Vita Christi
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monastic wisdom series number forty-nine “Your Hearts Will Rejoice” Easter Meditations from the Vita Christi by Ludolph of Saxony, Carthusian monastic wisdom series Marsha Dutton, Executive Editor Advisory Board Michael Casey, ocso Terrence Kardong, osb Lawrence S. Cunningham Kathleen Norris Patrick Hart, ocso Miriam Pollard, ocso Robert Heller Bonnie Thurston monastic wisdom series number forty-nine “Your Hearts Will Rejoice” Easter Meditations from the Vita Christi by Ludolph of Saxony, Carthusian Translated by Milton T. Walsh Cistercian Publications www.cistercianpublications.org LITURGICAL PRESS Collegeville, Minnesota www.litpress.org A Cistercian Publications title published by Liturgical Press Cistercian Publications Editorial Offices 161 Grosvenor Street Athens, Ohio 54701 www.cistercianpublications.org Biblical citations are based on the Challoner revision of the Douay-Rheims translation of the Vulgate Bible. © 2016 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint John’s Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America. 123456789 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ludolf, von Sachsen, approximately 1300–1377 or 1378. [Vita Christi. Selections. English] Your hearts will rejoice : Easter meditations from the Vita Christi of Ludolph of Saxony, Carthusian / Ludolph the Carthusian ; translated by Milton T. Walsh. pages cm. — (Monastic wisdom series ; number forty-nine) ISBN 978-0-87907-349-7 — ISBN 978-0-87907-331-2 (ebook) 1. Jesus Christ—Biography—Early works to 1800. 2. Jesus Christ— Biblical teaching—Early works to 1800. 3. Easter—Meditations— Early works to 1800. I. Walsh, Milton T., translator. II. Title. BT301.3.L8313 2016 232.9'7—dc23 2015034156 So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. John 16:22 With gratitude to Saint Bruno’s companions, the Carthusian monks in Calabria waiting for the return of the master, ready to open the door for him as soon as he knocks. Saint Bruno, Letter to Raoul, 4 Contents gh List of Abbreviations ix Introduction xiii 1. Prologue: Holy Saturday 1 2. Our Lord’s Resurrection 10 3. The Myrrh-Bearing Women; Jesus Appears to His Mother 23 4. The Disciples at the Empty Tomb 30 5. Christ Appears to Mary Magdalen 46 6. Christ Appears to the Three Marys 61 7. Christ Appears to Peter, Joseph of Arimathea, James the Less, and the Holy Ancestors 67 8. The Lord Appears to Two Disciples on the Road to Emmaus 73 9. Christ Appears in the Upper Room When Thomas Is Absent 84 10. The Lord Appears Again, with Thomas Present 100 11. The Lord Appears to Seven Disciples by the Sea of Tiberias 109 12. Christ Appears in Galilee to the Eleven Apostles and to Five Hundred Disciples 128 13. Summation of the Resurrection Appearances 138 14. The Ascension 145 15. Pentecost: A Novena 165 Epilogue: The Romance of the Resurrection 188 vii Abbreviations for Works Cited gh Unless further identification is needed, Sermo or Hom refers to a sermon or homily by an author, followed by its number. Num- bers in brackets refer to modern critical editions that differ from the PL. When the citation is from a biblical commentary, Com is followed by the biblical reference, e.g., Com Matt 28:4. Bracketed references in this list refer to modern critical editions of the cited texts. Auvergne Guilielmi Alverni, Opera omnia (Paris, 1674) Brev in Ps Ps-Jerome, Breviarium in Psalmos CA Thomas Aquinas, Catena aurea Caillau S. Augustini, Sermones inediti Caillau Aug. Caillau, Augustini operum (Paris, 1836) CCCM Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediævalis CCL Corpus Christianorum Latinorum Conf Augustine, Confessiones [CCL, vol. 27] Creat Isidore, De ordine creaturarum [Mono- grafías de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela #10] CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum CSLP Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum Paravianum Cumm Cummianus, Commentarius in Evangelium secundam Marcam De civ Dei Augustine, De civitate Dei [CCL vols. 47–48] De cons ev Augustine, De consensu evangelistarum [CSEL vol. 43] ix x “Your Hearts Will Rejoice” De conv Bernard, De conversione ad clericos [SBOp vol. 4] De div Bernard, Sermones de diversis [SBOp vol. 6] De doc Augustine, De doctrina Christiana [CCL vol. 32] De exc Eadmer, De excellentia Virginis Mariae De fide Augustine, De fide et symbolo De inst Aelred of Rievaulx, De institutione inclu- sarum [CCCM 1] De laud Arnold of Bonneval, De laudibus Beatae Virginis Mariae De res carnis Tertullian, De resurrectione carnis De sym Augustine, Sermo de symbolo [CCL vol. 46] De Trin Augustine, De Trinitate [CCL vols. 50–51] De vir Ambrose, De virginibus [CSLP new series vol. 18] De vir ill Jerome, De viris illustribus Drogo Drogo of Ostia, Sermo de sacramento dominicae passionis En ev Matt, Mark . Theophylact, Enarrationes in Evangelium