Yesterday morning I think we spoke of national economy and prosperity, the dangers of prosperity. And, you know, perhaps the deep meaning of these days, of the end of days, is to be a sort of compensation to this prosperity. a warning against the temptation of flourishing, expanding, growing, and so on. The first idea of this end of season was to be death of sun-giving for this prosperity, and of that we have the idea in the lesson of today, the first lesson of the Mass. Behold, the day comes, the days come when the plumber shall overtake the repair, and the trader of that field And so, that's a benediction of the Lord, but of course we have to thank for that. And then, and so, to keep a certain control, not to be... tempted by this prosperity and that's why the necessary compensation to this prosperity and the necessary accompaniment of this thanksgiving is fasting.

[01:40]

And today I had the intention this morning to say something about fasting. So, I just agree, the idea this morning will probably be very informal and not academic, but I think we must sometimes, between monks, monarchists, monarchists, deal with this topic. You know, it's a topic, fasting now, which is very rarely dealt with in the Catholic Church. We have always this sort of apologetic love to make everything so reasonable, so accommodant to the modern world and the modern monk and so on. And so all these things of Middle Ages, ancient church, now we are so reasonable, we have overcome all these things. But it's a matter of fact that fasting has been rediscovered mostly by pagans in our times. Just think of the... Fasting of Gandhi, and so on, you see.

[02:46]

What Ecclesiastes means, it has become, you know, a peaceful means, you see, without violence, you know. And now, at least in certain countries, in the Catholic Church, we are also rediscovering fasting. And it's very typical that two years ago, up here in France, a book written by different contributors called Rediscovery of Fasting, Redecouverte du Jeune. Extremely interesting by theologians, historians, psychologists, psychiatrists, and so on, historians of the political modern fasting movement and so on. I remember we read that in the last length. It was very interesting. I don't know if it has been translated in English, but see, that's... And as we shall see swiftly in our days, in these weeks, there is a certain greater opportunity, necessity, and duty of fasting.

[03:47]

That's why I think it's good sometimes to speak of that. And, as you know, we had today in the Gospel this warning of the Lord, which gives us, as you know, our theological summa is the Missal and the Breviary. Here we have the theology of what we do. in the Church, the real significance and meaning. And the Lord shows us the significance of fasting when he says in the Gospel today that ... Fasting is, especially for monks, an aspect of the general relation between contemplative life and asceticism. In Oratio, for the whole Church, contemplative prayer for the monks, and Ieunio, asceticism for the monks.

[04:47]

Contemplative life, oratio, is a certain attention to God, the most continuous as possible. But that requires Ieunio, asceticism, purity of heart, which is charity. which is detachment, liberty of heart, not to be divided, not to be obsessed by anything but God. That's the purity of heart. Not to be abandoned, given to the spontaneous impulsions of anger, impurity, or whatever it is, all these sorts of lower instincts which are always in us. And that's what we have to That's why we have to keep our self-control, to possess our own soul. This purity of heart must become a real internal peace.

[05:51]

This apatheia for the Greek monks, of which there is still a continuous tradition even Western monasticism. You heard that Cousin Merton in the preface of The Wizard of the Desert mentions this rest, which is the contrary of what he called the body rest, I mean easy life, but it is a sort of rest in God, a peace in God, you know. And of that we have a full tradition in our monasticism. Of that also we never speak, because now we fear, speaking of spiritual rest, you know, we need so much to do things. But next semester I shall lecture on St. Anselm on that and publish that in a St. Anselm series. And the book will be called Oetia Monastica, Monastic Leisure. And it will just be a comment on the plenty, hundreds and hundreds of texts we have in our just Benedictine tradition.

[06:53]

of this word, quies, ozium, vacatio, sabbatum, also the lectulum, symbolic of the bed and sleeping, spiritual, of course, and sestio, sitting down, sede tace, fude cede tace. to sit down and to keep silent. That was the definition. Of course, we have to understand that. But that belongs also to our tradition. That must be the reason, you see, of this purity of art, this internal peace. And so, you see, this idea of purity of art, it's much larger than the concept of purity as synonymous of chastity. This aspect, of course, of chastity is restricted, but real meaning of purity is not excluded and may be helped by fasting. And it is this purity in all the meanings of the world, general meaning of purity of art and stricter meaning of chastity, that fasting has to favor.

[08:10]

to help, to serve God. A purity and a fasting always oriented towards attention to God, not to be distracted. And we have this idea also in the Lesson 6 of last Sunday, which was already a preparation, so Sunday for September, a preparation to this Amber Days, when Saint Leo says that We need some purifications, you see. So, especially, we should do that everywhere, always, but now there have been organized some seasons in the winter year in which we especially try to do that.

[09:15]

to be purified and to expire the sins which, by the frailty of our flesh, we have committed. And that, you see, shows the two aspects of fasting as an act of religion and of penance, in oratione et in union. Let's develop rapidly, briefly, these two aspects. Fasting as an act of religion. There is no fasting in the Church without a prayer. Remember how often in the Lent, Liturgy of Lent, it is spoken of Solemne Iunio. It is not mere a private affair, just a mortification I impose to myself because I think it's good, but it's a Church affair. Everything we do in the Church is a Catholic activity, and our fasting must be also a fasting in the church, with the church, for the church, solemnly in union, and is always accompanied with prayers.

[10:40]

Because, of course, fasting, as everything, may be an occasion of illusion, of pride, or of sexism in whatever way, or just a means of political action without any religious value in itself. Thus, the Christian fasting is, as Christian labor and everything which is in Christianity, is something very specific. And of that we are also in the Lesson 5 of St. Leo, the Synod, Sunday, it says, To celebrate. [...] It is prayer which gives fasting its significance, its value, and its efficiency.

[11:54]

It's not a mere question of natural psychological hygiene. That may be a sort of medical diet. You see, sometimes it is good for some physical states not to eat, but that's not a fasting at all. Fasting is a religious, supernatural activity. It's a liturgical activity. And that's why we are always to fast in liturgical days, you see, Amber Days, Lent, Advent. And that's given, and often we find this idea also. You see, it's guaranteed to our fasting. We have to fast in the right faith, with Orthodox faith. St. Leo often is someone who insists on that, because In antiquity there have always been fasting people, and there are still, out of the church and sometimes out of any religion.

[13:05]

But it may be just a sort of magic activity, or just a way of natural human protestation. or it may also involve a certain pessimistic attitude regarding the creatures, as if they were bad. And so we have not to eat, not to drink, because everything is bad. And in the time of the father and chiefly Saint Leo, there were some Manichaeans who told that. And that's why Saint Leo always insists on the fact that we have to fast with a right faith. Fast must not be... as it could be an occasion of sin, but of prayer. That's why we have always to envelop, as the Church does, envelop our fasting within liturgy. And in a life in which liturgical prayer is continuous, as monastic life, a certain form of fasting must also be continuous, as a condition of vigilance.

[14:09]

Vigilate et orate. If we pray, we have to watch. And to watch is good to say, to keep this control of all our activity owing to fasting. To watch, vigilare, you know, what a wonderful word. To watch and to wait. And fasting is a way, it means, an expression of our eschatological expectations and of our desire, of course. If in fasting, in restraining from natural food, we manifest that we need another food. I think we had something like that in one of the lessons in the refectory or somewhere at one of the stairs, you know. we are oriented towards something else that this world and the satisfaction this world may give.

