INSTRUCTION VIII
STUDY
A note on the Vocation Houses
In accordance with the norms of the Holy See, our vocation houses are to accept and keep only those who aspire to the religious life, as lay brothers or as priests. This is to be explained at the outset. If this is not the declared intention of the candidate, and it is ascertained with surety, he is to be sent back to his family. And likewise during the course of the year. The Institute does them no wrong; indeed it must defend itself and the other Aspirants from suffering any damage from the continued presence of such persons.
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As regards the construction of new houses, plan the building complex in such a way as to separate the Novices, were the building itself is to be used as a Novitiate.
It is important that the Novitiate for the Brothers and that for the clerics be in separate parts of the house, while sharing the chapel, refectory and some of the meditations together. Particular things are to be made separately. If there is a high number of novices there should be two Masters.
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Art. 128. Through the virtue of poverty, the vow having been established as a means of its perfection, the Religious lays aside any inordinate attachment to earthly things, and willingly bears the privation of them for the love of Jesus Christ.
Art. 129. The members of the Pious Society of Saint Paul should revere voluntary religious poverty, since the saints esteemed it to be the strength and foundation of all Christian perfection; wherefore, they should not only observe the vow of poverty, but also should seek to acquire the virtue itself, and should foster it in themselves with ever increasing effort.
Art. 130. Hence, in compliance with poverty, all members, regardless of position or office,
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should shun superfluities and cheerfully bear the inconveniences of the common life. If someone may stand in need of special items let him ask his Superior for them with humility and confidence.
Art. 131. All should be satisfied with a frugal table; nevertheless, taking into account the work and energies of the members, Superiors should guard against the careless endangering of anyone's health.
Art. 132. In order that the members become well versed and advance daily in the virtue of poverty, they must gradually sever all attachment of the heart to temporal goods. Therefore, let them not only be content with the mere necessities of life, but also cultivate interior affection for what is more poor and humble. And if at times the members should lack even the necessities of life, let them rejoice in the opportunity of imitating more perfectly the poverty of Jesus Christ, thus to receive more abundantly the heavenly reward promised for such great virtue.
Commitment for life
The word study in general means commitment, as for example, studium perfectionis, which is the commitment of all religious; the studium addiscendi, which is the commitment to learn.
In this sense we speak of a twofold study: docendi and discendi.1
Study is a life commitment, although not always to the same degree. Everyone has always to commit himself to religious instruction, in order to know God better and
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to improve his worship of God. Everyone has to improve himself, by way of study, with respect to his office, social relations, ministry and apostolate.
There are three steps for improving our activities and our life. First knowledge, then love, and lastly action. Nihil volitum quin praecognitum.2
This is all part of the duty of every Religious which is to apply himself to perfection.
Twofold objective
In everyday speech, however, we use the word study to mean the study curriculum, curriculum studiorum - from elementary classes up to degree courses, including the pastoral year and specialist studies.
Goal: studies have their goal, indeed a twofold goal. The first is to perfect our intelligence, nature's gift; the second is to prepare us to undertake the mission entrusted to us by God. Teaching can be by speech, paper, film, screen, pictures, and so on.
Know what you have to communicate, how to do so, the medium to use: speech, technical means, and so on.
Non scholae sed vitae discimus.3
Store up for life what is of use; what is of no help to life is useless baggage, often a hindrance and a disadvantage.
Study has therefore two tasks. One is the intellectual part, the other the technical.
For Paulines the technical part is worth the eloquence of the orator and the teacher.
The end helps to determine the means; in other words, the choice
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of matter and the degree of study; and the choice of the technical means.
1. Literary and classical studies. These have a twofold aim: for the student to grasp the subject; and then to teach when the time comes.
The sanctification of our speech: so as to be able to speak to God in prayer and to speak to others as teachers.
Every country has its own language which is today the result of centuries of evolution.
2. Scientific studies: Science is God's child; every chapter of the sciences reveals to us something of what God put into creation and what men of distinction have interpreted and learned about it.
