Rembert G. Weakland,OSB. Seeking God in Contemporary Culture
ISBN 0-87462-549-1 (1994, Lecture 25). 45 pp. Cloth. $15
“Benedict, in his Rule for Monks, gives various criteria for judging if a novice has the correct motivation. The first of these criteria reads as follows: ’the concern must be whether the novice truly seeks God’ (si revera Deum quaeret, chapter 58). It is important to note that Benedict does not say that the novice must find God, but only that the novice must be truly searching for God. In fact, it would probably be a negative sign if the novice were content that he had found God. It is to be presupposed that, when many people seek God in our culture and give a deeper spiritual meaning to the reality in which they live and the culture that surrounds it, that culture itself will begin to change. One would only hope that the culture then would become a clearer vehicle for religious expression than it is at this present moment. The fault must be found, however, not in the culture but in those who have failed to express their deep religious sentiments in and through the better aspects of the culture that are able to carry a sense of the transcendent. The quest will continue only if we put all of our strength and energy into it. True merit, though, does not come from finding, but from seeking.” — From pages 1 and 39 of the text.
Marquette University Press