[15:15]

And also, when we fast within the liturgy, according to the days prescribed by the Church for all Christians, or our usages, our rule, our constitution for monks, that's also an act of obedience. obedience to the laws of Church. That's a conventual, solemne fasting. We do that all together, as the whole Church during Lent has to fast all together, so the monastery, on Sundays, has to make a conventual fasting, which is a way to obey our rules our obligations, usages, in the Church, and that also makes fasting a cult, an act of cult, of religion, which is essentially obedience. Obedientium sacrificium volo et non remember what the Lord says, what matters is to obey.

[16:17]

And fasting must be an act of this obedience. And so, by all these aspects which I just mentioned, suggest that you may develop them, meditate on them, you see that fasting must remain primarily an act of religion. And secondly, an act of penance. With all the aspects consequences and riches of what is Christian tenancy. First, it's an act of charity. It consists in refraining from spending money, eating and drinking less, in order to give it to the poor. We have that also in the lesson 7 of St.

[17:29]

Cleo. Esuriamus paululum dilectissim et aliquanturum quod juvandis possit prodeste poperibus mostre consuetudini subtragus. Dilectetur conscientia veniniorum fortibus latitalis. Et gaudia tribuens co est litificandus accidies. Dilectio proximi, dilectio deies. qui plenitudinem legis et profetarum in ad gemine caritatis unitade constitum. So sometimes, in a very realistic way, we have to refrain from spending some money in order to give it to the poor. That's one of the very essential traditional meanings of fasting.

[18:33]

And you have to remember how often Pius XII insisted on that in different occasions. During the years after the war, you know, there was such misery in many parts of the world. And now, as you know, half of mankind does not eat and drink enough. we have the privilege of having always what's sufficient for us. So, Pius XII always insisted on this aspect, to deprive from some luxury, some superfluous thing, some eating and drinking too much, in order to give it. And, in fact, that proved very efficient. For instance, I know in France, There is a sort of charity, welfare, really, you know, it is called, friends, which organize, so, gathering things for the food and the... They didn't only insist on the practical way of begging for money, but they asked the theologians to write a book on that.

[19:43]

And they did, very fundamentally based on San Leo and the theological tradition of that, to show the necessary connection between penance, fasting, and charity. The book was called Fasting and Charity in the Catholic Church. real book on the theology of this aspect. And I must say, last year, last December, I was giving a session of church history in the seminary of Pontigny. Pontigny is an ancient Cistercian Abbey in France, what is now the seminary of what is called the French Mission. Now seminarians just prepare to go in the poorest areas and pagan one, not where Christianity never or practically never entered. So they are really missionaries for France and for outside. And of course, they live in a very simple way.

[20:45]

They are workers, seminarians. And it was wonderful to see this experience of this vitality, this poverty of life and so on. That was the time, you know, in North Africa, in Algeria, there were so many also people suffering, chiefly North Africans, more or less persecuted by France and French, not French officers, I don't know. But anyway, they were suffering. And so I remember when I was at the... One of the seminarians explained that they used to deprive themselves from wine, which you know in France is what milk is for you, or from meat some day, and to make some economy to send to the North Algerians. And of course that was a small contribution, but something, you know. And if many people do that, then that may help the people, you see. So we must consider fasting as an act of charity, as an act of poverty, of course, not consenting ourselves to everything rich people may have, as an act of expiation for sins, for ours and for the sins of the world.

[22:08]

The monk is a sinner. And so he makes penance for the sins, his sins and all the sins. Remember the definition given by St. Jerome? We find this aspect of penance, not often insisted on in monastic literature, but not absent, as you see. A way of expiation. And so sometimes when it's a little bit unpleasant to fast, we must remember that. That's a way of expiation. And the Church needs that. Fasting is a way, a means of voluntary suffering. There is very little way of suffering which consists in being hungry, in provoking a certain feeling of hunger. not necessarily an intense feeling of hunger.

[23:15]

It's a depressing one. And you know that the general tendency of the Church now, at least for all the Christians and even for religious, is to reduce the sort of material aspect which fasting may have had in recent periods in the Church. Stephen Ritchie playing this very ascetical time of 17th century, austere people in France and so on, and so on. And so now, that's why Pius XII always insisted on charity, on the more religious and charitable aspect of fasting. In the meantime, he was reducing the practice of fasting. And already Pius XI, you see, not suppressing it, but showing that what matters is not so much the quantity and the quality of the thing you eat or don't eat, but the intention. And chiefly now, the obligation of work is always increasing in the modern world.

[24:17]

You know that in the Middle Ages, in the Latin Church, they worked relatively little, because agriculture was very simple. You had seed, and then you ate. And everything, you know, there was no industry in the workshops and so. That's why there were so many feast days. There were people who had to be kept busy, so they just organized these things, feasts and so on, processions, all sorts of things to entertain people. But now, of course, work is becoming always more requiring, and so we have to keep sufficient strength and health to do our work. So that's why the Church does not use more the material aspect of fasting, of general fasting and also of Eucharistic fasting. And that's why the Church gave these new facilities in order that more people may do their work, their daily work, and then either in the morning or in the middle of the day or in the evening, after these three hours of fasting, may attend the Mass and receive the Communion.

[25:24]

You see, that's essential to fasting, to feel a certain sensation of hunger. That's very humiliating. It's not very sublime, you know, but that's for us. That's for men and for monks, additionally. To maintain always, all time, a certain frugality of life. And in certain times, at certain times, a certain sensation of displeasure. There must be a great variety in the Church, as we heard that today also in the Mass. There are days, these days, these days, in which it is allowed and encouraged to eat a little more. Go and eat fast meats, and drink sweet wine, and send portions to them that have not prepared for themselves, always this charity. Even in the day where we eat much, then we have a certain obligation to partake that with others, to send to the poor. He fasts with and sends portions to them that have not prepared for themselves.

[26:31]

Because, and that's absolutely important, it is a holiday of the Lord. And be not sad. Better not to fast than to fast with sadness. For the joy of the Lord is our strength. That would be a wonderful motto for the community. And remember that in the Communion we sang that several times a day, eat fat meat and drink sweet wine and send portions to them that have to prepare for themselves, because it's the holiday of the Lord. Be not sad, for the joy of the Lord is our strength. That shows also what may be the measure of outfasting. And of that we have also an indication in the text of St. Leo I just read, in Lesson 7. Esuriamus parlulum.

[27:32]

A little bit. Parlulum. Not very much, see? Esuriamus, extreme, immense. No, parlulum. You see, how human has always been the Church, even in the 5th century. And that's very important for us, you know. And sometimes the essence and measure of fasting has been forgotten, you see, by Pomeranians, by Morales, by Rigoris, by Casuists, and so on, you know. And we have sometimes to remember what's the essence of fasting. It is not to be allowed to use a certain quantity of how many inches of bread, of dust in the morning, how many inches at midday, how many inches... Because, you see, I remember that has been sometimes, and we have many manual handbooks of moral theology, where we find the number of inches of which matter you are allowed.

[28:34]

But that's absolutely... a nonsense because the same quantity for a small little man you know will be a luxury and for a big powerful worker will be a he will die. It's obvious that the measure of trust must not be an absolute measure in fixed crime. And fortunately now, just it's always more it is absolutely admitted and this way of doing which I remember when I entered the monastery there was still so and at the point that we have chocolate or coffee and those who talk chocolate were just It allowed to take a certain piece of bread of a certain quantity. There was a pattern, you know. But with coffee, you add right to more bread. Because the number of calories, that's a nonsense.

