Aliens in This World

Meditating on the Life of Christ through reading the Bible/lectio divina, through the Rosary or the Stations of the Cross, or in other human beings, is too often presented as being a thing done mostly by… well… stupid people. People too stupid to read theology articles, for example. This makes me angry, as it’s manifestly untrue.

In fact, most great theologians do theology as an integral part of their spiritual and prayer lives, not in opposition to it. People who don’t soak themselves in their Subject don’t come up with any good ideas about Him. (It’s hard to see why you’d waste time on theology if you weren’t doing it to learn more about God and hence get to know Him better.) I could quote the Pope on this, but instead I’ll quote a story Happy Catholic found in Fulton Sheen:

One day while he was visiting St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas asked him where he had acquired such good doctrine as the one that he set out in his works. It is said that St. Bonaventure showed him a crucifix, which was blackened from all the kisses he had given it, and explained, “This is the book that tells me what I should write; the little I know I have learned from it.”