Michael Molinos

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

July 28, 2011


 THE LIFE OF MICHAEL MOLINOS – Part 9 - 2001-12-08


 (This biographical section comes from “The Spiritual Guide” by Michael
Molinos. It can be obtained through SeedSowers Publishing, 4003 North
Liberty Street, Jacksonville, FL 32206 – Tel: 1-800-228-2665 – *
www.SeedSowers.com <http://www.seedsowers.com/>* )


 In the midst of all the scandalous rumors and electric excitement, a
bombshell went off. The city of Rome was officially informed that Molinos
had confessed he was a heretic … and that he had *recanted*. There was also
released the ominous and damning statement that “he had also confessed other
sins.” To date, what those sins were has never been revealed. Further, Rome
was now informed, the Inquisition had found Molinos guilty of heresy, and he
had been officially sentenced to life imprisonment. Again, strong evidence
there was no substance to the charges of immorality. Had they been true he
would certainly have received the death penalty. This, as far as I can
ascertain, was the first public knowledge that Molinos had been tried in
court!


You can get some idea of how much the mind of the public had been
re-programmed toward Molinos, and how much this life was still public topic
number one, in this footnote: On the day Molinos recanted, every church in
Rome rang its bells at the news. It was a day of jubilation for everyone.

What were the conditions of his recantation? Many felt he had been tortured.
Others felt he was obeying his own belief that all men should submit to the
church in whatever the church called for. There is no question about this:
Molinos would have submitted to anything the church finally decreed, no
matter what the conditions.


 On the 28th day of August, 1687, an official decree was posted by the
Inquisition declaring Molinos guilty of “having taught Godless doctrines and
of having practiced them.”


Included in this proclamation were 68 propositions stating that Molinos’
teachings were “heretical, blasphemous, offensive to pious ears, insolent,
and dangerous to the destruction of Christian morality,” but never – to my
knowledge – did they ever specify *anything*. All public statements ever
released about Molinos were couched in vague generalities.


 Not only did the Inquisition not give specific explanations, but it was
clear it did not wish to do so. Was the Inquisition ashamed to let
Christendom know the basis on which it drew its conclusions? One historian
observed that everything which was publicly and officially said about
Molinos was mild, and lacked enough weight to brand him a heretic or justify
life imprisonment.


 But on that fateful day of August 28, 1687, no one thought of such matters.
Once the charges against Molinos were officially made public all copies of
the *Spiritual Guide* – once officially acclaimed by the Inquisition – were
ordered *burned*. Anyone found possessing *anything* by Molinos would be
automatically excommunicated from the church.


 Had Molinos really been on the verge of a great reformation movement within
the Roman Catholic church? Had such a reform happened would the people of
the Roman church, along with its clergy, have been brought into a deeper
walk with their professed Lord? We will never know. The torch was so
successfully put to this movement that 300 years later the question is
unanswerable. The system had once again triumphed over liberty, the heart,
and realms unseen.


 What followed is one of those moments of history that is a caricature –
almost a comedy – of justice.

The Inquisition set aside a day to make itself look good, look legitimate,
and most of all, look powerful. It was decided that Molinos’ renunciation of
his heresy would be officially celebrated, with all the pomp of which the
church was capable. (And it was capable of a great deal.) September 23 was
set aside for this grand occasion.


 Can you believe that the church issued a proclamation stating that any
person attending this auspicious ceremony would be given 15 years of
indulgences! With that a crowd of mammoth proportions was guaranteed!


 The ceremony was held at a church called Santa Maria Sopraminerva. The
recantation was to be made out in full view of the waiting multitude.

On the appointed day cardinals and bishops, members of the holy office,
royalty (including princes), ambassadors and their ladies came … along with
Rome’s tens of thousands of ordinary people. So great was the throng that
for a time the vaunted Swiss Guard seemed incapable of containing it. In the
melee a number of persons were injured.


 At the same time during that day Molinos was given his last meal before
imprisonment. The Vatican could afford to be gracious; we are told that it
was a luxurious repast.


 At some high moment of the celebration Molinos was dramatically led before
the expectant mass. Molinos, 65, stood before them dignified and melancholy.
Attired in the garment of the penitent, his shackled hands held a burning
torch. He was conducted to a platform facing the cardinals and the tribunal.
Around him were the ladies and the nobility, the priests, seminarians, and
prelates. Someone mounted the pulpit and read aloud the charges against him;
the reading took several hours. The crowd, we are told, became so incensed
at hearing all that was charged against him that they began accompanying the
reading with the cry, “To the flames! To the flames!”