[29:35]

Fasting is not that. The measure of fasting consists in two things. First, to eat and drink less than usual. That's the measure that everybody has to find himself, you know? Of course, with the help of his spiritual father, confessor superior. Fasting must be a personal thing, not a mechanic, magic thing, I restrain from some quantity and so I get this reward. No, it's always a personal thing. Of course, the responsibility is higher. It's more difficult to fight this misery than when it is fixed once forever. That's a matter of conscience. But with that we have to admit, you know, And so the measure is variable and personal. And second, what may indicate us about the measure of cost?

[30:36]

Drinking is a traditional idea that fasting consists in having just one real meal in the day. I mean real meal, because you may have a little breakfast, a little excretion at night and so on, you see. But instead of eating, as usually people do, three times a day, three real meals, you see, just well. With, of course, little compensation, but you see, that's the traditional idea. And you know that even in ancient monasticism and after church, it was just... Absolutely one meal, usually in the afternoon. So, nothing before, and in some abbeys, some Trappist abbeys, I remember seeing still monks, sort of medieval monks, still able to do that, you see, who don't take anything up to and down in length. The idea was one meal. Now the church has admitted one real meal with one or two other help, you know, in the morning and in the evening.

[31:38]

And the ancients, as you know, sometimes express this idea to see what the meaning of this one meal is, the difference between man and beasts and angels. Beasts always eat. Each time they have opportunity. There is no meal time. I think so. Each time there is grass on the field. That's good for us because they give more milk and so on. They have no purpose of temperance and so on. They have just to live and to ruminate and to give. Not so with men, you know. These are always eating, you know. no measure, no control. The angel never eats, or just once. Because he is a pure spirit, you see, in one act of this spirit, he grasps the divinity.

[32:44]

He sees and receives and is satisfied. And that's why sometimes we compare, you see, Eucharist, the most spiritual food, to the tribus angelorum. According to an idea which is in the Old Testament, the angel, in just one act, takes possession of God. But we are neither beast nor angel. We are, in the interim, in a sort of middle condition, and so we have to eat several times, but not always. And that's what is necessary to have a certain regulation, a certain schedule, you see? And this schedule consists in the fasting day in eating just once. And so, the measure of fasting has to be established according to the needs of each one, to the spiritual needs and to the possibilities of each one. at each period of his life.

[33:46]

Somebody could have, when he was 20, fixed a certain leisure, but then, when he's 40, it may not be the same. So we have some time, each time, to accommodate our fasting to our needs. There are periods in the life, seasons, or ages, in which we need more mortification in this field, and others in which we need less. And there is no universal rule. The Holy Spirit has no schedule. So it's up to each one to see what he needs in matter of modification. And also according to the possibilities of each one, of the work he has to do, of the season, in winter probably we need more than in summer, and so on, of his health, if he is more or less tired, exhausted, and so on. So, young, old, and so on. You see, it's always a question of conscience, that means of personal discernment.

[34:47]

And also a question, of course, of obedience, of control. as Saint Benedict says, and then we remember all this traditional view of fast, we understand how full of meaning is this wonderful chapter 49, on the observance of Lent. Although the life of a monk ought to have about it at all times the character of a Lent observance, and we have this idea in Saint Leo, remember, As the whole Church can always be fasting, there are some days in which this is more emphasized. Utilixum totius alnirrederente decursum. Yet, since few have the virtue for that, we therefore know that during the actual days of Lent, the present keep their lives more pure.

[35:58]

That's purification. This purification. Purificationibus in ditensis sancti. And at the same time, worshiping awaits. During these holidays, all the negligences of other times, expiation, was pardoned. That's why Lent and fasting is essentially bound to penance, to the sacrament of penance, for all Christians, chiefly for monks. And that's why the penance, as I already said, the sacrament of penance in the ancient church, and still now according to the Rituale Ceremoniale Episcopalum, has to be received at the beginning of Lent, and then the penance, the mortifications of Lent, are the satisfaction for this confession and the preparation for the Easter date. And this will be worse than if we restrain ourselves from all vices.

[37:01]

You see, that's the general idea of fasting, not only refraining from gluttony, but from all vices. It was St. Leo and the Liturgy in Lent often called the generale union, the general fasting, restraining from everything, every vices. and give ourselves up to prayer with tears. In Oratione et Ieuni, fasting necessarily bound with prayer, to reading, to compunction of heart, and to abstinence. Always this idea of binding abstinence with purity of heart. and to reading, to reading as a sort of compensation. The body eats less, but then the spirit has indeed the right to receive more. That's why Saint Benedict insists, and that's another traditional idea. I'll give you an example of that.

[38:06]

The importance of reading in length and in terms of penance. And perhaps the short time we spare, we don't spend in the refectory, could be used since the breakfast is shorter, five minutes more to read. During these days, therefore, let's increase somewhat, somewhat, you see, aliquid, says St. Benedict, aliquantulum, says Paululum, says St. Leo, and further, et aliquantulum, you see, so aliquid, somewhat. The usual burden of our service, as by private prayers and by abstinence in food and drink. does everyone of his own will, though it must be a thing, a voluntary thing, if you just enjoy it because it is important, it's better not to do. You have to accept it voluntarily, with his own will. May offer to God. It must be an offering, you know, personal offering, something which comes from you, not from the observance, community, something else, somebody else.

[39:16]

It must come from you. with joy of the Holy Spirit. Fasting is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is not a natural inclination of our nature. That's why this is progressively disappearing. That's why it must be maintained and it is still maintained in the Church as a gift of the Holy Spirit. Something above the measure required from him. See, something above the measure. That's enough of generosity. From his body, that is, we may withhold some food, drink, sleep, talking and jesting. And with the joy of spiritual desire. Always this meaning, you see, of joy and of desire. The eschatological meaning of fasting I just mentioned previously. You may look forward to early Easter. Every fasting must be an Easter fasting, Paschal fasting, preparation to the mystery, to the Paschal mystery, which we celebrate solemnly in the Feast of Easter, but which we renew every day in the Eucharistic mystery.

[40:35]

And so, fasting is always in relation with Eucharist. And that's why in all the Masses it is a question of fasting, you see. The summit, the expression, the value of our fast is only accomplished in the Eucharist, when we pray for this fasting, when we offer it. There is always an essential relation between fasting and liturgy, and the summit of liturgy, which is Mass. And that's why also there is an essential relation between Eucharist and fasting. The Eucharistic fasting is just not a means to not to be drunk when you go to the communion and so on, see? But to manifest a certain... obedience, a certain cult, a certain control of ourselves, you see, to restrain from the easy joys, easy pleasures, in order to find the real joy, the spiritual joy.

[41:43]

And so fasting is always oriented towards Eucharism. And then an act of obedience, I said, in order that to be an act of cult, a service of God, a voluntary submission to the law of God. Lady Chouin, however, suggests to this adventurer what it is that he wants to offer. And here we find this wonderful conciliation between liberty and obedience. It must be of his own will, an offer, an offer to God, spontaneous, free. but in the same time obedient, that means control, and let him then with his blessing and approval. Obedience sometimes consists in taking initiative in life, but always having then control. And the job of the superior is not always to take all the initiative and to decide for everybody.

