Love’s Guest by Marc Aronoff

Title: Love’s Guest

Author: Marc Aronoff

Publisher: Red Elixir

Genre: Religious & Spirituality, Philosophy

First Publication: 2023

Language: English

Book Summary: Love’s Guest by Marc Aronoff

Christian mystic Marc Aronoff invites us to consider Divine Love through the insightful writings of Saint Catherine of Genoa.

This beautifully illustrated Annotated Selection from Saint Catherine’s Spiritual Dialogues, a classic of Christian literature describing the Italian mystic’s spiritual transformation, includes a reflection workbook to encourage a deepening of love and understanding in our own lives. Freshly edited and revised for the modern reader, Saint Catherine speaks of Love as Spirit, God, and Human existence in a voice simultaneously profound and simple.

Book Review: Love’s Guest by Marc Aronoff

“Love’s Guest: Reflections of Inspiration and Wonder” is Marc Aronoff’s delightful offering to spiritual seekers hungry for a potent taste of saintly wisdom. Through his thoughtful selection and translation of passages from 15th century Italian mystic Saint Catherine of Genoa‘s “Spiritual Dialogues,” Aronoff succeeds in capturing the fiery essence of her God-intoxicated revelations concerning the nature of Divine Love.

With eloquent introductions and insightful annotation, the text flows smoothly, enhanced by stirring artwork from Jan Richardson. A workbook encourages deeper personal engagement, while the Afterword by monk Brother Paul Quenon provides a fitting closure. At just 94 gracefully designed pages, this little book packs a weighty spiritual punch.

The Life and Longings of A Mystic Enflamed

In the well-paced 16 page Introduction, Aronoff ably sets the scene by sketching pertinent details of Saint Catherine’s life and times. We learn she was born in 1447 into a distinguished Catholic family in Genoa. Despite wishing to dedicate her life fully to God from childhood, her attempted convent entry at 13 was refused on grounds of youth. So Catherine grudgingly acquiesced to her family’s expectations for an arranged marital future.

Her optimism quickly dissolved after her marriage at 16 to a volatile spendthrift who subjected her to a decade of misery. Eventually Catherine shared her sorrow with her sister, a nearby abbess who facilitated a confession which proved powerfully transformative. At this profound spiritual turning point, Catherine experienced an piercing awareness of God’s passionate love for her, a mystical realization which enduringly recalibrated her faith and fortitude at 26. She committed her remaining years to humbly serving the marginalized, seeing the luminous soul in even the lowliest stranger.

Aronoff muses thoughtfully on historical records showing Catherine’s renewed spiritual vitality, curiously inspiring her dissolute husband to reform his ways as well. Perhaps her authentic embodiment of divine love stirred an answering chord deep within her husband’s slumbering soul. Aronoff suggests that Catherine’s dramatic conversion indicates how readily spiritual awakening may arise when we attune to what he terms our innate “God Chord,” that inextricable vein of Divinity pulsating through all human souls.

He categorizes recurring themes in her writings as expressing facets of divine love associated with the differing persons of the Christian Trinity: God as Creator, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We also learn that later scribes captured two treatises from the enduring oral tradition of this mystic, whose repuation continued spreading long after her death in 1510.

Thus, Aronoff effectively sets the stage for this obscure medieval character, showing that her insignificance during life belies the enduring allure her impassioned voice still holds for contemporary seekers today. Before long, readers will directly encounter the persuasive power animating Saint Catherine’s words concerning the glory of God rooted in the human heart.

Lyrical Outpourings from A Soul on Fire

In the centerpiece section, we dive deep into the translated source material itself, with Saint Catherine’s firsthand outpourings organized by theme. Aronoff selects key passages from her spiritual dialogues that most ardently capture her intoxication with divine love. He clarifies by doing some careful editing, blending archaic idioms with modern phrasing to promote the greatest resonance today.

We soon witness the unmistakable humility and tenderness defining this mystic’s personal relationship with the sacred. Hers are lyric phrases squeezed from a soul overflowing with holy longing, with words tumbling out in urgent repetition, straining to express ineffable revelations. She unfurls exquisite metaphors for the all-consuming nature of the limitless love that seized her being and continually returns to the painful inadequacy of language itself to convey love’s boundless depths.

