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Oct 4, 2023

Madame Guyon

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Jealousy had a lot to do with Jesus’ arrest. We read in Matthew’s gospel, “Pilate knew it was out of jealousy that they [religious leaders] looked for a way to hand Jesus over to him” (Matthew 27.18).
Jealousy figures big time into the attempt to silence Jeanne-Marie Bouvier (commonly known as Madame Guyon) (1648-1717). The hierarchy of the Catholic Church brought forward bogus charges to discredit her growing influence. In truth, they were jealous of her rising popularity. Her recently released book, A Simple and Easy Method of Prayer was the buzz all over Europe. It quickly went through six printings and was wildly popular with the contemplative crowd. A group of monks ordered fifteen hundred copies. Who was this laywoman, without proper training, attempting to teach monks and nuns? Public prayers had been the domain of the professional clergy, yet her writing displayed more insight into the human soul than what had been penned by priests and bishops. The church hierarchy feared her popularity would erode their credibility and influence, so they arrested her on grounds of heresy, witchcraft, and immorality. What a farce. Solzhenitsyn said, “Our envy of others devours us most of all.” They imprisoned her for a year in a small room without windows and proper ventilation and moved her to a dungeon in a remote castle where she spent the final years in the infamous Bastille prison for political prisoners. She endured seven years in jail, the last two in solitary confinement.

While Madame Guyon (pronounced Gay-yo) was in prison, she wrote A Little Bird I Am as a prayer. She described prayer in her book as “The application of the heart to God and the internal exercise of love.” Even in prison, her soul was free:

A little bird I am,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Shut from the fields of air,
And in my cage, I sit and sing,
To Him who placed me there,
Well pleased a prisoner to be,
Because, my God, it pleases Thee.

My cage confines me round,
Abroad I cannot fly,
But though my wing is closely bound,
My heart’s at liberty.
My prison walls cannot control
The flight, the freedom of my soul.

Oh, it is good to soar.
Those bolts and bars above,
To Him whose purpose I adore,
Whose provisions I love:
And in Thy mighty will to find
The joy, the freedom of the mind.

Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.