The Importance of Self-Effacement
Necessity of the Bible. More and more of it.
A book like Guillet's. Thèmes bibliques fantastically rich and useful. Every line has something in it you do not want to miss. Opens up new roads in the Old Testament.
Extraordinary richness and delicacy of the varied Old Testament concepts of sin--very existential concepts, not at all mere moralism! For instance, sin as a "failure" to contact God. Peccavi tibi. "I have failed Thee--I have failed to reach Thee." And all that follows from that!
Importance of reading and thinking and keeping silent. Self-effacement, not in order to be left looking at oneself but to be "found in Christ" and lost to the rest.
Yet--not by refusing to take an interest in anything vital.
Politics vital--even for monks. But in this, due place and with right measure.
To live in a monastery as if the world had stopped turning in 1905--a fatal illusion.
November 12, 1957, III.135
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