[42:46]

So somebody has to do something of his own will, but the authority has to control it. And that's the role of obedience, approval. Sometimes obedience just consists in approval. The duty of the superior to know and to control and the duty of the inferior of letting know and being submitted are reconciled, liberty and obedience. For anything done without the permission of the spiritual father will be imputed to presumption and banquery. Here again, insistence on the purity of heart. If somebody is too satisfied of his fasting, then let him not fast, and the superior may perhaps prevent him, prohibit, forbid him from fasting, and oblige him perhaps to eat meat on Friday and so on, to humiliate him, if he is proud of not eating meat. Again, purity of heart.

[43:47]

What matters is to be free. to have this purity, this liberty. And always, as we saw, in the joy of the Holy Spirit. And on that, coming back to the idea of reading as a compensation, I would like to just read you a page, a wonderful page, of Saint Bernard. Probably I read it very badly, but in the beginning, the preface of the Sermon on Throne 90, for the time of Lent. which is a song, you know, which we read and sing in this time of Lent. And so, Soprano wrote these sermons. He didn't deliver them, but he wrote them, and he says why. Lero's breath, when I think of your levels and sufferings, my heart overflows with compassion. He was a superior. He was more or less dispensed from the usual common observance.

[44:48]

But he has compassion for the mass who did everything. And, of course, typically in this time of foundation of Clairvaux, as of late, maybe as here, in the heroic and interesting periods of each foundation, there is more to do, to work, you see, than when everything is been established and so on. So he had compassion. I look about for something to console you. How human! And earthly comforts suggest themselves. But then I reflect that theirs, instead of helping, would do you incalculable harm. For even a small subtraction from the seed means no small diminution of the harvest, and a cruel kindness that would now relax your penitential labours would likewise little by little rob your crown of its gems. What therefore shall I do?

[45:50]

Where shall I find the meal of the Prophet? In Latin, Olla profete, farinula, for without this seasoning, death is in the pot. That's the Olla prophet, prophet's pot. Part of Hugo, of course, of witness and banner, you see, of smile. You are slain, dearest brethren, all the day long, in labu and balefulness, in much watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, and this, remember, he calls that from the whole of Saint Benedict. and from St. Paul, besides those which are within, namely grief of heart and strength of temptations. You are slain indeed, my brethren, but it is for the sake of him who was slain for you, immediately using the supernatural motive, union with Christ. And if the sufferings of Christ abound in you, so also by Christ you shall comfort abound.

[46:57]

shall your comfort abound, and your heart, which refused all other consolation, shall delight in the Lord, in God your Spirit of the Son, God your Dominic, for to do the most. For even the very sufferings we endure for him become through his love a source of consolation. It is not certain that the burden of your tribulations is beyond what is customary for. Is it not certain? that the burden of your tribulations is beyond what is customary for monks, beyond the power of nature, beyond human strength. You see, you work more than do usual monks, and that's over the natural inclination, the power of nature. Fasting is a gift, a gift of the Holy Spirit. Congardio Spiritus Sancti. It is carried therefore, not by you, but by another. When we fast, it's Christ in us we fast, as he did when he retired in the solitude of the desert, which, as I said in the beginning, was one of the first indications of monastic life.

[48:06]

That's what we have to do in the desert, in the solitude, to fast with Christ, to imitate him. It is carried, therefore, not by you but by another, by him doubtless, who, according to the Apostle, upholdeth all things by the word of his power. Also he was the Almighty he wanted to lead. It is really said in the Gospels. He was hungry. And is not the enemy thus slain with his own sword? when the very weight of sorrow wherewith He is wont to tempt us is made the means of conquering His temptations by giving us infallible assurance of the presence of God. Fasting is a true guarantee of the presence of God because it's a gift. And so when we do something with the help of God in fasting, we are surely without any possible illusion in all the other fields, you see,

[49:13]

intellectual life, even prayer, there are possible illusions. But when we fast according to obedience, there is no possible illusion. That's probably the most safe way of being united with God, because it is the most humble one. For what have we to fear, whilst He is with us? who upholds this whole thing. The Lord is the protector of my life, seems the psalmist, of whom shall I be afraid, and so on and so forth. Hope in God. Wherefore, and then, God, and wherefore, in order that you may have consolation in the words of the Lord, During these days, especially, when your labours and privations are somewhat greater than usual, it will not be amiss to expound for you some part of the Holy Scripture. What are we to do in fasting time, in days of parents, to read more of the Holy Scripture, which is our real food, our whole bread?

[50:20]

And you remember that when the Lord was tempted in the desert, how did he answer? temptations of the devil just by quotations of the Holy Scripture. It is written, you will not tempt your Lord and so on. It is written. That's also for us, you see, the spiritual real compensation for our fasting. This joy of the Holy Spirit which I find in reading, in meditating, in being more united with God through the mediation of the Holy Scripture. That's the real significance of this fasting. We must not endure it as an external loss, but we must love it. And that's what we see in the role of Saint Benedict also, in this instrument of the good works. You know, there are two possible translations.

[51:23]

If amare is an adjective, it means bitter fasting. But according to certainly what St. Benedict wanted to write, it's a verb, to love fasting. To love this sort of bitter, bitterness, you know. And to do it voluntarily for Christ as an act of love, as an act of humility. to remind us that we are matter, not pure space. We need this humiliation, this humiliating suffering, to remain united with Christ on the cross, and to overcome the temptations of the flesh and of the devil, and to pray better. We have to do it, usually, always, as an act of obedience to the precepts of the Lord in this Gospel, and everywhere, to the precepts of the Church, to obey in everything, with faith in the religious values of the precepts of God.

[52:53]

And now, to conclude, I will mention that, as I said at the beginning, chiefly in these weeks, we have a special motive for fasting, as you know, which is the preparation of the council. We are all responsible for the council, not only the bishops. and the Roman Curia, but each of us. And you know that the Pope often insisted on that. The Holy Father often, in different talks, mentioned this importance of prayer and offering of all the Christians. And now you know, probably, that he made of that the matter of a special encyclical on mortification as a necessary preparation for the Council. The Pope is a man of good self. So he knows that the greatest theologian of the world will not succeed in clearing up all the problems if the Holy Spirit does not interfere. And the most sure way to have this help of the Holy Spirit is to

[54:00]

to ask him and to tell it all into the most humiliating, most humble values of the world. You know how Bob John is insisting on this humility, simplicity of life. And in that he asked something of a monk. And I remember he told myself that he wanted to be a monk. And then the parish priest made it somewhere else in seminary, so he went. But he was always very much attached, as you know, to monastic life. He restored himself to the monastery of Pontida near Bergamo, his native city. And I remember when he was nuncio in Paris each time, he used to go to the antiquarians. In the streets, you know, in Paris, there is, long as seen, the river, plenty of antiquaries. And they used to go and look, and when he found a manuscript or a book which belonged to Pontida, he bought it and sent to them. I remember even he offered them a whole patrology of me, which was a different thing, so... And I remember I had some contacts with him because he was also interested in historical topics.