The person of faith will always excel in raising his mind to the Author of all, to admire him and to thank him for having prepared such inestimable riches for man: Domine Dominus noster, quam admirabile est nomen tuum in universa terra!4 Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei.5
3. Philosophical studies. This is the art of learning to reason and of teaching others to think rationally. God created man as a rational being; philosophy, however, determines and sets out rules for the use of reasoning in view of arriving at the truth purged of error. God Lux vera quae illuminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum.6
4. Theological studies. Here we mean the truths revealed by God: dogmatic truths, morals, liturgy, the supernatural elements. Such truths range from the Catechism to specialized sacred studies.
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Revelation and Tradition are the two sources of the Church's teaching.
Aims of study
a) To sanctify the mind. The study of the sciences leads us to know the works of God. Such study, offered to the Lord, is very pleasing to him and meritorious. The worship of God by means of our key faculty, his gift, reminds us of the saying of Jesus the Divine Teacher: You shall love the Lord with all your mind [Lk 10:27]. There are good thoughts and bad thoughts; there are good thoughts which comply with every virtue and thoughts which conflict with every virtue: prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, obedience, humility, and so on.7
All good and all evil have their root and initial articulation in the mind.
What a waste there can be of intelligence and what a use can be made of such a faculty when it is geared to studies, good reading, reflection, educating the mind to good things, and so on.
b) If we then move on from knowledge to the truths of faith, in order to know them and adhere to them, our destination is clearly the supernatural; here there is a direct relationship with the beatific vision in Paradise: He who believes will be saved [Mk 16:16]. Contrariwise: He who does not believe is condemned already [Jn 3:18].
c) Study's immediate goal for the Pauline is
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the apostolate, which is already a regale sacerdotium;8 for those whose goal is the priesthood there is the apostolate plus ministry.
Ours is a teaching Institute
Ours is a teaching Institute. It makes its own the Church's truths and teaching. The Pauline priest sets them out for people by word of mouth and through technical means; the brother, jointly with the priest, with the technical means alone. The overall aim is people's salvation: Veritatem facientes in caritate.9
The Institute is to teach everything: first, what expressly promotes getting to heaven, that is, faith, morals and worship; then quidquid bonum, quidquid verum…10
An upright goal. There are those who study simply for knowledge's sake; a satisfaction that is humanly good but not one that is supernatural. There are those who study in order to be admired, but that is to attribute to self an esteem which is due to God alone. There are those who study in order to teach others; this is quite meritorious, especially if it is combined with instruction.
When the Pauline reproduces a manuscript through technical means, such an act of charity is as wide-ranging as the number of people to whom he offers the water that rises to eternal life.
Disciplining our intelligence
This means to use it for the truth, for virtue, for sanctification.
It means to moderate and to mortify its defective tendencies. These are, in the main, ignorance and curiosity, haste and obstinacy, pride and laziness.
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God is the mind's true sun, both on earth and in heaven; although in different ways. One is the light of reason, the other the light of faith. Those who refuse the light of either blind themselves knowingly. The vision of God in heaven will be for those who had faith.
Disciplining one's intelligence is very important because light passes from the mind to the will to do good; a mind with clearcut ideas results in a foolproof conscience; this, in turn, regulates one's moral and supernatural life, disciplining the heart.
Ignorance is overcome by the study of religion and other academic studies. These have to conform fully to the programs in force in the Congregation which, in turn, comply with the directives of the Holy See and are in view of forming the Pauline.
Although man is one, he has the three faculties of mind, will and feeling. Thus the famous writer Bossuet could say: Man is like a trinity incarnate, an image of the Trinity as Creator; God is power, wisdom, infinite love; God is one divine nature in three Persons each of whom is infinite, distinct and necessary: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Curiosity induces us to peruse books, variety shows, radio and television broadcasts; to listen to useless or even harmful conversations and news; to prefer to follow other studies, but which are often irrelevant for a Pauline aspirant; to look at pictures and take trips which can be a waste of precious time.
Study what must be studied: id prius quod est magis necessarium,11 says Saint Bernard; not concerning yourself with anything else except as a pastime. Read novels sparingly, and only when useful; they are food more for the imagination than the intellect.
Study what must be studied in view of a supernatural goal and
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for undertaking your mission: ut aedificent, et caritas est… ut aedificentur, et prudentia est.12
Saint Augustine sets out an important principle for study. Knowledge, he says, must be placed at the service of charity: Sic adhibeatur scientia tanquam machina quaedam per quam structura caritatis assurgat.13 This holds true also in matters of spirituality where, at times, the aim can be more curiosity than sanctification.
