“‘If you love the truth, love silence’ ...if you were going to underline one sentence, or memorize, it should be these last couple...‘If you love the truth, love silence; it will make you illumined in God like the sun, and will deliver you from the illusions of ignorance. Silence unites you to God Himself.’ That is an extraordinary statement...‘Silence unites you to God Himself.’ What would make us want and desire silence more than that thought? That in that silence, as we’ve so often said here before, stealing from a Carthusian, silence allows God to speak a word that is equal to Himself. It allows God to communicate to us in and through our faith, that is beyond intellect, beyond imagination, that allows us to encounter God as He is in Himself. That we are able to experience the love of God but also to be transformed by that love...when we begin to see silence in that way, that’s when we are going to begin to thirst for it and have it be something that shapes our life...silence becomes the way by which we breathe spiritually. Any comments on this last sentence?”
- Podcast, The Ancient Christian Writers Series, September 5, 2019.
We read a paragraph slowly and prayerfully: “If you love the truth, love silence,” “If you love the truth, love silence.” I offer some brief commentary and open the floor for discussion with the group...questions, comments, and the passage is often read again: “If you love the truth, love silence.” In preparation for this group I have read the text many times, making notes as I go along of things that I would like to draw attention to. During the group, I read the text again. I read the whole of the text for over a year as I prepared to introduce it to the group. Now, we only have one hundred pages left...we joke that it will only be one more year...we began reading three years ago. Though they have been read so many times in silence, the words are now animated with new life as they are read out loud. Having read the text so many times, I see them once more in a new way as the comments of those in the group cast light on things I never considered. Surely, God is very much a part of this process and His Spirit guides and directs us on our journey.
The Ancient Christian Writers Series is a group at the Oratory dedicated to studying the writings of great spiritual masters of the Church. For twenty-five years, I have been blessed to lead it. I began this group while serving as a campus minister and thus I scheduled it academically. While beneficial, the group had its limitations: it could only meet over the course of a single school year, had to break for summer and other holidays and, most significantly, it necessitated the use of abridged versions of the texts. Over time, the group broke free from these initial constraints. No longer scheduled according to the academic calendar, and comprised primarily of members of the Secular Oratory, our reading continues uninterrupted throughout the year. Truly, we have come upon a precious opportunity for study and comprehension; we can now study a single text over the course of two, three or even four years. Most importantly, we read every single word – slowly and contemplatively, allowing our hearts to be opened to the wisdom within.
This contemplative approach, far from being something new, is something very ancient. Before the advent of the printing press books were rare, of great value, and often available only in the monasteries whose scribes produced them. These books were treated by the monks who owned or, more often, borrowed them, as treasures. They were read slowly, and with the aim of absorbing and retaining the precious wisdom contained within. Monks would often memorize long passages or whole portions of books – even the entirety of the New Testament! This scarcity that existed in the past may seem to us – we who live in a digital age and who have unlimited access to books ancient and new – to be a great limitation. Not so. For the monks, the precious nature of their books sharpened their attention and deepened their love. The monks read closely and slowly; they read out loud; they carefully contemplated the words they read; and they copied out passages when possible. Out of this loving, contemplative way of approaching sacred texts the practice of Lectio Divina emerged.
Lectio Divina is the name given to a way of reading spiritual texts that closely resembles that of the monastic tradition. In Lectio Divina a sacred text is read slowly, repeated, meditated upon and prayed about until the whole person is absorbed in contemplation. This way of reading has been practiced most often with the Sacred Scriptures, but is also used when reading the writings of the Fathers. In lingering over the texts, reading slowly and prayerfully, what develops is a communal Lectio Divina.
For six years now, those who attend the Ancient Christian Writers Series have had the extraordinary opportunity to read and hear the writings of the Fathers - out loud and verbatim. We have spent these years studying The Conferences of Saint John Cassian and The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian. We have not gathered to have a brief conversation with these holy guides, nor to catch a word of wisdom to take away with us at the end of a short visit. Rather, we have entered into retreat - into a journey of spiritual transformation - with them. Here, week after week we sit at their feet. The meaning of their words are unpacked; we become familiar with their use of words; we begin to understand from them what it is to be a human being in relation to God. The pace is at first unnaturally, even painfully, slow. We live in a day and culture when reading has been reduced to information gathering and comprehension to the quick and momentary memorization of bullet points. We consume the knowledge and wisdom of others in small, fast bites. Slowing ourselves down reorients us. Slowing down reminds us that we are on a journey and that understanding comes not through skimming over the surface but through allowing roots to take hold. Slowing down reminds us that this life has been given to us not that we might blaze through it as we are, but for repentance and for transformation.
In their writings, the ancient Christian Fathers communicate to us an experiential knowledge that can only be transmitted if we undertake to live the same radically converted life that they did. Reading the Fathers cannot be abstracted from the ascetical life anymore than reading the gospel can be abstracted from conversion of life and a deep relationship with Christ. Beautiful things grow slowly and this is true of the spiritual life. To read - to truly take the wisdom of the Fathers into oneself - is to allow God to reshape the mind and the heart and even the way that we view reality itself. In relinquishing the speed at which we read, the speed at which we blaze through and consume, we allow God to speak the word of truth that He desires us to hear: the Word of God that is equal to Himself.
Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.
As written for and printed in the Oratory Times
