Compassionate Presence

The Trinitarian Spirituality of Adrienne von Speyr

In the ancient Christian Apostles’ Creed, we speak the fourth line that Jesus Christ “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he went down to the dead (ad inferno—to hell).” This mysterious line of Christ’s descent to hell generated a deep mystical spirituality in Adrienne von Speyr (d. 1967), a Swiss laywoman, physician, wife, mother, and spiritual writer. Her extensive, speculative mysticism influenced the critical work of the Catholic theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar, who had a profound influence on Catholic theology in the late twentieth-century, and even today. In this book, Matthew Lewis Sutton offers a profound encounter with Adrienne’s mystical encounter with the inner life and intense love of the Trinity. This mystical spirituality of Holy Saturday—the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday—guides us away from our age of loneliness, isolation, and alienation toward a new restoration of compassion, love, and reconciliation. The ancient Christian doctrine of Christ descended to hell can be a rediscovery of the extreme compassion of God to rescue us back to his compassionate presence.