Certain signature refrains echo throughout her verses, with love depicted as a purifying fire drawing humans toward salvation and divine union. God’s love feels like an exquisite mortal wound, rendering her heart incurably enraptured. The onset of such love arrives subtly without external heralding, a secret inaccessible to the intellect. She describes experiencing this force as a bittersweet imprisonment, suspending her fully in divine intoxication and sweeping rational faculties aside.

Catherine underscores love’s power to transform the most calcified or broken of souls, with God’s grace depicted as a scalding balm that melts rigidity and heals all wounds. She proclaims that even the faintest spark of love proves adequate to realign one’s core toward the sacred. Ever humble, Catherine stresses that despite knowing holy communion supernaturally, she remains ignorant of the operational facets underlying this mystery.

Throughout these intimate verses, Catherine boldly traverses the landscape of her all-encompassing affair with the Divine. The lyrical stanzas flow seamlessly between themes, with Aronoff’s integration of Jan Richardson’s vivid artwork enhancing their immediacy. Though distilled from medieval mysticism, Saint Catherine speaks a universal language of divine intoxication that resonates even now.

Wisdom for Consuming Souls

After lingering in such rarefied airs of holy communion, Aronoff compassionately leads readers to grounded embodiment through his “Reflection Guide,” an annotated workbook of meditation prompts to ignite one’s commitment to love’s path. Here, his counsellor training shows thoughtful experiential exploration of core spiritual matters sparked by his subject’s potent words.

Through a set of selected excerpts, each followed by reflective questions, Aronoff guides readers to contemplate impediments that may block receptivity to love, occasions when readers felt eternal love, or times when petty reactions usurped higher wisdom. He gently directs, pondering the forms of love and grace active currently. There are compassionate suggestions for recalling imperfections awaiting tenderness, envisioning divine light exposing those dark corners within, and imagining being guided solely by holy wisdom. The integrative prompts culminate in a process for conjuring feelings of loving spiritual connection through prayerful meditation.

Aronoff thus offers seekers an insightful primer for assimilating Saint Catherine’s hard-won spiritual wisdom within one’s daily life. The sequence progresses skillfully from confession to expanded self-knowledge to embodiment to active practice. Such transformative integration allows consuming souls to wholly digest such rich fare.

Enduring Inspiration

In closing, Brother Paul Quenon’s lyrical Afterword offers monks’ perspectives on assimilating mystics’ revelations, suggesting wise souls recognize words that fail us in divine encounters. Thus, the pregnant spaces framing this book permit appropriate mystical discretion. Similarly, Jan Richardson’s elemental artwork uses subtle shapes and colors to convey meaning rather than exhaustive explanation. Brother Paul advocates humbly receiving saints’ spiritual wisdom and then patiently integrating it through simple, practical devotion.

Here, Aronoff provides keys to translate celestial whispers into humble service. For five centuries now, Saint Catherine’s impassioned voice has kindled kindred hearts with divine sparks, her words renewed by each soul that opens to love’s mysterious movements. Marc Aronoff stands commendably among such votaries devoted to keeping these embers glowing by thoughtfully igniting mystical revelation in accessible forms for today’s spiritual groundlings.

By transparently embracing Saint Catherine’s wisdom within his life and then gently coaxing readers toward the same, Aronoff avoids potential conceptual abstractions. His elucidations invite contemporary seekers into an immediate intimate encounter with this God-maddened medieval mystic. Thus, “Love’s Guest” succeeds through skillful contextualization and pragmatic pointers in introducing Saint Catherine as the ideal mentor for encountering divine love firsthand.

For responsive sojourners seeking renewed bearings along love’s luminous path but uncertain regarding initial steps, Marc Aronoff ably bridges the historical gap to provide an eminently relevant mystical guide. “Love’s Guest” extends a trustworthy hand to lead receptive readers into personal conversation with this passionately persuasive ambassador of holy loving. Open your heart and see if you don’t soon find yourself similarly haunted and transformed through Saint Catherine’s restless revelations concerning love’s blazing glories.