An important part of Christian prayer is identified in our tradition as "the study of the Sacred Page." It refers to the study of Sacred Scripture but extends also to the writings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church as well as the great saints and mystics and even other Christian authorities. Prayer and theology converge on this point. Indeed, the original meaning of theology took up the mystical gaze (that is, contemplation) to which study of the sacred page inclines the soul.
Such a study is the soul of theology - it gives theology life. Without this life, theology is dead. This is because, carried on the propositions of the faith and handed on in the words of "the Sacred Page" is the gaze of Christ, the Word made flesh, who is risen from the dead and ever present to those who seek Him in faith. So beautiful is this gaze that there are no words to describe it. Whenever anyone glimpses the eyes of the Redeemer while pondering sacred texts of our faith, that person's heart is pierced and so to the hearts of those he or she teaches - they share together a loving knowledge, a heart to heart with the Lord. He regards each person with such intense love - and those who discover this piercing glance have found something worth dedicating themselves to completely.
Not just any kind of study can find Him - indeed our sacred patrimony proposes such study must be grace filled contemplation, guided by true devotion for the Lord, humbly open to conversion of heart. Such a study must readily suffer the loss of all things in following Christ - counting all else as rubbish save knowing Him. This study must be open to suffering the truth - the truth about one's own self before God and the truth about God who laid bare his heart for our sakes.
I'm curious. In which sources do you see "Sacra Pagina" as a reference to non-biblical texts? It would seem Vatican II uses the term specifically as a reference to Scripture: "For the Sacred Scriptures contain the word of God and since they are inspired really are the word of God; and so the study of the sacred page is, as it were, the soul of sacred theology." The same holds for Thomas Aquinas.
ReplyDeleteMichael,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this question because it allows me to make an important clarification. The ancient authorities were always careful to distinguish the Canonical Scriptures from other sacred writings - yet they did not understand the Bible apart from the tradition through which it came - so that in practice patristic readings related to the Scriptures were a sort of extended part of the study or contemplation of the Sacred Page. How can we contemplate the Word of God in the Sacred Scriptures apart from the witness of the Fathers? In fact, when one reads the Fathers, they flow with the language of the Holy Bible in almost every sentence - like water pouring down from the higher mountains to the lower hills. St. Thomas refers to their holy writings as providing proper if only probable testimony to the same Word as does the inspired, inerrant and incontrovertible Bible (ST I, 1, 8, reply obj. 2).
"Sacrae paginae studium" must never be isolated from the great witnesses of our tradition for contemplating the sacred page organically includes the remarkable context of our holy patrimony. This assertion is consistent with the first part of the text to which you referred:
Sacra Theologia in verbo Dei scripto, una cum Sacra Traditione, tamquam in perenni fundamento innititur, in eoque ipsa firmissime roboratur semperque iuvenescit, omnem veritatem in mysterio Christi conditam sub lumine fidei perscrutando. Dei Verbum #24
In this vein, Jean Leclerq asserts that study of the sacred page was originally synonymous with lectio divina in Chapter 5 of his famous Love of Learning and Desire for God. Michael Davies also suggests that lectio divina applies in an extended way to patristic authorities and other witnesses of the Catholic Tradition. These historical observations regarding monastic practice are consistent with the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours #163 and 164, the spirit of which this post was written. They are also consistent with Chapter 73 of the Rule of St. Benedict. In this, St. Thomas followed the practice of St. Dominic for whom study of the sacred page or lectio divina included first and foremost the Scriptures but also extended to other authorities in the science of God, the object of theology (See the Eighth Way of Prayer).
This article is so beautiful and inspiring that it is difficult for me to find the words to respond. It certainly shows that theology is not boring and is about a relationship as much as intellectual understanding.
ReplyDelete"Whenever anyone glimpses the eyes of the Redeemer while pondering sacred texts of our faith, that person's heart is pierced..."
Lest anyone think that what you have written about is reserved only for professional theologians and holy saints, let this mother of three say that she has experienced a taste of this herself. It is worth "the loss of all things" although the Lord demands only what we can give Him in our current vocations.
I am edified to read that the writings of the Church Fathers and some of the saints are also considred "sacred reading." I have experienced a "lifting of my heart to God" upon reading and reflecting on passages from certain saints, but had not considered that might be prayer, too.
And you have touched again on the need for "habitare secum," of looking within and seeing who we are so that we can also see who God is and His love for us.