{"id":20068,"date":"2017-05-18T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/benedict-xvi-praises-cardinal-sarah-as-great-spiritual-teacher-92919\/"},"modified":"2017-05-18T22:30:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-18T22:30:00","slug":"benedict-xvi-praises-cardinal-sarah-as-great-spiritual-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/05\/benedict-xvi-praises-cardinal-sarah-as-great-spiritual-teacher\/","title":{"rendered":"Benedict XVI praises Cardinal Sarah as great ‘spiritual teacher’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Vatican City, May 18, 2017 \/ 04:30 pm (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- In an afterword to a book on silence and prayer recently authored by Cardinal Robert Sarah, Benedict XVI praised the prelate as a spiritual model given the depth of his interior life, saying the liturgy is safe in his hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cCardinal Sarah is a spiritual teacher, who speaks out of the depths of silence with the Lord, out of his interior union with him, and thus really has something to say to each one of us,\u201d Benedict XVI said.<\/p>\n

The emeritus Pope added that we ought to be grateful to Pope Francis for his 2014 appointment of Cardinal Sarah as prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.<\/p>\n

The liturgy, Benedict said, has a certain type of \u201cspecialization\u201d which ultimately \u201ccan talk right past the essential thing unless it is grounded in a deep, interior union with the praying Church, which over and over again learns anew from the Lord himself what adoration is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Cardinal Sarah, a master of silence and of interior prayer, the liturgy is in good hands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Benedict\u2019s afterword to Cardinal Sarah\u2019s book marks one of the rare occasions he has spoken publicly or published any sort of document since his retirement in 2013.<\/p>\n

Although Cardinal Sarah\u2019s book, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise<\/em><\/a>, was published last month, future printings will include Benedict\u2019s afterword, which he wrote during the Easter Octave. The full text of the essay was published by First Things May 17<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The book is in interview format, and was conducted by French journalist and author Nicolas Diat, who also collaborated on Cardinal Sarah\u2019s 2015 interview-book God or Nothing<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his afterword, Benedict reflected on the topic of silence itself, pointing to the letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians that reads: \u201cIt is better to keep silence and be (a Christian) than to talk and not to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring to Christ as a teacher, the text says that \u201ceven what he did silently is worthy of the Father. He who has truly made the words of Jesus his own is able also to hear his silence, so that he may be perfect: so that he may act through his speech and be known through his silence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benedict then reflected on what it means to hear Christ's silence and to know him through it, noting that in the Gospels we learn that Christ spent many nights \u201calone on the mountain\u201d in prayer and conversation with the Father.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that his speech, his word, comes from silence and could mature only there,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it stands to reason that his word can be correctly understood only if we, too, enter into his silence, if we learn to hear it from his silence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although historical context is necessary in order to interpret Christ's words, that in itself is not enough \u201creally to comprehend the Lord\u2019s message in depth,\u201d Benedict said.<\/p>\n

Those who today read the \u201cever-thicker\u201d commentaries on the Gospels often still end up \u201cdisappointed\u201d he said, because they learn \u201ca lot that is useful about those days and a lot of hypotheses that ultimately contribute nothing at all to an understanding of the text.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end you feel that in all the excess of words, something essential is lacking: entrance into Jesus\u2019s silence, from which his word is born,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cif we cannot enter into this silence, we will always hear the word only on its surface and thus not really understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pointing to Cardinal Sarah\u2019s book, Benedict said the prelate \u201cteaches us silence \u2014 being silent with Jesus, true inner stillness, and in just this way he helps us to grasp the word of the Lord anew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the cardinal rarely speaks of himself in the text, Benedict said his answers reveal the depth of his spiritual life.<\/p>\n

In response to one of Diat\u2019s questions on whether in his life he has ever felt that words were too \u201ccumbersome\u201d or heavy, Cardinal Sarah responds by saying, \u201cIn my prayer and in my interior life, I have always felt the need for a deeper, more complete silence\u2026The days of solitude, silence, and absolute fasting have been a great support. They have been an unprecedented grace.\u201d<\/p>\n

