There is a certified opening vitamin plant, but it's just to me. And it'll go to me. So I'm glad to see them here in Rhode Island. No need for introduction, except that every year I get older, so my limits have increased. I'm just a historian, so I have nothing else than history, including contemporary history. An old man, French-speaking, spoke of Franglish, Franglish, Franglish. Do you remember the first time I came to this country when I wanted to say, peanuts, I said, peanuts. For the last, I asked why, and I apologized. He said, no, we very much prefer peanuts to peanuts.

[01:01]

I wanted to say to weep, I said to sweep. So you must be enthusiastic. If somebody does not understand something, just ask and try to understand your question. So about the topic of this seminar. I gave one, I think it was last month, for the New York area And they had a nemographic series of titles which in fact were taken from the course I gave last year in San Francisco on Evangelism or Gospel and Culture in the Christian Contemporary Tradition. This title is vast enough, or if you prefer, crazy enough, to allow me to say what I mean, what I like, or what I like.

[02:05]

So it's very flexible. And in fact, the other day when I called the Claudette from the Bronx, I was on the phone and I wrote down the topics she told me she had received suggestions and so forth. Which each of them could be the matter of the seminar. So we have to accept some limits. But in fact, I think I could fit the things in the general framework I have, either in the talks themselves, or in the question time. Let's be flexible and see how the Spirit will guide us. So, the title may be Also, misleading. Evangelism. You know, we started to say, dare to say that, because Evangelism is a big thing.

[03:09]

It was a very important, fundamental movement, I think that. So, I think they prefer to say gospel. Gospel and culture. both these terms may mean much. I would insist tonight on the two main meanings of culture. You understand culture? Culture used to mean, when I was young, a sort of learning, knowledge, the person had a culture, or had not, had a particular culture, literary culture, artistic culture, and so forth. That means the sort of, I wouldn't say ornament, but means of knowledge and approach to life which a person has.

[04:09]

Today, in modern languages, particularly in the language of sociology and science of societies, they use culture in a broader sense. The culture is all the set of values, ways of living and dying and doing everything, you know, which are part of a certain type of society in a certain time and area. So culture is much broader. And I think we have to face the problem of the relationship and consignation of the Gospel with both this talk of culture. And so tonight I would like first to speak again, because that's centered more or less in the existing, the other, my sister Claudette, on the, I wouldn't say traditional, but rather limited, the restricted meaning of culture, knowledge and gospel and then we shall go through from tomorrow morning the relationship between the gospel and when I say the gospel I mean all the message of Jesus Christ with the value of spiritual in the world

[05:31]

But the first meaning is a certain, and you know that all of this meaning of culture today, that is quite a bibliography, I have plenty of reference there, it's no use to give that now. The problem of the relationship of religious life, particularly contemplative life, which is our purpose here, with culture, that means with intellectual life and spiritual life, knowledge, by all means, is very timely to me. Formally, the experience shows that it was possible to have a contemplative life without culture, without knowledge, just this piety. And piety, generosity, mortification, renunciation, and so forth, that was excellent. And that worked, truly, for certain generations. 1930, up to the 15th of this century.

[06:38]

But now, it's impossible to have a real contemporary life, except in very exceptional case, where progress of God supplies everything, which may happen, but we have no right to expect that from the generosity of God, you know? So it doesn't work without her. So now today, there is a greater need of culture. We have to cultivate all the human capacities, possibilities, vitality, gifts God has given us. For various reasons. First, because we all come more or less now to the monasteries with various problems. The media, TV, printed papers of all sorts. Sometimes books, particularly if we happen to read various scientific books, sometimes raise for us questions which we had never thought of before.

[07:40]

And we have to catch all these thoughts, all these new questions. And it's not always easy. So many people lose their faith, or lose their ... not so many, but some are tempted to lose their faith. Their vocation is because they were not prepared. They had not sufficient capacity to absorb. But that's just the negative aspect. The positive aspect is that today in the Church, and I would say particularly in our Church, Roman Catholic Church, there is just an enormous progress of knowledge, of theology, of knowledge, particularly of different kinds. I think no time in history except perhaps the very first generation of the Church and then a period in the 4th century where they were discussing in Greece, in the streets even, the Christological problems about Jesus. No time has ever been so interested in Jesus Christ as our time.

