Review in Church in The Hague
With the publication of ‘You sing in me Your name’ Ms. Philipse has entrusted her mystical diary to the public. Herein she recounts her surrender to God as a result of an intense divine experience in 2003.Or, rather, it is an account of her her struggle as she slowly yields herself up to God.
Moments of intense happiness and complete surrender alternate with periods of pain, loneliness and mortal fear. This is Ms. Philipse’s testimony: simple, honest, without frills or fuss. In addition to descriptive and contemplative essays the diary contains poetic passages: prayers, verses, and songs of love and praise.
It is a gripping and authentic diary in which Ms. Philipse describes this disintegration process. Her situation,already made more vulnerable due to illness and wrong medication, is agitated even more by the mystical process. Her self-reliance is broken down, her ego is gradually withered away.
But this “withering away” is also a liberation.”You have freed me from myself; I have died and ascended into You..” It is precisely this paradox which is characteristic of mysticism. “You who destroys my inner life and completely knocks it down, are also the One who catches me and carries me to my destination.” Powerful and fragile: those are the key words in Ms. Philipse’s experience : “that God poured Himself down in me as in a shell which keeps getting thinner and thinner.” Later: “I am only a thin shell. Almost nothing.” That shell is the shape of our existence, but in essence we are fully one with Him.
Passivity
Philipse experiences how her life crumbles, and is restored to the essence, to God. Overwhelming passivity is typical of this experience:
“People often think they have to release themselves, but that is not how it works at all. God pulls you toward Him and that causes you to lose grip and loosen yourself. But you do not do this yourself. You cannot do that. You can only give and let God have His way. “
Of all the religious experiences the one of mysticism is a form of radical surrender and union with God, whereby the contours of one’s identity are blurred or scorched. As a happening between God and man, mysticism eludes familiar religious frameworks (church, ministry, dogma). So too with the mysticism of Ms. Philipse. In terms of content, the her diary’s message is this: “God loves us just the way we are.”