In this profound book on the mystery of Mary, Adrienne von Speyr reflects on the life, attitude, and prayer of the Mother of God. She shows how Mary's assent to God's will--her Fiat "Let it be done to me according to thy word"--is what defines and sanctifies every aspect of her life. She gives new insights into Mary's holiness, suffering, prayer, and role of spiritual motherhood for all mankind.

Handmaid of the Lord is not a biography detailing the daily life of the Mother of Jesus, filled with the sights and the sounds found in the holy imagination of a saintly...

In this second edition of her profound work on the sacrament of Confession, which theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar calls -one of her most central works-, the mystic von Speyr discusses the moral and practical aspects of the sacrament in great depth. Some of the many areas covered include conversion, scruples, contrition, spiritual direction, laxity, frequency of confession, the confessions of religious and lay people, even the confessions of saints. This is one of the most complete spiritual treatises ever written on confession.

The new element in von Speyr's understanding of...