[08:43]

No time for the Congregation of the Bishops' List, or just for your time. No time has been so evangelical as our time. For concern with the Gospels, not only with institutions, and so forth. But with the gospel, and in fact, with a very personal perspective. And so, there is no week during which there does not appear a new book, a new article, on the mysteries of faith. And particularly, I have to say, I could say, just before I left Europe again, I think, anywhere I go, I find magnificent work on Jesus. So our contemporaries have had to absorb that. So they pick it up, all the academic people, theological faculties and so forth, work and we don't profit by it. So I think it's important. Now, our culture is a Christian culture, which means that it must always be and remain centered on Jesus Christ.

[09:46]

And not Jesus Christ in a sort of fundamentalist way of today or Jesus, no. Jesus as the revealer of the Father. And therefore also of the Spirit. Jesus who sent the Spirit. And therefore all the mystery of Jesus. Not only the teachings, the doctrines, but the full message, the life, the activity, the presence of Jesus in our church, in his church. And if we want to have a sort of guideline to consider the contemplation of Jesus, we have to, we may start from contemplating Jesus the contemplative, Jesus the contemplator. Jesus is both the book which we have to read.

[10:50]

And the reader of this book, the one who teaches and shows us how to read things, gives us the book. You know, it was a very traditional idea in church tradition, in the church fathers and medieval, up to our days. Now, Jesus gives the book, this book, which contains everything we need to know to go to God. In the psalm we read, at the beginning of the book, it's spoken of me. So at the beginning of the book, it's Jesus. Jesus is really the book which we have to read. And remember, all the process of growth of Christian life was represented that way. We have to read the book. Jesus was the book.

[11:52]

It contained all the revelation of the Father, all the gifts of the Spirit. It contained all the life we need, all the riches of spiritual life we have. But we have to read it, and we can't read it without Him. Progressively, this book, which had been prepared, announced in the Old Testament, has been given. And, Jesus Christ, in himself, has in the book, too, congregate two of them. What he was feeling in himself. Jesus is the book and the reader of the book. And then, the father used to say, when progressively, when he opened his hands on the cross, the book was opened. And then when he gave the spirit to the disciples, the day of the resurrection, the book was interpreted. And what we all have to do is to look at the book and to try to conform to the image we read, we admire in the book.

[12:54]

And to check whether we are really reading correctly. And for that we need to be guided, to be taught. That's why the church is there, helping us, teaching us how to read. Remember, the painters like to represent the last testament as Christ coming, and all the tenet are there, and at the place of their faith, there is an open book. I worry whether it's conformed to the model, to the exemplar, you know? So if we are exactly reflecting the text, the reality Jesus was, then we are conformed to him. This is the last judgment, and in between you have all sorts of books, the book of experience, the book of nature, the book of history, you know, everything which helps us to understand the will of God The message of God, not only in general, but for our time, is a means to reach God and to read the message of God in Jesus' time.

[14:04]

Now, the first to read in himself was Jesus. And for Jesus, it was not at all a sort of intellectual activity. Jesus was not critiquing, reciting something new beforehand in his previous existence. can also create in himself the very experience he had of being God. Being in this unique relationship to God, who we call his father, Hadbar, which is a very primitive and very intimate and familiar way to name God, Abba. The first syllable of this word, baby, can mean anything in any civilization. It's ba-ba-ba-ba. So Abba, father, can fall just like that, you know, Abba. And it means daddy. Jesus Christ is in this intimate, personal, loving relationship with the Father.

[15:07]

And he had to discover what it is for a man, a real man, the man Jesus. This Jesus, that man Jesus, Rabbi Chesua, some people call him Rabbi Chesua. But then he had many directors to situate him. Jesus, a real man, was the first one to know, by experience, What is to be well with God? And we have to discover that progressively. It is our own experience. Tremendous experience of which we can have no idea except through what he taught us. Remember John in the beginning of his gospel says, God, nobody has seen him. But the Son of God had experience of knowing, of seeing. And then he explained to us what was his explanation. Here John used to have in the very gap in Arabic.