[55:08]

So one of the first things he did when he came to Paris was to find somebody to help him. And chance made that I was called, so I made some research for him in the National Library in Paris and so on. And then from time to time, I went and reported the results. And then when it was finished, I went to say goodbye because I have no special reason to maintain relations with the nuncio or the Pope. So he was pleased and very simple. He used to speak abundantly, you know, and so I remember at this time he said, yes, Father Leclerc, I'm so glad. Now I would like to please you. Do ask me something and I'll give you. So I explained many desires. So I said, Excellency, I'm a monk, I'm so happy, I have no desire at all except heaven, so I'm afraid that I can't tell you anything to give me, so I just thank you." So she was surprised for a bit, you know. I started to sing without any pride because I think every monk would have said the same, you know, nothing to wait from the nuns, you know, no favor, no honor, I didn't want to become an honorary abbot.

[56:22]

Thank you. or to have any title or to wear any rings or jewels. I know that also that is now more or less in question for the country, you know, all these dignities, this monseigneurship and so on, which are so frequent everywhere, typically in this country, you know, there is a special fair for American monseigneurships. That's a little bit anti-evangelical and scandalous. And fortunately, we are at a time in which All these things are clearly expressed, said, and printed, you know. And you find monastic life especially a little bit, I say, scandalous, all this time. ...his dress, his lock-chip, the most reverend abbot, doctor, so and so. But what will do we read in the Gospel? And sometimes we may have this temptation not to become abbots, but that the monastery becomes an abbey instead of just being a monastery.

[57:32]

So you see, all these dignities, this honorific title and so on. Unfortunately now there is a great reaction in the Church, particularly in Europe, I don't know if that came up to you, but perhaps you heard that the Then you, and your bishop in Germany, I think, and then you ask bishop of Rettisdorf. As soon as he was appointed, he decided that people had to call him Herr Bishop, not Excellency and so on, you see, Eminency and so on, just Herr Bishop, Sir Bishop, you know. And that was, of course, welcome everywhere as a sort of indication of the way we should all have to go, you know, and chiefly for abbots, I think it's, you know, the problem with the Pontificalia is also in question now. And in fact, I don't think it's very late in the tradition, it comes from mostly from Barabzite, about time. And for instance, a very important monastery in Switzerland, where they just got the the Pontificalia in the 17th century, and they bought them with three manuscripts, which are now in the Ambrosiana in Milan, you see?

[58:37]

Because the cardinal, founder of this library, wanted to have manuscripts, and then he asked the abbot, and he has three manuscripts, but in exchange he got the Pontificalia. I should be ashamed to wear this Pontificalia in this monastery. But now, of course, it's a general custom, but you know, I think we... have to keep free from this sort of external manifestation, see, of what should be the state of Marginalism. You remember Father Bouillier says somewhere, in a little bit paradoxical way, that certain abbots have everything of the bishop, except the Holy Spirit. That is not true of all the adverts, of course. But, remember, it says not pre-esse, but pro-esse. And now, that's to be a prelate, you know. So, I think it's good for us to keep a certain liberty and regard all these very superficial things, you see.

[59:41]

And... That was just an extra gag. I hope you destroy it. Sometimes it's good for us to hear something of the voice of the prophet, you know, of sound protestation. And we know that now it's always going on very satisfactorily in the wheelchair. But just that was speaking of the good sense of the Oliphant. And he... remember that to prepare the Transil is necessary, to add something to our usual... And he asked that for all the Christians in the encyclical. But even in the encyclical, he mentioned the religious and monks and nuns. And more recently, two weeks ago, when began the general chapter of the Trappist abbot in Rome,

[60:47]

He went for the first day and he gave a very nice talk, you see, on monastic life in general, does not interfere in the general chapter, so he gave some direct, maybe just reminded some general topics, but then he insisted, chiefly, on all the hope he has in the monastic orders for the preparation and the conduct of the council. And so practically, I think we are, in these weeks, in which the council will begin, to be more in accordance with the Old Church and with the will of the Holy Father on this point. Sentire Ecclesia. You know, it has always often been said that this wonderful formula which was in St. Ignatius' formula, Sentire Cum Ecclesia, the Bank Father, which our Honour studied it and saw that the real meaning was And the first form of the formula was sentire ecclesiam. We have all to experience all the life, vitality, experience of the Church.

[61:52]

And now we are all responsible with this great event of our generation, which is the General Council. And so we have to obey the Holy Father and in adding some fast as Saint Benedict asks for Lent, now it's a sort of general Lent for the Lent for the Universal Church to fast, and so that's up to you to see what to do, one or some fasting days for the Council. First thing to do would be to attribute this intention of our fasting of today and of these Amber Days this week and perhaps to institute one fasting day or more for the Council, either for each one privately, with the approval of the Reverend Father, or perhaps one for the community, as we do before an ordination, before each great event in the community. But now it's a great event for all the communities, for the whole Church. And so I think or perhaps one day, for instance, the day before the opening of the Council, I think it would be good for us, and an act of very simple, humble obedience to the Church to have this Council fasting.

[63:06]

But always in the joy, the joy of the Holy Spirit, as says Saint Benedict, and as we said and sung in the Mass today, because the joy of the Lord is our strength. Reverend Father must have a special gift to choose the prayer because I'm just intending to speak of knowledge and light. I've got a hint. But before beginning, as you have Fasting. Fasting. On the day of like Hassan Danab, you know, suggested we have a small compensation, a small story of the wisdom of the, not of the desert, but of the 20th century anarchism. a story which Carpenter Huster used to tell when he was, to illustrate the problem related with what we are saying, this mind of asking and so on, the problem of predicting discretion, measure and adaptation, remaining human.

[64:11]

And he said that when he was a novice in St. Paul or out of the walls. There was an old abbot who was dying, very venerable and very venerated man, a saintly man and so on. Everybody worshipped him and he had a long haggling and it was in summer and in August, the warmest day of the Roman summer, And then every day I was more or less exhausted after watching on several nights and days on the one tablet. And so in the afternoon about two o'clock, it was obvious that he was to die, and that was the last moment, the last word he was saying, it was a great emotion, although there was a style, but all anxious to hear the last message, spiritual message, and then only the prior was so weak that only the prior could listen and then give the interpretation, and so he said his last word, and then the prior

[65:18]

translated and he said, Reverend Father says, order for each member of the community an ice cream. I think the tradition of The wit and wisdom of the father is still there. Well, I think we can omit speaking of the problem of monastic study. Because that's one of the activities we all have to exercise, and always a problem of unity, how to unite religious life and cultural life, and how to get a real unity of spiritual culture.

[66:20]

It is a difficult problem indeed, difficult because the solution is and must be simple. at least as I see it. And this is the reason why it is particularly difficult to deal with this problem. Difficult because unity of spiritual culture, if it exists, is simple. Now, how to analyze what is simple? How to decompose what is simple? You see, of course, that here again the solution must be simplicity. But how to show, to explain it? The decomposition of the atom, of the elementary unity, is the most difficult of all. Now, what are, so to speak, since we belong to the atomic age, what are the elements of this atom which is spiritual culture?

[67:23]

I think it's obvious that there are two, learning and love. The one without the other would have no strength, no value. And it seems that the condition of their union is here again detachment, which actually is a form of love. We must love the Lord enough to be detached from everything. even from learning. And in the same time, and owing to this detachment, we shall be able to keep the love for learning, and to learn in order to love. This is the general solution, which I will try now to illustrate. I already built the problem in a book, which is called The Love of Learning, and so it's a preface to Forever and Faster.