This answer, Benedict said, makes visible \u201cthe source from which the cardinal lives, which gives his word its inner depth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom this vantage point, he can then see the dangers that continually threaten the spiritual life,\u201d he said, noting that this also goes for priest and bishops.<\/p>\n

This threat endangers the Church as well, \u201cin which it is not uncommon for the Word to be replaced by a verbosity that dilutes the greatness of the Word,\u201d Benedict said.<\/p>\n

He then pointed to another passage of the book which he said is a good examination of conscience for every bishop: \u201cIt can happen that a good, pious priest, once he is raised to the episcopal dignity, quickly falls into mediocrity and a concern for worldly success.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOverwhelmed by the weight of the duties that are incumbent on him, worried about his power, his authority, and the material needs of his office, he gradually runs out of steam,\u201d Cardinal Sarah said.<\/p>\n

Benedict said that given the depth of Cardinal Sarah\u2019s own spiritual life, he is a \u201cspiritual teacher\u201d who, because of his silent prayer with God, has something to say to everyone.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/p>\n

Vatican City, May 18, 2017 \/ 04:30 pm (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- In an afterword to a book on silence and prayer recently authored by Cardinal Robert Sarah, Benedict XVI praised the prelate as a spiritual model given the depth of his interior life, saying the liturgy is safe in his hands.<\/p>\n

“Cardinal Sarah is a spiritual teacher, who speaks out of the depths of silence with the Lord, out of his interior union with him, and thus really has something to say to each one of us,” Benedict XVI said.<\/p>\n

The emeritus Pope added that we ought to be grateful to Pope Francis for his 2014 appointment of Cardinal Sarah as prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.<\/p>\n

The liturgy, Benedict said, has a certain type of “specialization” which ultimately “can talk right past the essential thing unless it is grounded in a deep, interior union with the praying Church, which over and over again learns anew from the Lord himself what adoration is.”<\/p>\n

“With Cardinal Sarah, a master of silence and of interior prayer, the liturgy is in good hands,” he said.<\/p>\n

Benedict’s afterword to Cardinal Sarah’s book marks one of the rare occasions he has spoken publicly or published any sort of document since his retirement in 2013.<\/p>\n

Although Cardinal Sarah’s book, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise<\/em><\/a>, was published last month, future printings will include Benedict’s afterword, which he wrote during the Easter Octave. The full text of the essay was published by First Things May 17<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The book is in interview format, and was conducted by French journalist and author Nicolas Diat, who also collaborated on Cardinal Sarah’s 2015 interview-book God or Nothing<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his afterword, Benedict reflected on the topic of silence itself, pointing to the letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians that reads: “It is better to keep silence and be (a Christian) than to talk and not to be.”<\/p>\n

Referring to Christ as a teacher, the text says that “even what he did silently is worthy of the Father. He who has truly made the words of Jesus his own is able also to hear his silence, so that he may be perfect: so that he may act through his speech and be known through his silence.”<\/p>\n

Benedict then reflected on what it means to hear Christ’s silence and to know him through it, noting that in the Gospels we learn that Christ spent many nights “alone on the mountain” in prayer and conversation with the Father.<\/p>\n

“We know that his speech, his word, comes from silence and could mature only there,” he said. “So it stands to reason that his word can be correctly understood only if we, too, enter into his silence, if we learn to hear it from his silence.”<\/p>\n

Although historical context is necessary in order to interpret Christ’s words, that in itself is not enough “really to comprehend the Lord’s message in depth,” Benedict said.<\/p>\n

Those who today read the “ever-thicker” commentaries on the Gospels often still end up “disappointed” he said, because they learn “a lot that is useful about those days and a lot of hypotheses that ultimately contribute nothing at all to an understanding of the text.”<\/p>\n

“In the end you feel that in all the excess of words, something essential is lacking: entrance into Jesus’s silence, from which his word is born,” he said, adding that “if we cannot enter into this silence, we will always hear the word only on its surface and thus not really understand it.”<\/p>\n

Pointing to Cardinal Sarah’s book, Benedict said the prelate “teaches us silence — being silent with Jesus, true inner stillness, and in just this way he helps us to grasp the word of the Lord anew.”<\/p>\n