[16:10]

He told us that the Greek word is exegesis. He gave us the exegesis. Jesus believes God has this function. And then he gave us the explanation. And the exegesis means to explain the Torah word by word, letter by letter. And Jesus was just explaining to us, like to children, you know, working, and patiently. He did it for three years, and he continued in his church, and his message was written, and commented, and still alive. So everything stops from the very experience of Jesus. Everything we know as Christians about God comes from this unique human experience Jesus had of being with God, being in this unity with God, which means that he was God. All the Gospels according to John could not have been written if Jesus had not frequently, habitually spoken of

[17:17]

Him, his relationship to and with the Father, understood. So that's the experience of Jesus. And John particularly, but also the other synoptics, are full of this thought of identity, unity, The Father and me, we are one. Everything I say belongs to the Father. I receive from the Father, and I give it to the Father. I send it to you. I send the Spirit, the Spirit who proceeds from me and the Father. That's the experience of this. I don't know if all of that would be a long topic, but I just want to call your attention again on the fact that every Christian culture is just a development of these fundamental primitives experience of God in man. Every act of faith he can do now comes from this experience of Jesus. Every act of prayer comes from this praying experience of Jesus.

[18:21]

He's contented with this experience. Jesus is contented with par excellence because he contented the Father in himself through the Spirit. And every act of prayer, of faith, of contemplative prayer, we may have goes to the Father through this experience of Jesus in the Spirit. Now, fundamentally, what was this experience of Jesus? Of being with the Father, well with the Father, in turn to being with the Father. It was the experience of being loved, and therefore being loved. not just a knowledge, not just an idea, but this experience that is difficult to describe, which we all know, because we all had an experience of friendship, of love, in one form or another, to know what it is to be loved, to have somebody who loves us, our mother, us, whatever it is. And so Jesus knew, for sure, that the God who loves me is that.

[19:25]

And the fourth, he was. returning to their father, this love. And that's a fundamental experience, being loved. And everything else is just means, too. Inexplicit, too obvious, too elaborate, to try to formulate, to make more conscious, this fundamental experience of being loved and in love. It's done. That's why Jesus could only share his existence. And the more he shared, the more he gave, the more he was himself. Jesus didn't exist for himself. He existed for the Father and for in other states of himself, except in relation to the Father and to us. He gave everything he did, everything he had. He shared. He's not a conservative. He's not a keeper, somebody who possesses and keeps for them. He dreams, he shares everything, his teachings, his experience, his power of forgiving the sins, forgiving, curing, healing, expelling the heathens, devils.

[20:37]

He shares his body and blood at the Last Supper. On the cross, he shares everything, he shares his mother. And at the end, he shares his life, his spirit, the same distance. And so what we have to do is just to try to understand always more this experience of Jesus. Jesus is the first book in which the life of God has to be read. And Jesus is the first leader who had that book in himself. But Jesus read also that book, not only through his own experience, but with the means of human means, the normal ways of how to read. Jesus had to learn how to read. That was his experience of the jumping divine, went forever at the beginning, from the time he was in the home of his mother.

[21:40]

No, that was the continuous process of growth, of discovery. And to that, Jesus, being a man, had to make use of the human, normal means of learning, and the first of them being reading. That was what Jesus had to read, whether he read himself in the role on the scroll, or he learned it by people who could read. We know he was written. The day he went to the synagogue, he read, took the scroll of Isaiah, showed the patient, and read it, and commended it. But what matters is the fact that Jesus had to discover his own experience through the Scripture. And if we have, and I insist on that, because we have to read. And if we have to read, what to read, why to read, because Jesus said.

[22:43]

And typically in a time of great activity, meetings, media, and so forth, there might be a temptation not to read. And I think it's very dangerous. You remember we had an old Cardinal who was a benedictine Cardinal Schuster, and one day I was in a monastery where was very good. They couldn't stop when the monks don't go anymore to the library. Or if you just read the newspaper. I think we have to read newspapers. I read it, values, every day. I think it's important. But, you know, I think we want to study and to read and to learn how to read. And we know exactly, you know, that Jesus read and how he read. We know that Jesus read because he had, of course, the Spirit. Jesus was continuously penetrated by time of the Spirit, continuously.

[23:50]

But he had a human psychology, and therefore he had to use the normal means to develop his psychology, his knowledge, his scripture. And one of them was reading. And that explains that he had to read the scripture, and he did. And after that, what he did to explain his own experience was to comment the scripture. Hence the importance of the Old Testament, the Torah, to speak of himself. He always referred to the prophet. to herself. It was a great signal which had stunned his psychology when he was young. Can you imagine, Jesus, his family in the evening where his parents were, as the Jews used to do, and still do, remembering all the great marvels God has made for their people, evoking Jonah, Abraham, all the red figures which Jesus, therefore, I heard in his teaching, quotes also, reciting the Psalms, praying, according to the Torah, and the Torah does not mean only the legislation.

