Contemplation
sounds like looking intently at one thing, although we know that everything is
constantly in motion. It encourages attentiveness, deliberation, reflection. Study
surveys its subject with care. Certain ideas recur in cycles, fashionable to be
studied again; study means you still have something to learn. People who are
seriously into the spiritual life don’t mind drifting. Slow thought.
Dominican spirituality is attractive to those who
enjoy the process of trying to figure things out. You bring something to
attention, clean up its act, and present it, with hopes for its veracity, to
others. Confirm truth; omit prejudice. Contemplare
et contemplata aliis tradere. We can also study our fellows: the rude and
the resentful, the petty and the pugnacious, the unrelenting and the
unremorseful: so human. They may also study us. Each one a book.
The meaning of study? When a beautiful girl, who knew
four languages, is randomly murdered by a stranger at a tram stop, where has
her learning gone? Languages should be shared. The Latin source of ‘study,’studium, includes a meaning of
attachment, devotion, goodwill towards a person or purpose. Devotion has a
saving grace. Study to become what you are. Thus your merit will be made.