Matthaei, Marci, etc. En Ps Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos [CCL vols. 38–40] Ep Epistle Erasmus Erasmus, Origenis adamantii operum pars secunda (Basel, 1545) Ety Isidore, Etymologiae Eutropium Chrysostom, Oratio ad Eutropium Exp Acta Theophylact, Explicationes in Acta Apostolorum Exp ev Luke Ambrose, Expositio evangelii secundam Lucam Hex Ambrose, Hexaemeron [CCL vol. 14] Hist ev Peter Comestor, Historia evangelica Hom Acta Chrysostom, Homiliae in Acta Apostolorum Hom ev Bede, Homiliarium evangelii [CCL vol. 122] Hom John Chrysostom, Homiliae in Ioannem Abbreviations for Works Cited xi Hom Matt Chrysostom, Homiliae in Mattheum In Cant Cant I Alan de Lille, Compendiosa in Cantica Canticorum Int nom Jerome, Liber interpretationum hebraicorum nominum [CCSL 72] Lib de pas Ps-Bernard, Liber de passione Christi Liverani F. Liverani, Spicilegium Liberianum (Florence, 1863) Mar Eusebius, Quaestiones ad Marinum Med Anselm and others, Meditationes [Schmitt, S. Anselmi opera] Med red Anselm, Meditatio redemptionis humanae [Schmitt, S. Anselmi opera] Mor Gregory the Great, Moralium libri sive expositione in librum Iob [CCL vols. 43–43b] Opus imperf Ps-Chrysostom, Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum Orat Gregory Nazianzen, Orationes Oratio Aelred of Rievaulx, Oratio pastoralis (CCCM 1) PG Migne, Patrologia Graeca (Paris, 1856) PL Migne, Patrologia Latina (Paris, 1844) 40 hom Gregory the Great, XL homiliarium in Evangelia [CCL vol. 141] Quatuor Eadmer, De quatuor virtutibus Beatae Virginis Mariae Reg past Gregory the Great, Regula Pastoralis Roland Chrysostomi opera (Paris: Guillielmum Roland, 1546) SBOp Sancti Bernardi Opera (Rome, 1957–1963) SC Bernard, Sermones super Cantica Canticorum [SBOp vols. 1–2] Sedulius Sedulius, Carmen paschale Selecta Origen, Selecta in Psalmos Sent Albert the Great, Commentarii in sententiarum Super unum Peter Cantor, Super unum ex quatuor xii “Your Hearts Will Rejoice” Tr John ep Augustine, In Ioannis Epistulam tractatus Tr John ev Augustine, In Evangelium Ioannis tractatus [CCL vol. 36] VC Ludolph, Vita Christi Introduction gh The church devotes forty days to the Lenten fast and fifty days to the Easter feast. But while there are shelves of books about our Lord’s passion, there are relatively few devoted to his resurrection. What can we use for our prayer during the Easter season? Here, for the first time in English, are meditations for Easter from the Vita Christi, a spiritual classic of the fourteenth century. This work, written by the Carthu- sian Ludolph of Saxony, was an early and extremely comprehensive book of meditations on the events recorded in the gospels. The Vita Christi was popular for centuries, for it brought together a wealth of com- mentary on the life of Jesus by the fathers and saints.1 A Castilian translation read by Ignatius Loyola during his convalescence was instrumental in his conversion, and Teresa of Avila directed that every convent of her reform include “the Carthusian” in its library. The Vita Christi was read by Mary Mag- dalen de’ Pazzi and Robert Bellarmine and was rec- ommended to Jane Frances de Chantal by Francis de Sales.2 Nor was its influence limited to Roman Catholic 1 There is no critical edition of the Vita Christi. The text used for this translation is Ludolphus de Saxonia, Vita Jesu Christi, ed. L. M. Rigollot (Paris: Victor Palmé, 1870). 2 Ignatius of Loyola, “Reminiscences” 5, in Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings, trans. Joseph A Munitiz and Philip En- dean (London: Penguin Books, 1996), 14; Teresa of Avila, “The Constitutions” 8, in The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1985), 3:321. For information about the influence of the Vita Christi on many saints and authors over the centuries, xiii xiv “Your Hearts Will Rejoice” circles; Ludolph’s book was a favorite among the followers of the Devotio Moderna, and it is likely that Luther and other reformers were nourished by it. The reflections offered by Ludolph can assist us, too, as we seek to be fed by God’s word. Ludolph follows a pattern in each of his medita- tions, a pattern inspired by the spiritual reading of Scripture through a process of lectio divina. He be- gins with the biblical text itself, providing historical, geographical, or legal background where necessary, and invites the reader to enter imaginatively into the event. This first step corresponds to the literal sense, the stage of lectio. It is followed by an exploration of the text along moral and spiritual lines, a medita- tio providing spiritual interpretations and personal applications. Each chapter ends in oratio, a prayer that succinctly summarizes the main points of the meditation. Ludolph does not deal explicitly with the fourth stage, contemplatio. It is God’s gift, not the result of our effort. The author’s intent is to ready the soul for this profound encounter with God.