Produced by David E. Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) ON UNION WITH GOD Nihil Obstat. F. THOS. BERGH, O.S.B., CENSOR DEPUTATUS. Imprimatur. EDM. CAN. SURMONT, VICARIUS GENERALIS. WESTMONASTERII, _Die 7 Decembris, 1911_. [_All rights reserved_] _The Angelus Series_ ON UNION WITH GOD BY BLESSED ALBERT THE GREAT, O.P. WITH NOTES BY REV. P. J. BERTHIER, O.P. TRANSLATED BY A BENEDICTINE OF PRINCETHORPE PRIORY _R. & T. WASHBOURNE, LTD._ PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON AND AT MANCHESTER, BIRMINGHAM, AND GLASGOW PREFACE Surely the most deeply-rooted need of the human soul, its purest aspiration, is for the closest possible union with God. As one turns over the pages of this little work, written by Blessed Albert the Great[1] towards the end of his life, when that great soul had ripened and matured, one feels that here indeed is the ideal of one's hopes. Simply and clearly the great principles are laid down, the way is made plain which leads to the highest spiritual life. It seems as though, while one reads, the mists of earth vanish and the snowy summits appear of the mountains of God. We breathe only the pure atmosphere of prayer, peace, and love, and the one great fact of the universe, the Divine Presence, is felt and realized without effort. But is such a life possible amid the whirl of the twentieth century? To faith and love all things are possible, and our author shows us the loving Father, ever ready to give as much and more than we can ask. The spirit of such a work is ever true; the application may vary with circumstances, but the guidance of the Holy Spirit will never be wanting to those souls who crave for closer union with their Divine Master. This little treatise has been very aptly called the "Metaphysics of the Imitation," and it is in the hope that it may be of use to souls that it has been translated into English. Blessed Albert the Great is too well known for it to be necessary for us to give more than the briefest outline of his life. The eldest son of the Count of Bollstädt, he was born at Lauingen in Swabia in 1205 or 1206, though some historians give it as 1193. As a youth he was sent to the University of Padua, where he had special facilities for the study of the liberal arts. Drawn by the persuasive teaching of Blessed Jordan of Saxony, he joined the Order of St. Dominic in 1223, and after completing his studies, received the Doctor's degree at the University of Paris.