Although the cardinal rarely speaks of himself in the text, Benedict said his answers reveal the depth of his spiritual life.<\/p>\n

In response to one of Diat’s questions on whether in his life he has ever felt that words were too “cumbersome” or heavy, Cardinal Sarah responds by saying, “In my prayer and in my interior life, I have always felt the need for a deeper, more complete silence…The days of solitude, silence, and absolute fasting have been a great support. They have been an unprecedented grace.”<\/p>\n

This answer, Benedict said, makes visible “the source from which the cardinal lives, which gives his word its inner depth.”<\/p>\n

“From this vantage point, he can then see the dangers that continually threaten the spiritual life,” he said, noting that this also goes for priest and bishops.<\/p>\n

This threat endangers the Church as well, “in which it is not uncommon for the Word to be replaced by a verbosity that dilutes the greatness of the Word,” Benedict said.<\/p>\n

He then pointed to another passage of the book which he said is a good examination of conscience for every bishop: “It can happen that a good, pious priest, once he is raised to the episcopal dignity, quickly falls into mediocrity and a concern for worldly success.”<\/p>\n

“Overwhelmed by the weight of the duties that are incumbent on him, worried about his power, his authority, and the material needs of his office, he gradually runs out of steam,” Cardinal Sarah said.<\/p>\n