[68:35]

Now it's better back. Omega Mentor. And also in a small article, which I gave in, it was a talk I gave to the dissertation the Trappist students of Rome on Simplicity of Heart, Sancta Simpliciter, in the Collectaria in French, and it has been translated in English in the monastic studies from New Melria, which I think you have. So, I don't like to repeat what I already wrote, so I try to approach the problem starting again from another viewpoint, which is the history of words. and then seeing what may be our practical attitude regarding the life of study. I don't intend to speak specially of monastic theology, of a certain monastic way of studying theology, which would just concern the clerics, the students in theology.

[69:48]

but more generally of monastic studies as a whole. All the studies that make a monk, on which theology is just a department. I mean technical theologies, because in some way, that's what I shall try to explain next Sunday at St. Minos, theologia, theology. is not what we call theological science. We used to say that theology is theological science, and then that we stop. That is not yet theology, you see, but that's a longer argument in which also I gave the material in this book on studies of monastic vocabulary dealing with the whole history of the word theology. You know, there must be a continuity in our life of of theological studies that meet from faith, which gives us the implicit content, obscure but living, of the mystery in which we believe.

[70:57]

And then the scope of theological science Theology as a science, the study of theology is to try to develop, to explicit the content of this mystery of faith. Mysteries of faith, but always in continuity with a living faith. And then that gives rise to theology as a science, or theological science, which again includes two branches, let's say the historical science and speculative science, historical study of all the sources, exegesis, history, and so on, and then speculative science, let's say, to simplify, scholastic theology. But that is not yet theology. That is just theological science, and this science is just an auxiliary science to theology. Theology is the summit of this activity, which from faith has to go to contemplative prayer.

[72:03]

And traditionally, theology is just contemplative prayer, contemplation. And in the meantime, we have to go from the faith to contemplative prayer through the study of theological things. And then this contemplative prayer has to nourish our faith. There must be a sort of continuous circulation of love and faith between our adhesion to the obscure content of the mystery, then the order we settle in it, and then the fruit it gives in our spiritual life, which is our theology as a prayer. That's the only full concept of theology. Theology is a contemplative prayer, theologia, sive contemplatio. There are many texts in this reading, I just mentioned the fact. And so, we have texts, for instance, in which it's said that some

[73:04]

professors, scolares, professors of theology, of what we don't call theology, that means sacred of sin, they left to study in order to make theology, you see. So they ceased to study theology as a science to become contemplative. And that's an important topic now in the ecumenical conjecture, because In all the churches we realize that our study of theology has been, in the recent periods, too much intellectual, and without enough contact with the reality of our faith, with our life of faith. And that's why we have now to reconcile, and that has been seen by different people in different churches, One of the best things has been the article of Urs von Balthasar, Dicniende Theologie, the kneeling theology, means the theology, praying theology, which has been translated in French as the theology and sanctity, in Dieu vivant, in one of the first issues.

[74:22]

And recently I was surprised to see in the inaugural lecture of the successor of Karl Barth, in the University of Theological Faculty of Battle, a certain Heinrich Hoth, an article on theology as prayer and as Wissenschaft, as science. And he read quotes and sentences for whom Theology was a colloquium, an alloquium with God, unready and God, an alloquium. St. Anselm makes his theology speaking to God, not as an absolute abstract thing out of him and of God. But he tries to find, beyond the object of theology, the subject, I mean a personal contact with God as a subject. But Balthasar also puts exactly the same examples of Saint Anselm and others, and I suspect that the Protestant is depending for the Jesuit.

[75:35]

I thought it was quite spontaneous, but recently I met Balthasar and I asked him. I know he's a friend of mine, so probably it has been a euclidical exchange of ideas. And now, of course, chiefly the Orthodox are always more insisting to In order that we, in the Roman Church, we rediscover, we insist again, you see, on this aspect of living, experience, which is life of prayer. Prayer is, so to speak, the faith in experience, a sort of experience of the context, spiritual experience of the context of faith. Catholic theologians and, for instance, the Dominican Fr. Dumont, who is a human right all involved in ecumenical problems with the oriental church, also is stressing very much this responsibility of our occidental and partly Dominican theology, you see, of being too much intellectual.

[76:39]

So, you see, I just mentioned this big and important problem, which is one of the basic problems, you see, on which depend, upon which depend the union, the reunion of the Christians. So it is not so much a matter of legislation, of discipline and so on. There are a few deep problems as ministry and priesthood, as a notion of faith, prior theology, on which we can agree progressively, going back to the same sources which are the biblical and patristical tradition which has been preserved in our monastic medieval tradition, which is just a medieval patristic. That's what I already suggest in our book. and the chapter on monastic theology and which has been pretty well well caused by different ecumenic people and of different churches for instance During the last year when I met a professor of the University of Copenhagen and he took as tech for his seminar this book, which shows that without searching an immediate result, the mere fact of bringing again this monastic view of what was the union between intellectual life and spiritual life may be an help

[78:06]

show a field in which we may meet and agree. And so you see, we have first theological science, then theology, which may be a Nearing theology, praying theology, and here again, either in the private contemplation or in liturgy. And then it should be called, probably better, a standing theology, a singing theology. Theology as a chant, as it was, as a hymnologia. Greek terminology. And then there may be also a proclaimed theology, you see, a sort of proclamation of this contemplation. And that is what St Thomas called this work of active life which consists in giving the overflow of personal contemplation, in what he calls predicatio et sacra doctrina, you see?

[79:12]

That means the sacra doctrina, teaching of theology, but supposing always first a contemplative life. And that is for those in the Church who have to convey this sort of proclamation, which may be either in teaching theology or in what we call now the charismatic theologies, That means a proclaimed theology. But too often we are just stuck in the middle, in the theology as science, and that was just a disputed theology. Not a prayer of proclaimed, but a matter of discussion of controversies and so on. So yeah, we have to go beyond, you know, and to rejoin in this whole integral concept of theology, which profits by our faith and then nourishes our faith and our love. And that would be the thing to deal with for students in theology. But to know that you notice immediately that every month in this larger, broader meaning has to be a theologian, as far as it is a contemplative.

[80:19]

And that was the viewpoint we shall try to deal with here. And it's difficult, you know, the problem of monastic studies, because here again the field has been and is still encumbered by handbooks, commonplaces. Benedictine apologists projecting the modern situation and ideas on the past have written so much, too much indeed, on the services rendered to culture, civilization, letters, and so on, by the monks. So much that this particular activity and work of the monks almost seems to be a sufficient justification for the monastic state in the Church. Now, if we consider the rule of Saint Benedict and the tradition. We must firmly maintain that monastic life has no other aim as the search of God.

[81:22]

You see, I repeat always the same thing, but it's the only thing I'm sure about. And of God alone, soli Deo vivere, soli Deo platere desiderans. And this exigency excludes everything which may be an obstacle for this search of God. And this eventually may exclude, or possibly at least may exclude, the study or the life of study as we see it in the life of Saint Benedict when he flew away from the school, apparently a very bad example for a monastery with school and college. And in fact, all the monastic houses are unanimous, not against study in itself,

[82:26]

but against the world and the manner according to which studies are made in the world, unanimous against the life of study as it is lived in the world. The purpose of the month is to love God alone. It is the purity of heart, which consists in not being divided, shared between God and creature. as the Christian in the world may be divided. But for the monks, this sort of chastity of heart and mind and intelligence requires a positive option for the monastery, if it is unavoidable in order to study, to live to live the worldly life, it is better not to study at all.