Haste and obstinacy hinder more profound study and the calm necessary for those who really want to find the truth and have life-long convictions. Stop to think, weigh up the truths, and find delight in those that are of greater concern; little by little they will form the basis of your thoughts and your life's guiding actions.
Pride of the mind and how to cure it
Pride must be avoided; that pride of the mind which is more dangerous and more difficult to cure than the pride of the will, as Scupoli14 says.
This is the pride that makes faith difficult, not to mention obedience to superiors; we would like to suffice unto ourselves, such is the trust that we have in our own reasoning. We are reluctant to accept the teachings of faith, or at least we want to submit them to appraisal and the understanding of reason. There is, likewise, an excessive trust in our own judgements; we regret having to consult others, especially our superiors. The result can lead to rashness; an obstinacy in defending our own ideas which makes us resolutely condemn opinions which do not conform to our own. This is one of the most frequent causes of those disagreements as are noted among Christian authors, and sometimes also among Catholic ones. Already in his own time Saint Augustine highlighted these divisions that destroy peace, harmony and charity: sunt unitatis divisores, inimici
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pacis, caritatis expertes, vanitate tumentes, placentes sibi et magni in oculis suis.15
To cure this pride of the mind:
1. We have, first of all, to be submissive, with childlike docility, to the teachings of the faith. It is certainly lawful to pursue that understanding of dogma which is acquired with patient and laborious investigation, making use of the studies of the Fathers and the Doctors, principally those of Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas. This is to be done, as the [1st] Vatican Council says, with piety and moderation, drawing inspiration from the maxim of Saint Anselm: fides quaerens intellectum.16 We will thus avoid that spirit of exaggerated criticism which, under the pretext of explaining dogmas, tones them down and minimalizes them. Such submissiveness concerns not only the truths of the faith, but also the directives of the Popes; then, when there are questions that can be freely discussed, let us give to others the freedom we want for ourselves, and let us not treat their opinions with contempt and scorn. The result will be peace all round.
2. In such debates the aim is not self-satisfaction and the triumph of our own ideas, but the truth. It is rare when there is not something true in the opinions of our antagonist and which had escaped us. Listening attentively and impartially to the reasons of our antagonists and conceding what is correct in their observations is always the best way to come to the truth, and to preserve the laws of humility and charity.
Laziness: many people want knowledge but do not want to study. Mental fatigue weighs heavier than physical fatigue, healthwise as well. Therefore tenacity in study and to follow a well-tried method require strength and character: prayer is the greatest comfort.
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In harmony with the Church
Those who adhere to the Catholic Church with profound faith are always wiser than those who wander about in search of a personal and arbitrary structure, living on illusions and building on the sand.
Contrariwise, even the newest Aspirant, who handsets the Catechism at the typecase, and the Sister who distributes the Gospel, become teachers: Blessed are the feet of those who bring truth, peace and true good [cf. Is 52:7]. A good which is true and eternal.
Our teachers in particular are to recall what is set out in numbers 5 and 6 of the Ratio studiorum,17 pages 13-14:18
Quaelibet educatio in Societate sanae personalitati incrementum affert sicut et personalitates fini societatis nocivas et inutiles eliminat. Oportet ut quisque propositum paulinum assequatur: 'Vivit vero in me Christus', ita ut religiosus sacerdos et apostolus paulinus Iesum Christum, Viam, Veritatem, Vitam radiet.
Deus seipsum profert in operibus ad extra: creatione, libro scientiae naturalis; historia quae saecula vertit et convergit ad Christum: illuminando omnem hominem qui nascitur; revelatione Veteris et Novi Testamenti; actione Spiritus Sancti in Ecclesia. Homo est semper discipulus Dei.
Valde utilis esset unificatio scientiarum naturalium et supernaturalium in unum corpus quod Iesum Christum caput habeat, cui rationabile obsequium est tribuendum et hominibus caritatem, secundum illud 'Veritatem facientes in caritate' semper in mente habentes verba S. Pauli: 'Nam arma militiae nostrae non carnalia sunt, sed potentia Deo ad destructionem
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munitionum, consilia destruentes et omnem altitudinem extollentem se adversus scientiam Dei et in captivitatem redigentes omnem intellectum in obsequium Christi' (2 Cor 10:4-5).