[25:05]

Today the Torah is also, today is all the context of what we call the Old Testament. And we have to be very cautious because the Jews today don't want to do that. They say, that's the Torah. When you say the Old Testament, you seem to suppose that it was incomplete, for the time being, provisional. And then you have it. No, it is the Torah. It is still for them and for us. And all the Bible, of course, was the Old Testament, what we call the Old Testament. But it was full of that. And then the synagogue, every Sabbath, we used to go and listen, first of the morning, Then, you know, when he was 12 years old, he was in the temple, and what he did was to ask questions about the Torah, and he answered, but, and they were surprised how he answered, but he answered in the psychology of a boy of 12 years old. You see, and then continuously he was discovering, and that's how he could, and he was memorizing. That's the way, you know, right away. pedagogy of that time, how they were living, learning the scripture, they were memorizing, reciting, repeating, and by that way, by deed of hearing, they didn't think they were right, by deed of hearing and dealing again, they assimilated, they became part of them.

[26:24]

And that's the way Jesus did for himself and then did for his disciples. He sort of novitiated, he was carrying himself in the field, During three years, he was passionately teaching them the parts of the Old Testament, the images, the passages, and, of course, the texts which refer to him, and then teaching them some parables, some sentences, some beautiful phrases he had the art of creating in order to fit them in their memory. And he was memorizing with them, repeating Patiently, although the first who have been engaged more or less in pedagogy, in fixing, know what a patient is. Jesus was that way, a sort of extremely patient, patient, knowledge-smarter. There's people, too, he says, several times that they are very slow in understanding, you know. And it was then, in that way, didn't take the most intelligent, very clever, rapid thinkers, no.

[27:28]

And that's the way Jesus was teaching. And all the Gospels and all the New Testament is just made of that. And after that, in the community, they will remember, remember the day he said this story, that parable, he gave the stickman to Paul to preach to Simon and to Paul. All these memories came out of their memory. And that was the way Jesus was teaching. teaching, reading the Bible, explaining the Bible. And that was one of the functions of the prophet. The prophet is, among other things, the man who protests, who denounces the abuses, the facilities, the secularization of the world, is the man who also points to the the kingdom to come but he is also the man who in order to do that interprets the Bible, the Torah. I thought Jerusalem was doing that and that's why of course you know that the

[28:38]

The Gospels, as we have them, are a product of the post-tactical community, so they are fully a part of interpretation of the community. But we know exactly how many rabbis, including Jesus, were used to teach. So we are sure Jesus read the scripture and we understand why his teaching is so full of the scripture. You know that they were reading every Sabbath in the synagogue, and we know it for sure. They went one day in the synagogue of Jerusalem to Farnam. They were reading the Torah, the rabbi was reading the Torah in Hebrew, which was a sort of sacred. in secret language, like it used to be for us, everybody understood. But then there was a translator who translated in Aramaic to the Danakolo and then gave the Targum, which was the commentary, the homing. And we still have the Targum, the traditional Targum, for all the books of the Torah.

[29:42]

So that's the way Jesus did for himself and for others. And that's the way we have to do it. If there is a Christian reading of the scripture, It is because it has started in Jesus. When we read, it is Jesus in us, through his Spirit, who continues to live. And we have to read the Scriptures because of Him, to find Him, like Him, in Him, with His grace. And as Himself applies to Himself the Old Testament, we have to apply to Himself both the Old Testament and the New Testament, in order to understand his life, his mission, his teaching, to penetrate in his intimacy, in his interiority, in his heart. So, that's why to read. Now, what to read? Of course, the Word of God, and primarily the Bible, the Torah, the New Testament, and everything which explains the New Testament.

[30:50]

explain the experience of Jesus, the label of faith. He is written in the New Testament. And we have to read, not in order to be a teacher, scholar, professor, to know. We have to read. not in order to be a teacher, scholar, to know, or to show that we know, not even to share what we know if we are not by vocation called to this sort of thinking, but we have to read to knowledge ourselves. And that's why we have to read everything in view of this, in connection with the teaching of this. Everything we read must be a commentary of the teaching of Jesus, and of the reality of Jesus, the person of Jesus.

[31:53]

And we particularly, but I think all that we've done today, but we particularly in the content is like, I think we have to practice content that we've read. Not from a to read about things to do or not to do. You know, when I was young we had plenty of books about virtues, things, I don't know, always little virtues, little things, everything is little about us, you know, and we know it. Usually what we lack is not to know what to do or not to do. We know, we lack courage to do. But I think we have to concentrate always more, not on morals, but on the mystery. Jesus, the Father, Spirit, Trinity, The Eucharist, the church, marriage, our relationship with Jesuits in Gdansk, with Jesuits on the street, all this marvelous history. I think we have to... And of course, we have to face new problems, and sometimes difficult problems.

