A very approachable and beautiful work, Adrienne closes her prayerful and meditative exploration with: "Thus, by virtue of the Son's sacrifice and his having brought the world home again, the Father is able to regard men as his eternal creatures. Eternal life is not situated in heaven, far from man's grasp, something self-enclosed; it is the life-filled Word, in which men have a share because they are capable of taking it in. And that capability is itself grace."
Adrienne von Speyr (1902–1967) was a Swiss medical doctor, a convert to Catholicism, a mystic, and an author of more than sixty books on spirituality and theology. She collaborated closely with theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, her confessor for twenty-seven years, and together they founded the Community of Saint John. Among her most important works are Handmaid of the Lord, Man before God, Confession, and her commentaries on the Gospel of Saint John.