The Gates of Eternal Life / Adrienne von Speyr

The Swiss spiritual writer and mystic explores the various and wonderful "gates into eternal life" which God's grace has placed in our earthly life to help us get to Heaven. These “gates” include the Sacraments, the Church's calendar, Faith, Prayer and Holy Scripture. Adrienne’s poetic and profound insights can reawaken our sense of the nearness of God, of his immense love and mercy, of his eternity and his great desire to bring to us to be with him there forever.

“When the Son on the Cross promises paradise in his company to the good thief, when he promises the future feast in Heaven to the Apostles, when he speaks of the kingdom of the Father, he is always pointing toward eternity. However brief and close to the earth his words sound, they echo throughout infinite eternity and permeate the faith of his followers with their eternal content. He knows what he speaks of, what he brings with him and what he promises; and he can convey it to those who know it not. The very words he uses are designed to awaken in them a new sense: the sense of the eternal.”
- Adrienne von Speyr

Adrienne von Speyr was a contemporary Swiss convert, mystic, wife, medical doctor and author of some 70 books on spirituality and theology. She entered the Church under the direction of one the greatest theologians of the 20th century, Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar, who became her spiritual director and confessor for the last 30 years of her life. Her writings, recognized as a major contribution to the great mystical writings of the Church, are being translated and published by Ignatius Press. Among her most important works are Book of All Saints, Confession, The World of Prayer, Handmaid of the Lord, and The Passion from Within.