The Catholic Book Blogger
Is it better to be ignorant than to be educated? Not at all, says St. Clement of Alexandria. The more you learn, the better prepared you are to understand and defend your faith.
Some people who think themselves naturally gifted don’t want to touch either philosophy or logic. They don’t even want to learn natural science. They demand bare faith alone—as if they wanted to harvest grapes right away without putting any work into the vine.
We must prune, dig, trellis, and do all the other work. I think you’ll agree the pruning knife, the pickaxe, and the other farmer’s tools are necessary for growing grapevines, so that they will produce edible fruit. And as in farming, so in medicine: the one who has learned something is the one who has practiced the various lessons, so that he can cultivate or heal.
And here, too, I say you’re truly educated if you bring everything to bear on the truth. Taking what’s useful from geometry, music, grammar, and philosophy itself, you guard the Faith from assault. –St. Clement of Alexandria, Miscellany, 1.9
IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
What gifts has my education given me—whether it’s elementary school or multiple doctorates?
How can I use them to guard the Faith from assault?
CLOSING PRAYER
Lord, enlighten my soul to comprehend all that you have taught in your divine and saving oracles, so that I may lead a life of guileless faith and blameless conversation.
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