 Ah, we Christians do have a flair for persecuting one another!!


 Following the reading came the pronouncement of judgment – Molinos was to
be sentenced to life imprisonment. Within that lonely cell, the judgment
continued; he was commanded to recite the Apostles’ Creed, once daily; twice
each day he was to recite the rosary; three times a week he was to fast.
Confession was to be four times a year. As to the receiving of the
sacraments, this was a decision left to his confessor.


 After the reading of the judgment Molinos knelt down and formally renounced
his heresy. He then signed a formal statement to the same effect, turned and
received absolution from the commissary of the Pope.


 At last, the thing was over.


 Chapter 12 – SELF SEEKING, IN THE SEEKING OF GOD


 (Taken from “The Spiritual Guide” by Michael Molinos)


 * *God loves not the believer who does the most, nor who feels the most,
nor who thinks the most cleverly and best, nor even that one who shows the
greatest love, but He loves him who suffers the most.


 I am aware that in telling you that a deeper prayer is a prayer that does
not depend on outward senses nor on those things which are pleasing to our
natural man, that we are speaking of something that requires the martyrdom
of some parts of us. But, please remember, we are also speaking of something
that pleases the Lord.


 When there is no emotional experience nor intellectual insight into His
way, the enemy may suggest to you that God has not spoken. But your Lord is
not impressed with a multitude of words. He is impressed with the purity of
the intent of your heart. He wishes to see the inward part of you humbled,
quiet, and totally surrendered to Him and to His will, whatever it may be.
You may not find emotions to produce such a relationship, but you will find
a door by which you will enter into your nothingness and His all.


 There are those people who *have* begun a practice of collecting their
inmost being but turned away from it almost immediately because they did not
find any *pleasure* in it! There was no sense of God, there was no power,
there was no sense of being pleased with their own thought, or being
impressed with the way they formed their words and sentences to God.
Actually all of these approaches to God *are nothing but a hunt for sensible
pleasures*. This, to God, is but self-love and seeking after self. It is
really not a seeking after God at all.


 It is *necessary* that you suffer a little pain and a little dryness.
Without thinking about how much time you have lost or what other losses you
have sustained, come to the Lord with reverence, paying no attention to
dryness and sterility. You will find eternal reward.

The more your outward man delights in some sort of pleasure in prayer, the
less delight there is in the Lord. But the less you care for the outward
thrills of spiritual things … ah, *here* is something which delights the
Lord.


 *EDITORIAL NOTE*: There are two more sections to the biography of Michael
Molinos. He was brought up in Spain to the Catholic priesthood. As a Spanish
professor in theology, he had an exact knowledge of St. John of the Cross --
and St. Theresa of Avila, leading figures in the Contemplative Movement. He
not only understood the way of the Interior Life and the Prayer of the
Heart, but he experienced and practiced it.


 He moved to Rome and became a friend and mentor of Cardinals and high
people – even the Pope! He wrote “The Spiritual Guide” by request, so that
many more people could profit from his life and teachings. It was translated
into all the major languages of Europe, and at one time 20,000 in one city
of Italy followed his example and teachings.


 It was jealousy that led the Inquisition and Jesuits to seek a way to cut
his growing popularity and effectiveness.


 At the same time in France Madame Guyon and Fenelon were exciting the fear
and opposition of these same parties. Madame Guyon was imprisoned for 10
years, part of that time in the Bastille. She wrote many books, but
“Experiencing God through Prayer” probably helped countless numbers on the
same level as did “The Spiritual Guide” by Molinos.


 “It is Madame, because you seek without what is within. Accustom yourself
to seek God in your heart, for you shall there find Him.” These words
addressed to Madame Guyon by a Franciscan monk dramatically changed the
direction of her frustrating life. From an early age she began to realize
the words of Jesus to be true -–that the Kingdom of God is within you!


 Truly God is Transcendent – but He is also Immanent. From the viewpoint of
experience, we need to be immersed by Jesus in the Holy Spirit, by which we
are in Him, and He in us. A bottle without a cork thrown into the ocean is
an example of what God desires for us!


 To read the list of names and movements influenced dramatically by the
writings of Madame Guyon is like reading a book of “Who’s Who!”

If you are living an “exterior life” as a believer, and sense an emptiness,
a frustration, a deep unfulfilled hunger and a feeling of frustration – try
dipping into the writings of Madame Guyon, Fenelon and Michael Molinos. If
you receive and persevere with these friends as mentors – you will in the
end marvel at the change you experience.


 May this be the blessing for your life in 2002! - J.A.Watt



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