Throughout the summer and into the fall, we’ll meet some of
the women honored by the Anglican and Episcopal Churches as members of the
‘Great Cloud of Witnesses’ in the liturgical calendar. These are ordinary
people whose work for the Kingdom is recognized as important due to their
actions. Some were activists, some authors, some monastics, some groundbreakers
and Kingdom movers in other ways.
This week, we meet Evelyn Underhill, writer and
pacifist, who was born December 6, 1875 in Wolverhampton, England to Sir Arthur
Underhill, a lawyer, and Alice Lucy. On July 3, 1907 Evelyn married Hubert
Stuart Moore, a lawyer, who she knew from childhood. She is best known for her
writings on mysticism. She did become a Christian until 1907 and it wasn’t
until 1921 that she joined the Anglican church. Her first book on Mysticism
was published in 1911.
Underhill’s definition of Mysticism has five stages, similar to earlier
mystics. These are the Awakening of Self, the Purgation of Self, Illumination,
Dark Night of the Soul, and ultimately Unity with God. She insisted that union
with God produced a glorious, fruitful, and active creativeness, rather
than creating a passive ‘dreaming lover of God’. She believed, “We are all the kindred
of the mystics…They belong to us; the giants, the heroes of our race…our
guarantee of the end to which immanent love, the hidden steersman...is
moving...us on the path toward the Real.”
Underhill was fond of quoting St. Teresa who advised “to
give Our Lord a perfect service Martha and Mary must combine.” To this end
she divided her days between writing, visiting the poor, and leading retreats.
During WWI she worked for the English Admiralty doing naval intelligence in
Africa. By 1939 her views on war changed and she joined the Anglican Pacifist
Fellowship. She wrote a strongly worded pamphlet for the group in 1940 entitled
The Church and War.
The Old Testament Lesson for the feast day of Evelyn
Underhill is taken from the Book of Wisdom (7:24-8:1). “For wisdom is…a
breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty…she
is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and
an image of his goodness. Although she is but one, she can do all
things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every
generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and
prophets; for God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom…She
reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and she orders all
things well.” Underhill would agree that indeed it is Lady Wisdom
(Sophia) who guides the mystic seeker along the path to Unity with God.
Evelyn Underhill died at Hampstead on June 15, 1941 at age
66. June 15 is the feast day for Evelyn Underhill in the Anglican and Episcopal
lectionary.
In her own words:
God is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the
Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude in that
sacrament.
We mostly spend [our] lives conjugating three verbs: to
Want, to Have, and to Do... forgetting that none of these verbs have any
ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included
in , the fundamental verb, to Be.
Faith is not a refuge from reality. It is a demand that
we face reality...The true subject matter of religion is not our own
little souls, but the Eternal God and His whole mysterious purpose, and our
solemn responsibility to Him.
In mysticism that love of truth which we saw as the
beginning of all philosophy leaves the merely intellectual sphere, and takes on
the assured aspect of a personal passion…whilst the Absolute of the
metaphysicians remains a diagram —impersonal and unattainable—the Absolute
of the mystics is lovable, attainable, alive.
This is the secret of joy. We shall no longer strive for
our own way; but commit ourselves, easily and simply, to God's way, acquiesce
in His will, and in so doing find our peace.
…Remember that the only [spiritual] growth which matters
happens without our knowledge and that trying to stretch ourselves is both
dangerous and silly. Think of the Infinite Goodness, never of your own
state.
IN OUR LIVES:
Which one of these quotes, or another by Evelyn Underhill, is worth thinking of and incorporating into your daily prayers and living?
For me, I need to remember that "God is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the
Present Moment." It is too easy for me to get caught up in the 'busy-ness of doing' and forget to be Present to the moment and to God in that moment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Underhill
and http://evelynunderhill.org/about/