Jesus, Mercy Incarnate

upon the guidance of a few of the Franciscan, Dominican, and Jesuit masters of the spiritual life (e.g. St. Francis of Assisi, St. Bonaventure, St. Catherine of Siena, Fr. Gerald Vann, O.P., and Fr. Jean-Pierre De Caussade, S.J.). Again, this is inevitably a personal selection. Someone more familiar with the monastic traditions (Benedictine, Cistercian, Carthusian, and Carmelite), and especial- lywith thewritings of St. Theresa ofAvila and St. John of the Cross, might have written a very different book on this topic. I hope some- one will do so soon. If this book can inspire someone to undertake such a project, it will have achieved part of its purpose. Also, this is not just a book of “meditations” or “devotions.” Rather, it springs from the concern, expressed in classic fashion by Hans Urs Von Balthasar, that ever since the HighMiddleAges there has been a regrettable tendency to divide “kneeling” from “sitting” theology. In other words, the tendency is to create a divorce between theology born of prayer, penance, mortification, and humble obedience to the magisterium on the one hand, and theology born of human skill in mastering certain intellectual “sciences” on the other hand, such as history, the social sciences, rational philosophy and theological “systems.” Doing theology in this latter way alone (i.e., in the scholastic—“sitting” position) often leads to the kind of sterile, analytical, reductionist, and modernist theologies which are so much in vogue today. Doing theology solely in the former way, however (i.e., in the prayer- ful—“kneeling” position) can sometimes lead to theologies which are needlessly obscure, excessively “otherworldly” or pietistic, or carelessly “fundamentalist.” Surely, the mysteries of the love of Jesus Christ can only begin to be fathomed if we are willing to listen to the hard questions posed (and given provi- sional answers) at the universities, and at the same time, if we are willing to listen humbly to the revealed doctrines proclaimed to us by the magisterium, and intuited and lived in a unique way in the monasteries, convents, and friaries, and by the faithful and devout in every generation. The best theology always involves both sitting and kneeling, both learning and prayer. 14 Jesus, Mercy Incarnate