Gelassenheit

Gelassenheit is a German word with many meanings: relinquishment, surrender, abandonment, submission, detachment, letting go, allowing, acquiescence, etc. Meister Eckhart's favorite term for Gelassenheit is releasement. Eckhart, like mystics of every age, experienced God as a Mystery of Releasement. Gelassenheit involves the whole trinitarian Life. The father 'lets go of' Himself to be begotten in an intra-trinitarian act of Gelassenheit, and together, Father and Son 'release' the Holy Spirit, for the salvation of the world.

These meditations on Gelassenheit are offered to help us experience God as a Mystery of Divine Releasement. And since the spiritual life is also a progressive growth in interior Gelassenheit, the author also hopes that this book will inspire a trinitarian vision of deification and contemplative prayer.

Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) was a German theologian, philosopher, and mystic. A Dominican priest, his writings, comprised mostly of sermons, were considered heretical during his lifetime but are now considered the mystical gold standard of the Middle Ages.