The Grace of "Nothingness": Navigating the Spiritual Life with Blessed Columba Marmion

In the early twentieth century, Blessed Columba Marmion’s dogmatically-grounded spiritual theology, expressed in artful prose, set the Catholic world on fire. A century later, in The Grace of “Nothingness,” Fr Cassian Koenemann seeks to rekindle that fire for a new generation with his inspired presentation of Marmion’s key spiritual insights. To this task he brings a monk’s sensitivity to friendship with God, a schoolteacher’s focus on the fruits of theology, and a spiritual theologian’s attentiveness to grounding it all in proven sources. Marmion reminds us that God heals and perfects us to the extent we allow him to do so, but that we often block that transformation through prideful “self-reliance,” trying to solve our problems by our own efforts. If only we place our confidence in God, however, we will receive the grace we need.

FR. CASSIAN KOENEMANN, OSB, STL in Spiritual Theology, is a monk, priest, and the Prior of Saint Louis Abbey. He teaches Friendship with God and the Theology of Marriage at Saint Louis Priory School. He also accompanies people in spiritual direction and prays with people for inner healing and deliverance.