Johannes Tauler Quotes on God
Johannes Tauler (c.1300–1361) — the Strasbourg Dominican preacher who along with Eckhart and Suso forms the trio of fourteenth-century Rhineland mysticism — gave late medieval German vernacular preaching one of its most influential treatments of the soul’s relation to God. The collected sermons develop the distinctive Rhineland doctrine of the divine ground (Grund) at the apex of the soul, in which God and the soul meet in an immediate union that transcends the discursive operations of imagination and intellect; the proper response to this divine reality is the disciplined letting-go (Gelassenheit) through which the soul is drawn beyond its lesser attachments. The framework, less speculatively heterodox than Eckhart’s preaching and so transmitted intact to the post-Reformation Lutheran spirituality of Arndt and the Pietists, shaped subsequent Protestant and Catholic devotional theology and the modern recovery of Rhineland mysticism.
Quotes
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Attributed to Johannes Tauler:
“God is closer to the soul than the soul is to itself.”
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Attributed to Johannes Tauler:
“The ground of the soul is the place where God dwells.”
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Attributed to Johannes Tauler:
“Suffering, rightly received, is the swiftest path to God.”
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Attributed to Johannes Tauler:
“Detachment is the gateway to true presence.”
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Attributed to Johannes Tauler:
“The interior word is more eloquent than any sermon.”
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“Become a fertile ground for the divine birth. Cherish this deep silence within, nourish it Cherish this deep silence within, nourish it frequently frequently .”
Quoted in "Johannes Tauler: Sermons" translated by Maria Shardy -
“May God help us to prepare a dwelling place for this noble birth, so that we may all attain spiritual motherhood”
Quoted in "Johannes Tauler: Sermons" translated by Maria May God help us to prepare a dwelling place for this noble birth, so that we may all attain spiritual motherhood Shardy -
“One man can spin, another can make shoes, and all these are gifts of the Holy Spirit. I tell you, if I were not a priest, I should esteem it a great gift that I was able to make shoes, and I would try to make them so well as to be a pattern to all”
Quoted in Ursula King, in "Christian Mystics: Their Lives and Legacies Throughout the Ages" (2001) -
“It is certain that if God is to be born in the soul it must turn back to eternity …. It must turn in toward itself with all is might, must recall itself, and concentrate all its faculties within itself, the lowest as well as the highest. All its dissipated powers must be gathered up into one, because unity is It is certain that if God is to be born in the soul it must turn back to eternity strength.”
Wikiquote -
“Next the soul must go out. It must travel away from itself, above itself…. There must be nothing left in us but a pure intention towards God; no will to be or become or obtain anything for ourselves. We must exist only to make a place for God, the highest innermost place, where He may do His work; there, when we are no longer putting ourselves in His way, He Unity is strength can he born in us.”
Wikiquote -
“If one would a It is impossible for us in words to describe the ineffable dignity of the soul and we cannot in any way comprehend it prepare an empty place in the depths of the soul there can be no doubt that God must fill it at once. If there were a void on earth the heaven would fall to fill it….”
Wikiquote -
“So you must be silent. Then God will be born in you, utter his word in you and you shall hear it; but be very sure that if you speak the word will have to be silent. If you go out, he will most surely come in; as much as you go out for him He will come in to you; no more, no less ….”
Wikiquote -
“The mystery of our union with God affected by the Eucharist, is a union more intimate than the human mind can conceive.”
From Our Daily Bread -
“Even then take heart! The Lord is certainly nearby. Hold fast to the support of the true living faith. Things will be fine. But it is unbelievable to the poor soul in its tortured state that this unbearable darkness could ever turn into light.”
Sermon 3