[33:03]

And that's one of the dictatorships today of freedom, and also of the necessity. It's not sufficient, the Gospel is not just a book that's just opened and you are edified, it may be. But, chiefly, during a certain period of preparation, of training, we have to study it, you know. And always more we learn when we read various books today that we discover new problems, the application of new methods. When I was young, it was philology, historical texts. Now it's structurally a very difficult method, which are a combination of psychology, even sometimes Marxist structures. There were various books recently in France on the reading of St. Mark's according to Marx. very, very serious, to think like a Dominican.

[34:04]

It was very difficult, but very interesting. And there was another sort of Marxist interpretation of the gospel, not in the view of political application, but some structures of mind. And just the other day, I picked up in the bookstore of Southern Baptist Seminary in Kentucky, after I had read it, a chapter of the service, a book on Kerrigoma, which is a Greek word meaning proclamation of the message of Christ and reason, charisma and coming, the application of the structure of comedy, common to all the rituals of fertility and of sexualization, and particularly in the Greek world, the Greek drama, to the structure of the passion narrative, in Paul and then in Marx and others. You see, and all these new letters give rise to new problems. when for the first time we hear that things didn't happen exactly as they are written.

[35:06]

That is a part of interpretation of literary elaboration. We thought it was so easy to imagine that it just happened at the end of the week. It's a book of, it's a historical book, so it just comes, it stands flat. No, it's a theological interpretation. So, sometimes we, about the resurrection, the traditional birth of Jesus, the Eucharist, many things, we have new problems to face. And I think that's why it's not sufficient to read the the Gospel itself, or the New Testament itself, but we have to read everything which helps us to understand. I think the first commentary of the Bible, of course, must be the Bible itself. And today we are privileged because we have the Jerusalem Bible, Jerome Bible, and so forth, which is the best commentary of the Bible. I think the best way today, and it's not a theory, I know people who do that, you take any page of the New Testament, and then you check all the references, you go, you erase the passages, the parallel passages which are in the margin, the source.

[36:14]

We put each other in the footnotes and so forth, and we may spend a week in one page, but then we are like 50 other pages, you know? So you abide, you live in the Bible. And so the Bible is not a book that you read from the first to the last page. It's a book in which you have to live to abide. And normally I think we start with the New Testament, and from that we discover all the rest, as Jesus did for himself and for the disciples. And so I think we have to read the Bible with the biblical commentary, but also with everything which helps us. And that means all the new progress in the understanding of Jesus' message, up to out there. I think we have to be contemporary. It's good to read the Church Fathers, you know, the ancient Church Fathers. But we must not forget that we have modern, contemporary Church Fathers.

[37:18]

So we, that's what is called Patrists, you know. Patrists is the father of the Patriarchs, who are those who really engendered, gave life to the doctrine of the Church, starting from the experience of the Church, developed it, and built all these beautiful, elaborate doctrine. So the father existed in all the great times of the century. So we have the apostolic father, just after the time of the apostles and the New Testament writings. Then we have the ancient church father. Then we have the medieval father, St. Bernard, L. Red, and so many others, and then we have the contemporary father. And if the Second Vatican Council has been possible, it is because there were patristic fights. Church fathers in our time, they have not yet been declared. It doesn't matter officially, but they were.

[38:24]

And so many other today who were. And so many other minor names, not only the big names. elaboration and development of Christian thought. And what makes the patristic literature, on which I think our concept is we have to concentrate, is the unity of this patristic culture. Unity of all the Christian thoughts. And there are three basics. It's like a triangle, you know? The basics of Christian culture. Bible, patristics, literature. And they were united. They were reading the Bible in the liturgy. The liturgical texts were mainly inspired from the Bible. And the church fathers wrote mainly for the liturgy. And so it was a very homogeneous, unified scripture. When I was young, we had excellent books on scripture, pure philology, but without, I would say, without piety, without doctrine.

