What Should I Read? Part 4

[T]hose who imagine that they have no need of teachers, or will not be convinced by those who teach them things of good, are sick with the need of knowledge, the mother and the producer of pride.

(Paradise of the Holy Fathers, vol. 1, pg. 82)

Who are your teachers?

We all have mentors and experts we turn to for knowledge and insight. Whether we've chosen our mentors and go-to experts consciously and intentionally, or just kind of stumbled into allowing someone to influence our lives, is often another matter. 

Our minds our finite. We can't possibly know everything. But the beauty of being members of the human family is our ability to supplement our own ignorance with the knowledge, expertise, and experience that others have acquired.

For example...

I'm no mechanic. To me an engine is nothing more than a hunk of metal, a ton of bolts, and some bits of rubber that all, somehow, fire into motion when gasoline is poured in and a spark is ignited at just the right spot.

The mechanics of a car baffle me.

However, both my dad and my father-in-law are expert mechanics. They can completely strip down an engine and rebuild it as good as new. They've even altered machines in factories to work more efficiently.

So, when I have mechanical issues with my car, I'm faced with a choice. In my pride I can try to figure it out and fix it myself. But I know the end result will be disastrous. So instead I turn to those who have more knowledge and experience with mechanics and either allow them to fix the car for me, or allow them to take the lead in fixing the car while I provide help for whatever they need.

I can either descend into pride by my lack of willingness to admit my ignorance of mechanics, or I can humbly admit my ignorance and seek the guidance of experts.

This holds just as true for the spiritual life as it does for mechanics, economics, environmental issues, or anything else where we have to put our "faith" in the those who have more knowledge or experience than us.

It is right that the soul which leads its life in God should either learn in faith that which it does not know, or should learn wisely that of which it has knowledge; but if it will do neither of these things it is, if it be possible, sick through madness. 

(PHF 82)

Knowledge comes through faith 

You can only learn something by putting your faith in someone else. Most of us learn science by putting our faith in the scientists. We learn history by putting our faith in historians. We learn math by putting our faith in our mathematicians. 

I learned to change the oil in my car by putting my faith in my dad, a trained mechanic.

If we gain knowledge by turning to the experts in various fields, who are the "experts" we should turn to for knowledge of God or our Faith?

If you're like most people, your first reaction is probably to think that you should turn to academic theologians if you want theological knowledge.

However, there's a problem with this...

Contrary to the prevailing opinion of many, theology isn't a purely academic discipline.

Our God isn't a frog that we can dissect and pick apart. He's not a particle that we can observe. Nor is our Faith merely a list of dogmas that we assent to (as important as those dogmas our).

Our God is a trinity of divine Persons. He is a (comm)unity.

You can't really know a person simply by knowing certain facts about a person. If all I knew about my wife were here date of birth, her blood type, her eye and hair color, and other little details about her, no one would say that I really know her. The only way I can claim to know my wife is by spending time with her, by building a community of persons with her.

The same is true of our knowledge of God.

It's important that we know the facts about God - those dogmas that He has revealed about Himself - but that's just the beginning. If we really want to know Him, then we have to enter into relationship with Him.

So who should we turn to when it comes to this relational knowledge of God? Who are the experts that should be guiding us?

You probably know the answer by now...

The saints!

In my previous post I encouraged you to start reading the lives of the saints. Their lives are always a source of inspiration, motivation, and encouragement. We gain insights for our own journey with Christ by looking to those who have made that journey before us.

But we're also blessed that these men and women have often shared with us their "expertise" by leaving behind writings that can guide us on the way.

Do you want deeper insight on what it means that Christ became man for us? Turn to On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius.

Do you want to know who the Holy Spirit is? Check out St. Basil the Great's On the Holy Spirit.

Need some advice on how to better your marriage according to God's plan? Check out St. John Chrysostom's On Marriage and Family Life, and Pope St. John Paul II's Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body.

Not sure what a particular biblical passage means, or perhaps you're not satisfied with the answers being given by modern biblical scholars? The early Church Fathers left us a multitude of biblical commentaries that are the product of both academic study and lives of intense holiness.

The point is, the saints - both their lives and their writings - ought to be our go-to experts when it comes to theological knowledge and wisdom. They are the ones who've "studied" God, not just as an academic exercise, but as a trinity of living Persons who desire relationship with us.

So, if you're increasingly confused by the sometimes contradictory opinions of various modern-day scholars and academic theologians, know that you have a reliable source you can turn to. As Catholics we have the early Church Fathers and the writings of many great saints (East and West) throughout the Church's history. Pick one or two to "mentor" you, and search their writings for the wisdom you seek.

What Should I Read? Part 3

 Lives of the Saints

There are few "best-practices" in the business world that I think can be incorporated into the spiritual life without a great deal of modification or a total change in the underlying motivation. One of those so-called "best-practices" however can. 

If you read books like Think and Grow Rich, How to Win Friends and Influence People, or even more recent books like Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life, you'll quickly discover that promoters of "success" (as the world sees it) identify reading biographies of other successful people as a foundational practice for those who want success in the business world.

And that totally makes sense!

After all, if I'm shooting for a certain goal that I know others have hit before, doesn't it make sense for me to study what they did in order to achieve their goals?

The stories and actions of successful people provide a roadmap for those pursuing similar success in the business world.

