Spirituality

• Contemplative Life vs. Active Life — The transition from the active life (Martha) to the contemplative life (Mary Magdalene), especially in old age — solitude, prayer, reading, and writing as paths to union with God
• Contemptus Mundi (Contempt of the World) — The deliberate rejection of worldly wealth, honors, and comforts in favor of devotion to God — renunciation of riches, indifference to earthly loss
• Conversion Through Scripture — The transformative power of Scripture to convert hearts, turn people from vice to virtue, and kindle radical commitment to the Christian life
• Desire for Martyrdom — The ardent, lifelong desire to seal one's faith with blood, as exemplified by Cornelius a Lapide and by Basil's readiness to die
• Dispositions Required for Scripture Study — The fourfold preparation for fruitful Scripture study: frequent reading and constancy, humble modesty of mind, purity of heart, and prayer
• History and the Reading of Scripture — Lacordaire's meditation on how to read Scripture -- as a practice requiring patience, repeated return, and interior transformation, where Scripture is "a well dug by the hand of God"
• Prayer as Prerequisite for Understanding Scripture — Prayer as the indispensable heavenly conduit for drawing the meaning of God's word from God Himself, exemplified by Daniel, Thomas Aquinas, and the saints
• Saints as Stars — The extended symbolic comparison of saints to stars — their humility, constancy, purity, swiftness, spiritual light, and heavenly glory — drawn from the work of the fourth day
• Scholarly Martyrdom and Self-Sacrifice — Lapide's concept of the commentator's vocation as a slow martyrdom — consecrating eyes, brain, hands, blood, and life to God through the labor of expounding Scripture
• Zeal for Souls — Burning pastoral zeal for the conversion of sinners and the salvation of souls — a central apostolic motivation