Compassionate Presence

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.