If this is true in the business world, it's all the more true in the spiritual life. And frankly, I believe the business world hijacked this practice from the spiritual life. In part, I believe this because the Desert Fathers were counseling one another to read the lives of the saints - those who have been "successful" in the spiritual life - centuries before studies like Think and Grow Rich were ever conceived.

The goal of the Christian life is to become a saint - i.e. someone so passionately in love with God that he orients his thoughts and actions according to that love. Few of us, however, personally know a living saint. And so we need to seek examples to follow.

It only makes sense that we would closely examine and deeply meditate on the lives of the saints because by their lives they show us the roadmap we should follow on our journey to heaven.

1. Conversion

It's important that when we read the lives of the saints, we're not just reading to satisfy our curiosity. Unless you're an academic theologian (which poses it's own spiritual challenges) our reading should be for the sake of conversion. St. Theophan the Recluse warns us:

You have a book? Then read it, reflect on what it says, and apply the words to yourself. To apply the content to oneself is the purpose and fruit of reading. If you read without applying what is read to yourself, nothing good will come of it, and even harm may result. Theories will accumulate in the head, leading you to criticize others instead of improving your own life. (The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology, pg. 130)

We need to apply to our lives what we discover in our spiritual reading. Otherwise the knowledge that we glean from spiritual reading because the "knowledge" that puffs up, like Saint Paul warns us against.

2. Imitation

We all aspire to become something more than what we are. I aspire to become a professional writer, and so I examine authors I admire and try to incorporate their writing practices into my own. Some of us inspire to get in shape, and so we seek out folks who have that ideal body we aspire to, and imitate their workout routine. Athletes all have other athletes that they look up to. Musicians all have other musicians they copy...

The point is, in every walk of life we need good role models: someone whose already either traveled the path we're walking, or are at least further ahead on it than we are.

The Desert Fathers recognized this need.

When you really dive into their stories, you see how many of them would travel from one desert hermit to another, seeking a word of wisdom or an example which they could take back to their own cell and imitate.

Palladius, in his Lausiac History, writes very extensively of his travels. The stories and sayings in the writings of St. John Cassian are all collections of conversations that he had with various monks throughout the wilderness.

Why did these men (and some women) travel around so much?

St. Athanasius, in his biography of Saint Anthony the Great, tells us:

The... monks came (to Saint Anthony) that they might copy the manner of his life and deeds. (Paradise of the Holy Fathers, vol. 1, pg.29)

And later on, after he's shared the story of Saint Anthony's life, Saint Athanasius warns us:

Let all the brethren then who are monks read these things so that they may know how it is right for them to live their lives. (Paradise of the Holy Fathers, vol. 1, pg. 79)

Of course, most of us aren't monks or nuns, and so when we read the Desert Fathers, we have to read with a certain amount of discretion because not everything they say or do will apply to our lives. But there is much in their writings and stories that does apply to us as well.

3. Encouragement

It's easy to get discouraged when the going gets tough.

I remember while learning to play music how discouraging it would feel when I would hear a beautiful melody that I wanted to play, but I just couldn't get my fingers to cooperate. It always helped to hear other musicians who had similar struggles with the same piece of music.

Even better if I was fortunate enough to know the person whose performance inspired me to learn that particular melody. They would often share how they struggled with that same tune before finally mastering.

The encouragement of my teachers, and knowing that they too had to struggle in order to master their instrument is often what encouraged me to keep going.

It's tricky with the lives of the saints though. There's so many biographies out there that make it seem like the saints were either conceived without sin, or were from a completely different planet. Older biographies attempted to make it seem like certain saints were just "born that way."

But when you take an honest look at their lives, you soon find their struggles weren't really any different from ours.

It can be shocking to read the lives of the Desert Fathers and Mothers. They struggled with temptations to sexual sins (including homosexuality), gluttony, covetousness, even violence. I read a story this morning about how in one monastery the brethren used to get into such heated debates that they would start contemplating murdering one another!

I've read stories of hermits who used to steal from other hermits, spiritual fathers who would physically and verbally abuse their directees, even men or women who left their vocations as monks/nuns in order to go into the world and indulge their sexual lusts.

Reading the lives of the saints will reveal to you how human the saints really are. It's encouraging because you'll see that they struggled with the same stuff we all struggle with. And they didn't always come away from a struggle smelling like roses.

4. Attraction/Inspiration

The last reason given in The Paradise of the Holy Fathers for reading the lives of the saints is "attraction" or "inspiration."

Holiness is attractive. Most of us here can recall the vast crowds of people drawn to Pope Saint John Paul II or Mother Teresa.

What drew those crowds to them?

Ultimately it was that they radiated Christ. That's holiness, and holiness is attractive.

Once more, Saint Athanasius reminds us that in reading the lives of the saints, we're not just fulfilling our curiosity. We read so as to imitate, get some encouragement, and change our lives. But we also read their lives because we need that inspiration, that draw...

...by constant meditation on the... stories [of the saints] your mind may be drawn to perfection... (Paradise of the Holy Fathers, vol. 1, pg. 15)

What saints inspire you? I encourage you to really dive into their lives. Study them. Get to know their struggles, their failures, their repentance, and their successes. Find out what made them saints, then go out and do what they did, but according to your vocation.