Love to Study, Study to Love
by Sr. Mary Magdalene Prewitt, O.P.
When you first meet someone, you’re curious to know them. You want to know how old they are, where they grew up, what they currently do, their best memories, etc.
Perhaps, they’ll share with us something very unexpected — their vast knowledge of electric fish in Brazil, for instance – and we will become fascinated; we learn about the fish and grow in affection for the mind and heart that has shared it with us. We learn to love them and often to love what they love out of love for them.
Knowledge must precede love. This also applies to our relationship with God.
Love presupposes knowledge.
We love God, and we want to know all about Him and His interests. Please do not misunderstand me. Of course, love (charity) is superior to knowledge. The goal of the Christian life is union with God, and that union is charity. At the same time, you cannot love what you do not know.
Dominicans seek to apply this truth to their prayer life. We sometimes get a bad rap for being “heady” or overly intellectual. Yet, this generalization is rooted in a deep truth about the human person and the interplay between intellect and will. The object of the intellect is knowledge, and the object of the will is love. You cannot love what you do not know. A proper balance leads the Christian by grace closer to God. We need to know who God is in order to love Him better, and we need to take what we know about Him to prayer to understand and love the object of study.
This interplay is at the heart of Dominican spirituality. We study and then meditate and pray about what we have studied. The Dominican notion of “study” should not just be reduced to “reading” or “praying” because, beyond the actual time of study, the rhythm of our observances and horarium gives us time to let ideas develop through the interplay between the divine office, praying, reading, meditating, and studying. The divine office seasons our study with charity, which might otherwise become mere (and arid) “head” knowledge. It also prepares us for preaching. Divine Office serves as a sort of bridge between contemplation, study, and preaching (preaching initially through who we are and how we live, secondarily through words).
Sacred study is not about acquiring academic degrees or simply feeding the intellect. On this point, Augustine was fond of quoting 1 Corinthians 8:1: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”
To protect against prideful acquisition of knowledge, Saint Thomas Aquinas draws an important distinction between studiositas and curisositas; study out of studiousness and study out of curiosity. Studiousness (studiositas) is the virtue that disposes a person to apply his mind for the purpose of acquiring and extending knowledge (STh II-II, q. 166, a1). Curiosity (curisositas) is the vice which stands opposed to studiousness, an inordinate seeking of knowledge (STh II-II, q 167, a1).
Saint Thomas noted that people have a natural curiosity for knowledge, but that our curiosity must be governed by prudence and temperance, so he makes the distinction between curiositas and studiositas. It is no great thing to be interested in a whole bunch of different subjects without reason or focus — an important lesson when answers to everything can be carried around in a smartphone.
When we think about the diligence that study requires, we may conjure up the image of a man at his desk or a student surrounded by piles of books. Such dedication evokes the virtue of fortitude. Interestingly, Aquinas places studiositas under the virtue of temperance, because it is not about inciting enthusiasm, but about limiting distractions.
How does this apply to you, dear reader?
We live in a culture of vain curiosity. Doom scrolling captivates our society; instead, may we, Christians living in the world, be captivated by God.
Information gained for information’s sake – led by curiosity, and short attention spans, can foment distraction or become so engaging that one forgets divine truths or seeks information beyond one’s abilities and falls into error. There is an important discipline found in denying ourselves the constant gratification of harmless searching and curiosity. On the more mundane side, it can be a waste of time and energy; more seriously, a wide but thoughtless curiosity can easily lead to mortal sin. Studiousness, by contrast, is about being a lifelong learner, having discipline in our study of the Truth, and allowing it to help us know and love God more.
St. Anselm of Canterbury, a Benedictine monk of the eleventh century, spoke of “faith seeking understanding.” Sacred study helps elucidate the faith and leads to contemplation as well as ruling out error and showing that arguments against the faith do not prove their conclusions. We should love to study and study to love.
This exploration of the interconnectedness of study and love is more fully explored in my book, Joy Within His House: A Cloistered Nun’s Reflections on Following Christ. Like this essay, it offers those who live on the outside of the cloister a glimpse into the experience of those who live within. In explaining the ancient tools of monastic practices and Dominican spirituality, the hopeful intention of the book is to give you insights and to help you advance on the path to holiness. To order: please visit the Dominican nuns’ Cloister Shoppe, OSV, or Amazon. The Cloister Shoppe also features the nuns’ renowned Seignadou Soap products, as well as other handcrafted goods, including greeting cards, candles, and handmade wooden rosaries, excellent for Christmas gifts and supporting the nuns.
This post was first published on SpiritualDirection.com and is reprinted here with permission.
First and last photos in this post by Jeffrey Bruno, the photographer who took almost all of the beautiful photographs contained in Joy Within His House and did much to bring it to publication. Jeffrey wrote an article about how the book and its photographs came into being, which you can read on his Substack here: Behind the Grille: How a Cloistered Nun’s Manuscript Changed Everything