authors, saints, mystics, etc., who have enriched our tradition need one’s sharing in the divine nature”. to be remembered too. There are still Carmelites alive today who Titus also called attention to Ruusbroec’s use of the term knew Titus, who remember his 1935 trip to the U.S., and who keep “common life” which signified “the spiritual marriage of alive their active memories of his presence among us. indissoluble union” between a soul and the Bridegroom. In this May his dedication to the tradition of the medieval Lowlands and spiritual marriage the “common life” flows easily between the to the Carmelite tradition in particular, remind us to be grateful for poles of contemplation and good works, the concrete expression all the indirect links and influences which connect us to our of the fruits of contemplative prayer. spiritual forebears. And most especially let us recall Titus’ The artist who sculpted the statue of Titus at the Catholic counsel: “The awareness of that life of God in us, of the indwelling University in , Holland said he specifically had of the Blessed Trinity must again be awakened in us. God must Ruusbroec’s common life in mind in his portrayal of Titus. To live in us again, must be born in us again”. illustrate the mutual flowing back and forth of the spiritual and Jane E. Lytle-Vieira active life, he portrayed Titus in his Carmelite habit as a symbol Severna Park, MD of his contemplative prayer and showed him holding his aca- demic robes to represent his active life of good works as an (All translations from Titus’ work on Ruusbroec were done by academic (the reciprocal relationship between contemplation and Joachim Smet, O.Carm.)

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