Devotio Deliciosa takes its title from the words Denis the Carthusian used to describe the highest form of Eucharistic devotion to which all Christians are called. This volume gathers, in English translation, all of Denis the Carthusian’s writings on the Mass and the Eucharist. Included is the Dialogue on the Sacrament of the Altar, an exchange between a priest—understood as an idealized “everyman”—and Jesus Christ, the eternal High Priest and sacrificial Victim. In this dialogue, the Eucharist is explored in a conversational yet theologically rich manner, touching on nearly every aspect of its mystery, meaning, and effects. Also contained in this volume is Denis’s Exposition on the Mass, a step-by-step commentary on the rites and prayers of the Sacrifice of the Mass. In addition, a brief Treatise on Frequent Communion, written in response to a correspondent’s request, and six Eucharistic “sermons” present a concise synthesis of Denis’s teaching. Though these sermons may never have been preached, they were clearly intended for reading and meditation and offer a more rhetorically and pedagogically accessible presentation of the same doctrine found in his other Eucharistic works.
Praise
“The liturgical, sacramental, and theological Tradition of the Church, developed in organic continuity throughout the ages, has very deep roots. It remains alive and cannot be fixed at some favored moment in the recent past, however secure that may make us feel. If we are to be fitted for the Kingdom of Heaven, we must draw from treasures ‘new and old’ (Mt 13:52)—just as Denis the Carthusian did in the fifteenth century, and just as Andrew Greenwell’s important translation now enables us to do with regard to the Blessed Eucharist and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. May our appreciation and celebration of this most wondrous gift be renewed by the riches of Tradition to which this volume so eloquently bears witness.”—DOM ALCUIN REID, Prior, Monastère Saint-Benoît
“Of all post-patristic Latin commentators on the Holy Mass and the Eucharist, Denis the Carthusian may well deserve pride of place. Not for nothing is he known as the Doctor Ecstaticus. Through these limpid English translations, we see that his ecstasy concerns not fleeting emotion but the wondrous divine realities themselves. It is a sober, intellectual, and spiritual ecstasy that bears fruit in the highest contemplative joy. In reading and savoring his words, one comes to share in that ecstasy and to understand the Mass according to his sublime vision.”—MATTHEW LEVERING, Mundelein Seminary
“Denis the Carthusian is a late-medieval master whose work deserves to be far better known than it is. The sheer vastness of his output, the intricacy of his style, and the remoteness of his age and worldview seem to conspire against easy accessibility. Yet his devotional and instructional works—such as those gathered in this volume on the Holy Mass and the Holy Eucharist—offer an ideal point of entry. His wide-ranging dialogue between ‘Truth’ and ‘Priest’ on the devout and fruitful offering of the Sacrifice of the Mass, his treatise on frequent Communion, his line-by-line commentary on the Order of Mass, and his sermons on the Blessed Sacrament together constitute spiritual reading of exceptional richness and insight. They inflame the reader’s mind with something of the same ecstasy that animated this tireless monk. Serious Catholics today will readily resonate with Denis’s intense spiritual longing and his profound veneration for Tradition.”
—PETER A. KWASNIEWSKI, author of Close the Workshop
About the Author
Denis the Carthusian (1402–1471), long cloistered in the Charterhouse of Roermond, was one of the most prolific and penetrating theologians of the late Middle Ages. Author of some 180 works in forty-two volumes, he earned the honorific Doctor Ecstaticus for a spirituality marked by sober intellectual depth and contemplative intensity. A master of Scripture, the Fathers, and St. Thomas Aquinas, a friend of Nicholas of Cusa, and a defender of Blessed John of Ruusbroec, Denis was for centuries considered essential reading: Qui Dionysium legit, nihil non legit. Long eclipsed by modern neglect and the scarcity of translations, he is now reemerging through English editions such as this one, which restore his voice to the Church’s living Tradition.