[83:42]

But within this preference given to God in the monastic life, and provided this preference be absolutely self-guarded, there is no opposition at all against the intellectual research as such. And this double aspect of the problem a certain mistrust of study as a possible obstacle, and the legitimacy, more the usefulness, of study, this double aspect appears in all the witnesses, facts and texts of the monastic tradition. Let's go again to the dictionary and consider the word itself, of study, studium. Mabillon has created the formula studia monastica, which is a recent formula.

[84:47]

In fact, have there even been some monastic studies in ancient monastic tradition? Especially, have there even been some monastic schools? Much less than we used to see. And last year I had to study that in an article in a congress in Spain where I was supposed to sing the praises of monastic studies, and the result of my inquiry was that there had never been... There has been a monastic curriculum, but without monastic studies. except as regards the elementary studies and school, grammar school. Monastic schools were just grammar schools for young future monks or possible monks.

[85:55]

Out of the monasteries in the cities near the cathedral, and chiefly in the 11th and 12th centuries, there have been high schools in which some monks were sent exceptionally. But for the average monks in the monasteries, there were no such schools in which they taught or were taught. There were only elementary schools. So there were not monastic studies, there were just pre-monastic studies. So a boy was educated in the monastery, he learned the grammar, namely how to read, Latin, and a very few elements of Mathematics to know the way of computer and you see the complex thing but it was very very elementary, almost nice. And so that were the studies. Usually small schools in which the future monks and a few other boys and girls in the monasteries of nuns learn to read and to write.

[87:04]

And Sifflet three, because to write, again, was just a specialty, a job for a few people. You know, to write supposed always a certain resistance of the pen on the parchment and so on. That was a manual labor to write. That's why very few people were able to write with some banana or something, never wrote, you know. They always dictated to people who know the job of writing. And so we have a few examples which were some pages of writing, just a few words, a few lines. Many boys must have tried to write, but they didn't especially learn to write, but they learned to read. And that is already very revealing. and very few in the monastery. And I would like somebody showing me just one example of a community in which the number of the boy was superior to the number of the monks.

[88:17]

I don't know any example. And sometimes I see, now in OPR, recently again in those books on the monastic history of this monastery and so on. And then with a few names of boys they have for two centuries, they blow up and say, you're the affluent of boys. But then I check and verify and calculate, and then I ask the man, the author, and he said, yes, I must say that... There is no evidence. And on these schools and their pedagogic methods, we are pretty well informed. We know many details, which are often picturesque, sometimes dreadful. because this ancient pedagogy was extremely hard you know exactly it is a pagan pedagogy which has more or less survived in the medieval pedagogy even in the monastery and even in the whole of St.

[89:25]

Benedict you see St. Benedict is rather severe for everybody has to watch on the but nevertheless it's the fact that it is in the monastery that progressively slowly the interest for the boy in himself has been rediscovered and this appeared recently in a very very recent book which came out this year a prolongation of the book of Mahou Mahou wrote a book on the history of education in antiquity and then recently a pupil of Mahou wrote a book on the education in the In the West, from six to nine cents. And that's mainly, it's a certain riche. He shows that how in the monastery, in spite of this sort of lack of interest for the children in general, they had more interest to the boy, to the children in themselves.

[90:29]

But so we have not to speak about this medieval pedagogy. But outside of that, There were no theological or profound schools, even in the so-called school of Beck, when were Langfrang and St. Anselm. And here again, historians are exagerated, and I have to rectify that in the special edition of Beck Sensei, which I think you have, an article which the title was a school of monastic doctrine at the back, you know, just to show that it was just a Scola Dominici Servici, nothing else, not a school of philosophy. the monastic school of the divine service. And in fact the philosophy of Saint Anselm, which he wrote in his books, has nothing to see with the teaching he gave, and which we know very well, so owing to the similitudines written, you see, which are quite different.

[91:38]

And in fact his influence on the philosophical movement was nothing. It has just been discovered by St. Thomas about 150 years after his death. And he had different pupils, in England, who wrote, but always on monastic topics. No one thought that he had to teach something else than monastic life. And not to teach, but to write about, you see, to comment on spiritual writing. And so, if we look at the texts in which occur the words designating the studies, studium and studere, erudire, instituere, disciplina, we notice that studium means zeal, studiosus means zealous, attentive, eager, in German it would be exactly fleissig, diligent.

[92:42]

Wonderful word, diligent. The one who diligent, who loves, diligent not only for learning but for every sort of virtue. And when the ancients speak of monastic studios, they speak not only and not primarily of science but of everything which entertains the good zeal, as St. Benedict said, which nourishes not the intellect But the life, the spiritual life, prayer, charity, and so on, studium orationis, does not mean the study of prayer but the zeal for prayer. Studiosus is opposed to fastidiosus. And the first thing which, in the intellectual field, fulfills this requirement is the study of Sacrae Scipio.

[93:47]

The first, the main, the only essential matter of monastic studies is the Holy Scipio, the Word of God. And here we find again the connection between reading and prayer, Lectio et Oratio, all that may contribute to give to our life its unity. It has to be cultivated. and about always to integrate all these activities in our life of prayer, not to settle them and to cultivate them as if each one had its value in itself. That's why the more we unite, even reading, praying, singing... For instance, recently I was in a monastery of nuns and I discovered that in the novitiate a whole generation had learned to meditate on the gradual, so that not only on the text, with a small missle, but even on the melodies. text and melody, so that when they sing them, it evokes immediately all the richness of their prayer.

[94:54]

I find that very suggestive, as it means to contribute to the unity of our spiritual culture. And then, what do the monks learn to do? To read in order to pray. And the study of the liberal disciplines is justified, and is even necessary, as far as it prepares for its sacred reading. And, so far, it participates in its sacred character, with it, for instance, ad sacrum liberalium litterarum studium se informans. So I don't insist on this matter of vocabulary. I just mentioned the fact that, according to tradition, all the studies of remarkable must be ordained and remain subordinated to the study which leads to prayer and must remain balanced by this study.

[96:11]

It must never be the most important in value, even if Actually, on account of practical duties, for a professor, for instance, it requires more time. You see, it is not so much a matter of quantity, of time, and so on, but a matter of point of view, of value. It's a matter of love. And this insistence on love, on the part played by the heart, as well as by the intellect, appears in many witnesses. For instance, at the end of the Preface for Monastic Prophecy, which belongs to the ancient Ordinace and which we still have, I think, in most of the congregations, but I'm sure also, the abbot prays in this way. Aperi eis sed sum, ut divinarum studius literarum in ten dat corde.

[97:15]

This is the monastic Fratio studio in the day of our profession. All the words have a meaning in this wonderful formula. Aperi. It is a gift coming from God. Sensum. means a certain intelligence and sensibility. Remember that this formula is taken from the Gospel. Eta peruit sensus ut intelligere scripturas. After His Resurrection, the Lord opened them, this sensibility, so that they could understand the Scripture. Paperi eris sensum. Divinarum studius litterarum. These are monastic studies, the zil studium for the word of God, divinarum literarum, as it is written in the divine scriptures. Intendat cordi. Intendat. It's a matter of attention and of intention. Cordi.

[98:19]

This intention is impossible without love. And within this religious zeal is allowed, encouraged, the study of everything which helps it, introduces to it, prepares for it, profits by it. As I said, it is not so much a question of the matter of the study. which may be the Holy Scripture, theology, but also the study of the creature of God, natural science, which may also be beneficial for some. It's not so much the matter as the manner, which is important. And this manner is detachment. Every study, even the study of secular theology, must be done with an absolute detachment, as everything, every job, every arse, as says Saint Benedict in chapter 57.