[39:29]

Just apologetic or explaining the Word, grammar. plenty of books of piety, but without doctrine. Today we have great men who consent to share with us both their knowledge and their spiritual experience. And we had, I have a number, or monimus, as we call that, for the army, the clergy, with an enormous dictionary of liturgy and archaeology. Liturgy was just archaeology, the path, the knowledge of the past. Today we have liturgies who are alive, who create new literature. So we think it's a marvelous time to be alive today. We have a real Baptistic literature, and I think we must take advantage of that. And then unity also of not only for the main sources, Bible, statistics, liturgy, but unity of all the human resources, all the faculties. When I was young, we had very intelligent people. But without, I would say, without feeling, without sensibility, without piety.

[40:34]

And we are pious because we are without intelligence. Today, we have tried justice, we have tried to reconcile, to be intelligent and to be pious. And it's not sufficient. So, I think we have to esteem very much everything which helps us today to understand the message. And also, there are various levels and fields of reading, of contemplative reading and culture. We have readings of, I would say, formation. to learn. And then, you know, throughout a continuous, I was last week again in a program at Penn State University in Pennsylvania, a program of continuous education. So our training now is continuous. All our life we have to learn because there are always new problems and therefore we have to face new studies.

[41:38]

So we have to to learn about the mystery. Then there are, so that's what I could say, formation people, to be trained as contemporary. Then we have information people, to be informed. And I think that's very important today, to be aware of what's going on in the world. God continues to write the book of history. It was one of the books in which we read history every day. What's happening today in South America, in Cambodia, in Vietnam, everything. Look, we have to be aware of that. Not to be experts, not to be involved as competitors, but to be informed, at least in general, and to be to be concerned. We have not the right to say, I'm a contemplative, I don't care if there are thousands of people, millions of people who starve, who are starving, who are in war and so forth.

[42:40]

I'm a contemplative, I have direct contact with God like a missile, you know, directly to God without going through the atmosphere. No, we have to. That's why I think it's essential to be informed, whatever be the means, newspapers, journals, magazines, TV, whatever. But we have to be informed. And not only of the daily, on times like this week, where something important is happening for the history of the whole world, but in Southeast Asia. But the great problems of, the great church problems, the great problems of the universal church, on the occasion of the synod and so forth, the great problems of various local churches, particularly in each country, the concept of your bishops and the church today, and your various... for instance, I was reading yesterday the beautiful speech of the Apostolic Delegate, Mr. D'Angelo, who is very much insisting, and that has already been his proper contribution to the life, just like of this convict, insisting on the necessity for the clergy, and even for the bishops, to be

[43:53]

to be learned, you know, to have learning. And last year I was addressing a group of Catholic education and insisted very much on that necessity. So you see, I think you have formation which is of course the most important, then we have information, then we have general culture, literature, beauty, by all means, you know, text or art, music and so forth. It's legitimate and to certain extent is necessary. And if so many Christian writers have few readers, it is because they don't write well, you know. Why? The best people, the most freedmen I had in my generation, at least, in Europe, were nocturnalists. There were Moriacs, there were Claudels, there were Thetis, there were Tom Greens, there were Jesuits from the south, all lay people, including ladies, you know? Whereas all the priests could write five books, books, books, that nobody read.

[44:58]

They were not interested. There were bad reasons, you know? That's why it's so important today. in seminaries, monasteries, to study also comparative literature and so forth, to absorb all the questions of beauty which are available—poetry, literature, and so forth. And we want a part of joy, of humor, of irony, of comic sometimes, things that may introduce also in our life, you know, to compensate the seriousness of certain information, which are rather depressing sometimes. So we have to to learn and to read all that. Now, I have calculated that a monk today has about every week the amount of possible reading in the form of newspapers, magazines, and so forth, and books, that a monk at the time of St. Benedict had during all his life.

[45:59]

All they had was a Bible, and there was just one in the monastery, so not one had his private Bible, so they could just listen to the Bible. That's why they liked to have long coffeeshoes, and then they continued in the refectory when it was too long, or only in the choir. Then they had a few church fathers, and the Christian literature at that time was relatively limited. Now we have plenty of hotels and so forth. We have much more material to read, and we are more limited to a certain extent, because we are more to do, we are less, we are more to sleep, we are one of the sort of giants. So we are limited, and therefore I think we have to find new ways of reading, personal reading, and I would call them For measure, I would say, some books you have to read loudly.

