Mémorial (Blaise Pascal)

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The French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal († 1662) had a mystical experience in 1654 , which he described in his now famous Mémorial (memorial sheet).

It is a text on a narrow strip of parchment that Pascal apparently had repeatedly sewn into the lining of his skirt until his death and that a servant discovered by chance after his death. Pascal always carried this note with him; so this mystical experience must have meant a lot to him. Pascal describes them in stammering words, shouts and long dashes. In terms of content, he says that God cannot be found through thinking in philosophical proofs of God ("not the God of philosophers and scholars"), but that God is an experience like fire, where he expressly alludes to the story of the burning bush with his words ; Ex 3,6  EU : "God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob". Other expressions are also taken from the Bible.

“Year of Grace 1654
Monday November 23rd, the day of Saint Clement , Pope and Martyr, and others in the Martyrology.
Eve of the day of St. Chrysogonus, martyr, and others.
From about ten and a half to about half an hour after midnight, the
fire of
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of philosophers and scholars.
Certainty, certainty, feeling: joy, peace. The God of Jesus Christ.
Deum meum et Deum vestrum.
Your god is my god.
Forgetting the world and everyone, just not God.
He is found only in the ways the gospel teaches.
Greatness of the human soul Righteous Father, the world does not know you; but i know you.
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
I broke up with him.
Dereliquerunt me fontem aquae vivae.
My god will you leave me
May I not be separated from him forever.
But that is eternal life that they recognize you, who you are the only true God and whom you have sent, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ!
Jesus Christ!
I separated from him, I withdrew from him, denied him and crucified him.
May I never be apart from him.
He is to be kept alone in the ways taught in the gospel.
Complete submission to Jesus Christ and my spiritual leader.
Eternal joy for a day of toil on earth.
Non obliviscar sermones tuos. Amen."

Web links

Bible passages

  1. ↑ Ruth 1,16  EU
  2. ↑ Cf. Jn 17.25  EU : "Righteous father, the world did not know you, but I did know you and they recognized that you sent me."
  3. ↑ "It has left me, the spring of living water". Lament of God in Jeremiah 2.13  EU .
  4. ↑ Mark 15,34  EU : "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
  5. ^ Jn 17.3  EU
  6. ↑ Hebrews 6 : 6  EU : "For they are now crucifying the Son of God again and making him a mockery."
  7. ↑ Psalm 119 : 16  EU . In the Vulgate, which Pascal quotes: Ps 118,16: "I enjoy your laws, I will not forget your word."

literature

  • Rainer Zaiser: The Epiphany in French Literature - To demystify a religious pattern of experience. Gunter Narr Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-8233-4616-4 p. 64. in the Google book search
  • Angela Berlis : Not out of the blue - About the sites of Revelation p. 10. in the Google book search