Ignatian Humanism: A Dynamic Spirituality for the 21st Century by Ronald Modras

Author:Ronald Modras
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780829429862
Publisher: Loyola Press

I GNATIANS PIRITUALITY IN AB AROQUEA GE

As the Cautioexemplifies Spee’s humanism, his Ignatian spirituality shines out in the poetry of his Rival Nightingaleand his Golden Book of Virtues.These, unlike the Cautio, which he wrote in Latin for the educated elite, Spee wrote in German for lay people, and they reflect the aesthetic taste of the day. In many ways Spee’s poems and book of virtues resemble the church architecture and art of his time, both characterized by an exuberance of ornamentation and detail. Before long we want to say enough already. We may admire their artistry and execution but our aesthetic sensibilities prefer more restraint.

Modern readers tend to have the same reaction reading Spee’s book of virtues with their seventy songs intended to “ignite all the hearts in the whole wide world.” Even more so with the fifty-one poems of the Rival Nightingale: A Poetic Spiritual Pleasure-Garden. 52The peculiar title seems to come from Spee’s resolve to prove himself a match for Martin Luther, crowned by his admirers as the “Wittenberg Nightingale.” In that age of confessional one-upmanship, Spee was a Counter-Reformation Catholic determined to prove that Protestants were not the only ones who knew how to write good hymns in their native tongue. Catholics could praise God in German too, and Spee was bent on giving them the words to do it.

Spee intended his verses to be sung, and some he set to music himself. He had been writing in this genre since his earliest years as a Jesuit, when he wrote songs for his catechism classes. Hymns were his first works to be published and were to be found in various collections, although without attribution, so that it is not easy to determine which ones are genuinely his. Several of his hymns are still sung today in Germany, in both Catholic and Protestant churches, and one of the poems in the Rival Nightingalewas set to music by Johannes Brahms. 53

As a kind of overture for the entire book, Spee describes himself in the first poem as a “rival nightingale,” wounded by the “sweet arrow” of love for Jesus. Spee’s ardor can quickly become cloying with his repeated recourse to diminutives like “little flame” and “little flower.” Equally alien to our tastes are the images drawn from classic Latin poetry, describing Jesus as the shepherd Daphnis or “chaste love, Cupid pure.” Spee borrows too from the bridal imagery of the biblical Song of Songs, and, as have many Christian mystics, he writes of the feminine soul (anima)longing for Christ, her spouse. In verses reminiscent of the old Latin hymns sung by monks in their morning and evening prayers, Spee waxes lyrical over the beauties of creation. “When dawn dispels the night with its golden rays,” joyfully he awakens and calls to God. “When murky gloom at eventide clothes us in dark shadows,” he ponders his sins and the brevity of life. He closes with a challenge to the world to raise its voice in a songfest in praise of God.

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