[99:33]

That is, if it prevents the purity of art, it must be hijacked, gutted, de novo pariam non transient. What matters for a monk is God and the search of God. That were some indications taken from the monastic tradition of studies. Now, how practically to keep this orientation in our modern conditions of monastic life? Here there may be two points. What will be particularly first the means to keep this Christian attitude in our life from prayer, and secondly the results of this life. First the means.

[100:36]

The first one is to cultivate the religious element of our culture, owing to the learning of God. We must reserve some time in our life for the study of Scripture and service. And as I said, speaking of economy and work, it may be a temptation to be so involved in things which are being concrete in some way easier to do, immediately more interesting. may perhaps distract us from this study. And so I think in doing a retreat we have to make examination of conscience, do I consecrate, do I give to reading and study all the time I could give and I should give? And perhaps one point also in which we could examine ourselves, it is this one.

[101:38]

Do I give more time to reading and studies on Sunday and Thursday? This sacred reading should be at least our normal occupation on Sunday. Apart, of course, of the necessary work. Kitchen and so on has to be worked. It depends even on Sunday. But the day of the Lord must remain the most contemplative day of the week. It's obvious that a certain time may and must be given to relaxation, be given also to the necessary work, but Sunday should not be reserved for doing the work which it has not been possible to do during the week.

[102:41]

rest of the seventh day, the sabbatismus, must be respected. And for instance, I think it's quite abnormal, not normal at all, that in some monasteries every weekend the monks, most of the monks, go out and they pray less than usual, you see. And I hope they pray to the laity the obligation of the thunder rest, but often they don't practice it. there are many reasons I don't judge, but as an objective fact to see, I think that should not be normal in real monastic life. We must, for the whole community and for each of us, accept in case of exceptional condition meant then this obligation of the rest of the seventh step, belonging to the reason of the Christian week. And it is presented, as you know, by the tradition as the day of the rest of God himself, when he had created the world, at the day of Christ after his resurrection.

[103:57]

And it must remain the day of the rest of the Christians, of the religions, Physical rest and spiritual rest, some time, some hour at least, must be spent with God, as an anticipation of the heavenly rest. In heaven, all the time, all the days, the whole week, will be consecrated to worship, as St. Paul to Hebrews, remember, but until that comes, The time given to God on the day of God will help us to safeguard the contemplative life, to safeguard our religious culture, to maintain contemplation, the path of contemplative prayer in our lives of work and of studies. The second means. is to do this study with love, not as an exterior obligation, if we are obliged by the customs of the monastery and so on, or the regulations of the Church, but as an internal need, a necessity.

[105:14]

In other words, with zeal, with studium, or, as St. Benedict says, with pleasure, libente, lexiones sanctas, libente audire. To do it with our whole soul in order to know God, to know according to the biblical language, to know is to possess in the way of espousing. The knowledge of God is an intimate exploration of God thanks to the revelation of His Word, His Scripture. He has given to us light on him, and we have to know him as he wants us to do. All knowledge is a loving assimilation of the object of our learning, so we must not try so much to understand as to possess.

[106:15]

The difference between, for instance, between intelligere and comprehendere. Intellegere is intolegere, to penetrate in some way by an intellectual way, but comprehendere is to possess. The third means is to study God with intellectual humility, with evangelical simplicity. The highest knowledge of God rejoins the greatest simplicity of heart, of spirit. We must accept the intellectual satisfactions but not seek them, not pursue them, not be attached to them. The religious values must penetrate all our actions and intentions, all our studies. And sometimes we hear, we have to deplore that a Christian, a religious, a priest, a monk, says that he discovers that he has lost the faith.

[107:26]

That's a very painful experience sometimes we do in the life. What was the matter? If we observe such things, that their faith was not engaged enough, compromised enough, their intellectual, even their theological, was not immersed enough in the spiritual It was perhaps lived in a generous way, but not integrated enough in the religious attitude itself, not united enough with the life of union with God. And this is the spiritual unity that we must keep at all costs, thanks to fervor and humility. And finally, to conclude, What will be the result, the fruit, of this life of monastic study?

[108:28]

We must distinguish two cases. First, normally, it will be joy, joy in detachment, joy coming only from God, not from any self-enjoyment, just from the knowledge of God. You know how much the ancients, the Fathers of the Church, insisted on this source, the only authentic one of the joy of the month. And this was according to the patristic tradition. You know how much the Church Fathers insisted on the thanksgiving we are indebted to God for the grace of His revelation. In a pagan world in which God was unknown, the real one, the real God, the Christian God, the God of the Christian revelation, they immensely appreciated the privilege, the light, the grace of knowing God thanks to the revelation of Christ.

[109:40]

And this we must have also Now it is. Most of men in the world either don't know God or are indifferent to Him, not really interested in Him. Our knowledge of God creates for us the obligation, the duty, of learning always more about God, of thanking Him, of admiring His mysteries. of finding in them our strengths, consolation and joy. And it is fully legitimate to find this joy not only in the study of theology, but if the occasion occurs, if we have some competence, perhaps coming before, from our life before coming to the monastery, or if we learn something, to find this joy in the study of the creatures of God, natural signs.

[110:45]

We have in France the great Catholic theologist Pierre Termier who wrote a classical book entitled La Joie de Conner, the Joy of Knowing. It's quite legitimate because the religious spirit refers all knowledge to the knowledge of God. Joy of Knowing. But secondly, there may be another case. which we must also foresee. We may have some periods of suffering in the faith, in which we feel difficulties to keep the faith. There may be crises of faith. This is a trial which God may allow for some of us, at least at certain periods. But if we keep humility, detachment, love, God will help us and give us joy again.

[111:53]

And normally, God will help us thanks to the aid of our brethren in the Church, in the community. It may be good for us to speak of this, of these difficulties. to a spiritual man, when it is still time, not yet too late. And unfortunately, I just mentioned the experience of people saying that they have lost the faith, and I must notice that when they're begging, usually, to speak of that, it's already too late, because they have had the crisis alone, which is always unsound. So it's good for us. I think we see that we're begging to have some difficulties, not to be afraid, but just to speak of it to a friend, with spiritual man, And even if we don't do that, if it's not so important, or if we don't find the opportunity, but that should be normal in the community, it's always good for us to remember the faith of others.

[113:03]

It is so difficult now with the increasing exigencies of all the disciplines, the increasing difficulties of learning. It is difficult to be competent, to be a specialist in all fields, Scripture, dogma, church history, philosophy, psychology, and so on. But then we must remember with humility that other men, other Catholics, other confreres, still more intelligent than we are, overcome these difficulties we feel in the faith. We may go to one of them and inquire and we must attenuate trust in the faith of others. This is one of the most authentic forms of charity in the truth, the help we give to each other, keeping each one our faith in God and in His mystery.

[114:11]

And thus the last word remains a word of confidence. God is present to our study in it. I like to adapt to myself this word of the Bocos wisdom, which is not surely a literal interpretation, but eruditis in terthrum cogitationibus, and present even to erudite toads. If we really seek the Kingdom of God and renounce everything for Him, everything, knowledge and joy, will be added unto us.

[114:58]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_88.7