Medieval Women's Spirituality

The focus of medieval women’s spirituality is again the center of this week’s discussion. It differs from last week because we are now examining secondary sources that were written about the women’s spiritual experiences. They did not write the works like their counterparts of last week. This gives us a slightly different perspective that we must take into account when looking at the sources. They are no longer primary sources, so the author will not try to portray themselves in a good light. However, we might encounter bias from the author of the work. The first thing I noticed is that these works read extremely similar to the ones of last week. They were mostly collections of writings about the spiritual life and visions each of the women experienced. However, while suffering was still evident in the stories, they seemed to have an added element of pleasure that was often called ecstasy. Several specific ideas about the works caught my eye. One of the most important was my ability to relate to the work and fully comprehend what the woman was even experiencing. I truly did not understand Marguerite Porete’s work. She lost me almost immediately when she started talking about
She would also fast for days and weeks at a time. The interesting thing is that God would sustain her and she would feel no ill effects from the fasting. She could even complete a full day’s work. One aspect of the pleasure that I mentioned earlier can be seen when Mary fasts. “Holy angels stood and watched over her frugal supper…And their presence gave her such comfort and such joy of spirt that the spiritual sweetness surpassed any delicious taste” (94). She truly received happiness just by eating bread and water. There would be riots if we were only fed bread and water in the United States. We are much to focused on the physical and forget about the spiritual aspects of our