Haec est 'summa vitae' valde necessaria, quaeque tripliciter dividitur: Veritas, Via, Vita, ut vixit et docuit Iesus Christus sicut et Ecclesia eius corpus mysticum. Educatio nostrae Matris Ecclesiae est Christocentrica.
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1 “(Commitment) to teach and to learn.”
2 “You cannot will anything without previously knowing it.”
3 “We learn not for school, but for life.”
4 “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!” (Ps 8:1).
5 “The heavens are telling the glory of God” (Ps 19[18]:1).
6 “The true light that enlightens every man who comes into the world” (cf. Jn 1:9).
7 In his letter to the Romans, chapter one verses 21 to 27, Saint Paul lists the sins of the mind and the errors of the pagans: sins of the mind and errors that led to the basest passions in their conduct. (Author's note, in the printed text.)
8 “Royal priesthood” (1 Pet 2:9).
9 “Speaking the truth in love” (Eph 4:15).
10 “Whatever is good, whatever is true…” (cf. Ph 4:8).
11 “First what is more necessary.”
12 “To edify, and this is charity… to be edified, and this is prudence.”
13 “Knowledge is to be used as a building block for charity.”
14 Lorenzo Scùpoli (1530-1610), a Theatine priest and author of Combattimento spirituale (Venice 1589), a classical text of ascetical theology, familiar to Fr Alberione.
15 “People who are the cause of disunity, the enemies of peace, devoid of charity, puffed up with pride, self-satisfied and great in their own eyes.”
16 “Faith seeking intellect”, that is, faith which seeks to understand.
17 Ratio studiorum Piae Societatis a Sancto Paulo. Editiones Paulinae [Rome 1959]; 159 [3] pages, 14 cm. Prepared in compliance with the Apostolic Constitution Sedes Sapientiae, it was presented to the Sacred Congregation of Religious and approved on 3 March 1959. Compiled by Paulines Fr Tommaso Dragone and Fr Aldo Poggi on the orders of the Founder, the Ratio is a completion of the Constitutions of the Society of Saint Paul. Fr Alberione revised the text, noted corrections, premised a long Foreword (pp. 7-22) in which he sets out his conception of Jesus the Teacher, pivot of all the sciences. The volume is widely expanded upon in UPS II, in Instructions 8 to 11 of the second week (cf. pp. 190, 195, 204, 210, 212, 214, 236-237 where it is explicitly mentioned). Fr Alberione proposes the Ratio as an obligatory rule to be followed in the intellectual formation of Paulines. - Cf. Ratio formationis della Società San Paolo. Ad experimentum, SSP General House, Rome 1990. This recent edition of the Ratio also includes the Directives on Formation in Religious Institutes, of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life (2 February 1990, but made public on 13 March 1990). In the Presentation, Fr Renato Perino writes: “Our formation is 'in Christ, through Christ and with Christ' and leads to our being sent to bring his Gospel to today's people with today's means” (p. 13).
18 A rendering in Italian of these articles is quoted by [Fr Alberione] himself further ahead (cf. pp. 194ff.):
“The whole range of education given in the Institute is addressed to the formation of the Pauline personality, just as, contrariwise, any harmful or useless element of any other personality is eliminated. Every Pauline has thus a grave commitment to aspire to this 'vivit vero in me Christus'; so that the religious priest or brother may radiate Jesus Christ Way, Truth and Life.
Man is always a disciple of God and God himself is the great Teacher of man, through his works ad extra: the created world, a book of natural science. Human history, guided to prepare the coming of Jesus Christ; the gift of reason for every one who comes into the world; the revelation of the Old and New Testament; the ongoing action of the Holy Spirit in the Church.
A highly useful thing is the unification of the natural and supernatural sciences in one complete body which has Jesus Christ as its Head, to whom every man must render homage just as he must love his fellow men, in accordance with the saying 'veritatem facientes in caritate', bearing always in mind the words of Saint Paul 'for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ' (2 Cor 10:4-5).
This is the truly necessary 'summa vitae', apportioned and expressed by the words, way, truth and life. It is how Jesus Christ lived and taught, and it is how the Church, his Mystical Body, lives and works.
The teaching of our Mother Church is called and, as such, is Christocentric.”