Treasures Come from Digging Sounds

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Treasures Come from Digging

Sounds rather like an A. A. Fair title, does it not? Oh well--don't expect Bertha Cool here. What I found via my wanderings is this wonderful excerpt:

from "Prayer and Life"
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

IV. THE ROLE OF CONTEMPLATION

1. The Search for the Vision of Things as God Sees Them

What, then, is the nature of this contemplation? It is the function, the constant, unceasing situation of the Christian, irrespective of his position: he may belong to a contemplative Order, or to any other Order; or again he may be simply a layman who is doubly committed, that is, committed in relation to God and, by that very fact, totally committed in relation to all the rest of the created world, the world of men and things. The first fact to note is that this contemplation is a steady gaze, an attentive gaze, deriving from a lucid mind, concentrating on things, people and events, on both their static reality and their dynamism. It is a gaze fixed wholly on its object, and at the same time an ear wholly straining towards what it will hear, what will reach it from without. And to achieve this calls for a very definite and indispensable ascesis, for one must know how to be self-detached in order to see and hear. As long as we remain self-centred, we can only see a reflection of ourselves in the things that surround us, or a reflection of what surrounds us in the restless, troubled waters of our conscience. We must know how to be silent in order to hear; we must know how to gaze earnestly before believing that we have seen. We have to be at once free of ourselves and given over to God and to the object of his contemplation. Only then will we be able to see things in their objective reality.

This site seems to be devoted to his writings and worthy of several visits. Thanks to Mr. Bell again.

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This page contains a single entry by Steven Riddle published on September 8, 2002 11:13 AM.

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