History and the Reading of Scripture
Lacordaire's meditation on how to read Scripture: as a practice requiring patience, repeated return, and interior transformation. Scripture does not yield its savor on first reading; one must conquer the spirit of the flesh before knowing the spirit of God. Scripture is "a well dug by the hand of God" -- go to the bottom and the treasure is yours.
Pope Clement VIII, Jerome's Prefaces, On Worship
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ON THE WORSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE SCRIPTURES.
— Lacordaire describes his first reading of Scripture without faith, and how thirty years of faith revealed its true character. Scripture communicates nothing but what is of God; even its language of passion lets only the divine part be perceived.
"one must return to it patiently and for a long time; one must exercise oneself in it and nourish oneself on it to grasp its savor; one must conquer the spirit of the flesh, as the apostle Saint Paul says, before knowing and feeling the spirit of God"
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ON THE WORSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE SCRIPTURES.
— Scripture as a well dug by the hand of God: the miner digs with bleeding hands and finds riches only at the bottom.
"Scripture is a well dug by the hand of God: go to the bottom, and the treasure will be yours."
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ON THE WORSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE SCRIPTURES.
— Lacordaire's practical counsel: read at leisure, without haste; stop when weary, return when refreshed; drink little but frequently.
"Read, then, the books of Moses and the historical books of the Old Testament; read them at leisure, without any haste, remembering that you are reading the most ancient of the monuments of the human mind."
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II. JEROME TO PAULINUS.
— Jerome exhorts Paulinus to live among the Scriptures, meditate on them, know nothing else, seek nothing else: "Does it not seem to you already here on earth a dwelling place of the heavenly kingdom?"
"I pray you, dearest brother, to live among these things, to meditate on them, to know nothing else, to seek nothing else. Does it not seem to you already here on earth a dwelling place of the heavenly kingdom?"