The regular practice of slowed-down, meditative reading is a premier pathway to transcendent self-presence. When God’s word in Scripture and the masters become God’s word for us, we are on the verge of discovering our deepest self and what the mystery asks of us.
A shift of consciousness is necessary when we approach texts in the hope that the Spirit
will use them to touch and transform our hearts. We are not merely seekers of information but
docile disciples, ready and willing to be taught by the Lord.
Having let go for the time being of our usual informational mindset, we seek enlightenment regarding what it means to fulfill our purpose in this life without losing sight of eternity. We open our spirit, heart, mind, and will to the power of sacred words and to sources of perennial wisdom. We trust them to lead us to a lifestyle that bears the lasting fruit of stalwart faith, undying hope, and selfless love.
Formative reading helps us to distinguish the “more than” (lasting values and virtues) from the “less than” (passing fads and vices). It reminds us that the good we do is an outflow of the grace we receive. Aided by prayerful pauses of wordless wonder, what we read nourishes our soul as much as good food sustains our body.
On this pathway to transcendent self-presence, we begin to see the meaning of life’s trials
and tribulations. Thanks to this graced rhythm of reading and reflection, we come to know ourselves, others, and God, no longer as “infants” in evil but as people who think like “adults”
(see 1 Cor 14:20).
Such reading alerts us to slow down and simplify our lives when we become overly anxious, consumed with worry about what happened in the past or about what may occur in the future; it invites us to stay calm and trust totally in God; it frees us from the entrapment caused by coercive dispositions like arrogance and ingratitude and promotes growth in awe and thanksgiving.
Deficient formation in transcendent self-presence may result in an outer-directed life disconnected from a person-to-person relationship with the Lord. What poses a great obstacle to such growth is disobedience to Christ’s promise that one day we will be with him in Paradise
(see Lk. 23:43).
Living in transcendent self-presence grants us the blessed assurance that every moment,
even the most mundane, can be a source of divine inspiration and reason enough to “rejoice
always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances “(see 1 Thess. 5:16-18).
An awareness of time pierced by the eternal becomes second nature to us. We begin to
read our life itself as a text, as a message from on high, as a true epiphany of the mystery.
Humility tames pride and invites us to say with reverence, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts”
(Isa 6:3).
To aid this practice, we may become accustomed to marking whatever the text evokes
in us, either a spontaneous resonance or a point of resistance, asking ourselves why we feel this
way. Of special value are “Aha moments” when the words we read express exactly what we feel, and “O no moments” when reading challenges us to reexamine and reform our lives.
This formative approach invites us to wait in gentle anticipation for new lights to emerge.
It reminds us of the importance of not replacing heart-knowledge with mere head-knowledge.
We cultivate inner availability to any word the Spirit may use to quiet our restless minds and
awaken us to the disclosures of goodness, truth, and beauty embedded in the text.
Each time we read in a disposition of serene receptivity, the word may yield new
treasures of meaning that ready us to re-center our lives in the Lord and to follow the Spirit’s
leading. Then, in God’s good time, when we least expect it, we may receive a sudden
illumination, a divinely initiated enlightenment that confirms once and for all the truth that apart
from God, we are and can do nothing (see John 15:5).
Comentários