[47:02]

Perhaps not many, but if you could read continuously one book, perhaps a few books a year, loudly, but well-chewed. And one of the difficulties, say, is to chew it. Talking, I say, we have these journals and reviews in journals which help us to chew it. But there are some books, and we have to put them That way. I have to read that book out loud. But then you have books of information on general culture and so forth, which may go through more rapidly. So it's better to pretend that. And then you have books that are just to go through. But then that will change. Anyway, each one has to find, you know, choose his treating and to find his time. Some have an insomnia every night and they know it. It's a wonderful time to make that, you know. An insomnia, they usually last two hours, you know, because, you know, we sleep by five times of two hours.

[48:07]

So when we know we have insomnia, normally it's two hours, so it's a good time and at least an hour and a half to live timely and then prepare to live again. Then I think we are able to read corporate, sort of corporate or community reading. It's impossible today to read all that could be of help for our spiritual life. So I think we have to help one another. And you know, that's quite totally traditional. The colloquium, you know, conversation, was the necessary complement of reading in early monasticism. And actually, not all the monks could read, and some were very slow, some ignorant, and so forth. So it was admitted that when you read a passage of the Scripture, or the Church Fathers, or liturgies, it's normal that you are questioning, that you can't answer by your own. So it's normal that after reading, there is what they call a connectio, which means conference, discussing, corporate feeling, sharing.

[49:15]

That has always been a practice in Manasseh up to, I think, it seems in the 19th century, as many things in the tradition. So I think sometimes if we, if in a community, each one would read a book or a chapter, you know, and once a week or once a month, we could gather and share. I have done that, and I found this research, and then some would have some compliments of your information, some questions, and so forth. I think this, practice of shared living is very important today, and also a good means of community, of charity, and also of community. of community life. I know a monastery where I was in Africa recently, of Trappist Nuns, and every day, before complying, they have a moment of very little, going over a quarter of an hour, and then they share, they discuss, and so forth, and that builds up the community, you know? Not only at recreation, when we chat about, but to share, sometimes, on the essentials of our life, you know?

[50:25]

On our common concept, on this. You see, that our values just existed, had its existence on the reading, the way to read. And of course, one of the main forms of asceticism today is consist in finding time to eat. Because often we are always at good results, not to eat. I'm so busy, I have so many things to do. I have to help that and that person. And so, then we empty ourselves. And then we can still recite your piece, we can still, but if we don't fill, if we don't nourish our faith, our faith will deteriorate, will not grow. So I think it's essential for us to trying to have the courage to find time to decide that we shall. And today, you know, chivalry is left trapped in the conservative community.

[51:25]

The chivalry in the world, you know, life is so demanding. We all have appointments with so many people, and so forth. So we have to find an appointment with God. And to be fortunate, that will be at that moment. And to write it on the agenda. Otherwise, not to wake or not to be in occasion, and normally there is no, because it's always easier not to read or not to pray, than to read or to pray. So we have to form a time, a moment, in the day or in the night. And if we are driving, it's an excellent moment to meditate, you know, to pray, to sing, to form, you know. And I still remember I picked up a book two years ago in this country. because the title was, How to Get More Done in Less Time. And it was a real myth, myth, and a real aesthetic film for businessmen, president of corporations, you know, how to get more done in less time.

[52:29]

So that's too little, spend time, you listen to records or correspond when you drive, everything, you know. I was amazed, all the discipline, you know, people can impose on themselves just to get more money, you know? So I said, why could not the man of God also have a discipline and authority to oblige themselves to find the time for reading and so forth? I think in the conservative community, the temptation of not having done is less dangerous than elsewhere. But we have to be aware of that. And so learn how to decide, to foresee when we shall read, to choose what we shall read. It's good also to read sometimes with certain centers of interest. to be interested either because it's a personal problem we are or we have more devotion to the Eucharist or to Mary or to the Trinity or with an aspect of Jesus and so forth, or to decide that during a period, one year or more, we shall concentrate more on a particular aspect of the mystery of God, you know.

[53:46]

Because we cannot read about everything. Otherwise, we're used to be disturbed. So to react against this temptation of dispersion, I think it's good to be centered on certain aspects of the mystery, and then we gather more from our reading. And sometimes there are some important books which are a shock for the face of so many people. I remember a few years ago when in France a certain book by a great scientist, but totally happy, appeared on Le Hazard et la Nécessité. Hazard et la Nécessité has been translated now. It has been a bestseller in many languages. Various people were not prepared. They were impressed by the scientists and their faith was in danger. So sometimes we have to concentrate on something timely like that. And then, to finish, I would like also to suggest that we have to be also aware and open and attentive to the non-Christian tradition, particularly everything today

[54:55]

which come from the great religious traditions. We are, in America and Europe, particularly aware of the Far Eastern traditions, Zen, Buddhism, TM and so forth, transcendental meditation, and that's okay. But there are also other, and when we are in Africa particularly, all the Bantu and ancient traditional religions have also something to contribute to our spiritual life. It's good also to be informed about that. And you know, there has been a certain mood and tension during this about 15 years. But we must also be aware of the danger, particularly today. Another last year, I was in California for a summer program. On the weekend, I went from Mexico to Canada, to various convents of church where there are termites everywhere. Also when I was, it struck me, the quantity of Zen centers, yoga, prayer, meditation, all that before.

[56:03]

And then I went back, I took a train on the Pacific to come back around the world, so I stopped over in the Philippines, and I could see there, going to a monastery in a small village, a small city, People, bookstores selling only Hindu and Buddhist things. And I've met people whose Christian faith has been contaminated by this. The idea, I think, of Jesus being God, or the personality of God. was a problem for some of them. They have been so much impressed by these beautiful theories, you know, and, you know, maybe a Buddha, maybe a prophet, maybe, but still, it just is a thought, you know. I think we have to be aware. I would never have thought that before, you know. I was always when people mentioned the possibility of syncretism. I never felt that, you know. But I noticed that there is a certain, not for us, of course, but for certain young people, you know, I think we have to be aware of that.

[57:08]

And that's why we have to assume all that, and to see all the possible contributions. And not only of the great religious tradition, but also of the new American techniques to provoke some spiritual experience. You know, Paul Huston, I know, the master in New York, and there were threats of God, you know, but besides that, there are some mechanic ways of provoking spiritual experiences, and why not? You know, if it works. That's the strength of the pioneers. the richest of your country, to always find new techniques to produce that thing. They were even thinking of Instant Zen or electronic yoga. That may be an easy way to do it. But, you know, and then you remember, you probably are familiar with The last book of Fr. William Johnston, The Silent Music, well, he mentioned all these studies made on putting electrodes in the brain of people to measure, and you know, in order to provoke value spiritual experience.

[58:17]

So I think, you know, there is no limit to our human ritual of enlarging our spiritual experience. So we have to be aware of that. And I remember last year when I was in San Francisco, during the summer, they were having the Hare Krishna festival. And during the whole week, there were processions. First of all, I saw the procession. I thought it was the procession of Rishi Sarkar. It was mantras carried by people. And it was the statue of Krishna. And there were 20,000 people, 2,000 young people, claiming, praying, Krishna, Krishna, and 20,000 people going with the procession. That points out the necessity for us to be also centers of competitive player. But I think we have to rediscover, and I think our church will, not only our church, we never lost that, but we, in our church, we shall always more rediscover our natures. our contemplative tradition.

[59:20]

And we are such teachers in the Franciscan tradition, the Carmelite, the Byzantine, the Benedictine, the East Asian, all that, you know, the Dominican tradition, all that may contribute from it. And we have to And I was mentioning in the card, the sister who told me, perhaps you know that next summer, I shall be there again, at Western Michigan University, there will be a seminar of Western spirituality, which is a very strange thing today. but it's sponsored by the Capist and it's a new time where everybody goes to the Eastern Theater. Why couldn't we have one? And so I think that's okay. I know it's time to stop. I've spoken almost more than an hour. I think that is some suggestion of starting from the Gospels, the experience of Jesus, to the vast horizons of possibilities of human picture.

[60:24]

Everything which is human has been sanctified by Jesus, and therefore everything else in Poland says everything belongs to us and we are to integrate all the riches, the possibilities, the resources, of the human nature, which are increasingly rich today, at the service of this concentration of this. And that is the great riches of our time. Our time in history will be marked and remembered not for going to the moon, or for creating always new nuclear weapons, but for this new connection between prayer and life, prayer and science, prayer and technology, prayer and involvement, political or whatever. And the center, the root, must always be prayer. And that is particularly for you as contemplative, I think your mission to remind everybody in the church that

[61:27]

prayer is different. Jesus was, first of all, a prayer, a contemplator of his Father. The church, essentially, contemplates reality. aiming at leading people to pray. Everything else he can do is just means. And if we involve himself properly in the means, we miss the end. So I think it's our duty first to practice that for us and to be witness of the value and solidific value on which we shall combat later on of this competitive life, of this configuration of the Gospel of Jesus as human culture. Thank you.

[62:15]

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