Benedict said that given the depth of Cardinal Sarah’s own spiritual life, he is a “spiritual teacher” who, because of his silent prayer with God, has something to say to everyone.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\nBenedict XVI praises Cardinal Sarah as great 'spiritual teacher'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Vatican City, May 18, 2017 \/ 04:30 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- In an afterword to a book on silence and prayer recently authored by Cardinal Robert Sarah, Benedict XVI praised the prelate as a spiritual model given the depth of his interior life, saying the liturgy is safe in his hands. “Cardinal Sarah is a spiritual teacher, who speaks out of the depths of silence with the Lord, out of his interior union with him, and thus really has something to say to each one of us,” Benedict XVI said. The emeritus Pope added that we ought to be grateful to Pope Francis for his 2014 appointment of Cardinal Sarah as prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The liturgy, Benedict said, has a certain type of “specialization” which ultimately “can talk right past the essential thing unless it is grounded in a deep, interior union with the praying Church, which over and over again learns anew from the Lord himself what adoration is.” “With Cardinal Sarah, a master of silence and of interior prayer, the liturgy is in good hands,” he said. Benedict’s afterword to Cardinal Sarah’s book marks one of the rare occasions he has spoken publicly or published any sort of document since his retirement in 2013. Although Cardinal Sarah’s book, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise, was published last month, future printings will include Benedict’s afterword, which he wrote during the Easter Octave. The full text of the essay was published by First Things May 17. The book is in interview format, and was conducted by French journalist and author Nicolas Diat, who also collaborated on Cardinal Sarah’s 2015 interview-book God or Nothing. In his afterword, Benedict reflected on the topic of silence itself, pointing to the letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians that reads: “It is better to keep silence and be (a Christian) than to talk and not to be.” Referring to Christ as a teacher, the text says that “even what he did silently is worthy of the Father. He who has truly made the words of Jesus his own is able also to hear his silence, so that he may be perfect: so that he may act through his speech and be known through his silence.” Benedict then reflected on what it means to hear Christ's silence and to know him through it, noting that in the Gospels we learn that Christ spent many nights “alone on the mountain” in prayer and conversation with the Father. “We know that his speech, his word, comes from silence and could mature only there,” he said. “So it stands to reason that his word can be correctly understood only if we, too, enter into his silence, if we learn to hear it from his silence.” Although historical context is necessary in order to interpret Christ's words, that in itself is not enough “really to comprehend the Lord’s message in depth,” Benedict said. Those who today read the “ever-thicker” commentaries on the Gospels often still end up “disappointed” he said, because they learn “a lot that is useful about those days and a lot of hypotheses that ultimately contribute nothing at all to an understanding of the text.” “In the end you feel that in all the excess of words, something essential is lacking: entrance into Jesus’s silence, from which his word is born,” he said, adding that “if we cannot enter into this silence, we will always hear the word only on its surface and thus not really understand it.” Pointing to Cardinal Sarah’s book, Benedict said the prelate “teaches us silence -- being silent with Jesus, true inner stillness, and in just this way he helps us to grasp the word of the Lord anew.” Although the cardinal rarely speaks of himself in the text, Benedict said his answers reveal the depth of his spiritual life. In response to one of Diat’s questions on whether in his life he has ever felt that words were too “cumbersome” or heavy, Cardinal Sarah responds by saying, “In my prayer and in my interior life, I have always felt the need for a deeper, more complete silence...The days of solitude, silence, and absolute fasting have been a great support. They have been an unprecedented grace.” This answer, Benedict said, makes visible “the source from which the cardinal lives, which gives his word its inner depth.” “From this vantage point, he can then see the dangers that continually threaten the spiritual life,” he said, noting that this also goes for priest and bishops. This threat endangers the Church as well, “in which it is not uncommon for the Word to be replaced by a verbosity that dilutes the greatness of the Word,” Benedict said. He then pointed to another passage of the book which he said is a good examination of conscience for every bishop: “It can happen that a good, pious priest, once he is raised to the episcopal dignity, quickly falls into mediocrity and a concern for worldly success.” “Overwhelmed by the weight of the duties that are incumbent on him, worried about his power, his authority, and the material needs of his office, he gradually runs out of steam,” Cardinal Sarah said. Benedict said that given the depth of Cardinal Sarah’s own spiritual life, he is a “spiritual teacher” who, because of his silent prayer with God, has something to say to everyone.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/05\/benedict-xvi-praises-cardinal-sarah-as-great-spiritual-teacher\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Benedict XVI praises Cardinal Sarah as great 'spiritual teacher'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vatican City, May 18, 2017 \/ 04:30 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- In an afterword to a book on silence and prayer recently authored by Cardinal Robert Sarah, Benedict XVI praised the prelate as a spiritual model given the depth of his interior life, saying the liturgy is safe in his hands. “Cardinal Sarah is a spiritual teacher, who speaks out of the depths of silence with the Lord, out of his interior union with him, and thus really has something to say to each one of us,” Benedict XVI said. The emeritus Pope added that we ought to be grateful to Pope Francis for his 2014 appointment of Cardinal Sarah as prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The liturgy, Benedict said, has a certain type of “specialization” which ultimately “can talk right past the essential thing unless it is grounded in a deep, interior union with the praying Church, which over and over again learns anew from the Lord himself what adoration is.” “With Cardinal Sarah, a master of silence and of interior prayer, the liturgy is in good hands,” he said. Benedict’s afterword to Cardinal Sarah’s book marks one of the rare occasions he has spoken publicly or published any sort of document since his retirement in 2013. Although Cardinal Sarah’s book, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise, was published last month, future printings will include Benedict’s afterword, which he wrote during the Easter Octave. The full text of the essay was published by First Things May 17. The book is in interview format, and was conducted by French journalist and author Nicolas Diat, who also collaborated on Cardinal Sarah’s 2015 interview-book God or Nothing. In his afterword, Benedict reflected on the topic of silence itself, pointing to the letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians that reads: “It is better to keep silence and be (a Christian) than to talk and not to be.” Referring to Christ as a teacher, the text says that “even what he did silently is worthy of the Father. He who has truly made the words of Jesus his own is able also to hear his silence, so that he may be perfect: so that he may act through his speech and be known through his silence.” Benedict then reflected on what it means to hear Christ's silence and to know him through it, noting that in the Gospels we learn that Christ spent many nights “alone on the mountain” in prayer and conversation with the Father. “We know that his speech, his word, comes from silence and could mature only there,” he said. “So it stands to reason that his word can be correctly understood only if we, too, enter into his silence, if we learn to hear it from his silence.” Although historical context is necessary in order to interpret Christ's words, that in itself is not enough “really to comprehend the Lord’s message in depth,” Benedict said. Those who today read the “ever-thicker” commentaries on the Gospels often still end up “disappointed” he said, because they learn “a lot that is useful about those days and a lot of hypotheses that ultimately contribute nothing at all to an understanding of the text.” “In the end you feel that in all the excess of words, something essential is lacking: entrance into Jesus’s silence, from which his word is born,” he said, adding that “if we cannot enter into this silence, we will always hear the word only on its surface and thus not really understand it.” Pointing to Cardinal Sarah’s book, Benedict said the prelate “teaches us silence -- being silent with Jesus, true inner stillness, and in just this way he helps us to grasp the word of the Lord anew.” Although the cardinal rarely speaks of himself in the text, Benedict said his answers reveal the depth of his spiritual life. In response to one of Diat’s questions on whether in his life he has ever felt that words were too “cumbersome” or heavy, Cardinal Sarah responds by saying, “In my prayer and in my interior life, I have always felt the need for a deeper, more complete silence...The days of solitude, silence, and absolute fasting have been a great support. They have been an unprecedented grace.” This answer, Benedict said, makes visible “the source from which the cardinal lives, which gives his word its inner depth.” “From this vantage point, he can then see the dangers that continually threaten the spiritual life,” he said, noting that this also goes for priest and bishops. This threat endangers the Church as well, “in which it is not uncommon for the Word to be replaced by a verbosity that dilutes the greatness of the Word,” Benedict said. He then pointed to another passage of the book which he said is a good examination of conscience for every bishop: “It can happen that a good, pious priest, once he is raised to the episcopal dignity, quickly falls into mediocrity and a concern for worldly success.” “Overwhelmed by the weight of the duties that are incumbent on him, worried about his power, his authority, and the material needs of his office, he gradually runs out of steam,” Cardinal Sarah said. Benedict said that given the depth of Cardinal Sarah’s own spiritual life, he is a “spiritual teacher” who, because of his silent prayer with God, has something to say to everyone.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/05\/benedict-xvi-praises-cardinal-sarah-as-great-spiritual-teacher\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-18T22:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Pope_Emeritus_Benedict_XVI_holding_the_Pascal_Candle_2_on_Easter_Vigil_Saturday_April_7_2012_in_Vatican_City_Credit_LOsservatore_Romano_CNA_7_28_15.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/05\/benedict-xvi-praises-cardinal-sarah-as-great-spiritual-teacher\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/05\/benedict-xvi-praises-cardinal-sarah-as-great-spiritual-teacher\/\",\"name\":\"Benedict XVI praises Cardinal Sarah as great 'spiritual teacher'\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-18T22:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-18T22:30:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Vatican City, May 18, 2017 \/ 04:30 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- In an afterword to a book on silence and prayer recently authored by Cardinal Robert Sarah, Benedict XVI praised the prelate as a spiritual model given the depth of his interior life, saying the liturgy is safe in his hands. “Cardinal Sarah is a spiritual teacher, who speaks out of the depths of silence with the Lord, out of his interior union with him, and thus really has something to say to each one of us,” Benedict XVI said. The emeritus Pope added that we ought to be grateful to Pope Francis for his 2014 appointment of Cardinal Sarah as prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The liturgy, Benedict said, has a certain type of “specialization” which ultimately “can talk right past the essential thing unless it is grounded in a deep, interior union with the praying Church, which over and over again learns anew from the Lord himself what adoration is.” “With Cardinal Sarah, a master of silence and of interior prayer, the liturgy is in good hands,” he said. Benedict’s afterword to Cardinal Sarah’s book marks one of the rare occasions he has spoken publicly or published any sort of document since his retirement in 2013. Although Cardinal Sarah’s book, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise, was published last month, future printings will include Benedict’s afterword, which he wrote during the Easter Octave. The full text of the essay was published by First Things May 17. The book is in interview format, and was conducted by French journalist and author Nicolas Diat, who also collaborated on Cardinal Sarah’s 2015 interview-book God or Nothing. In his afterword, Benedict reflected on the topic of silence itself, pointing to the letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians that reads: “It is better to keep silence and be (a Christian) than to talk and not to be.” Referring to Christ as a teacher, the text says that “even what he did silently is worthy of the Father. He who has truly made the words of Jesus his own is able also to hear his silence, so that he may be perfect: so that he may act through his speech and be known through his silence.” Benedict then reflected on what it means to hear Christ's silence and to know him through it, noting that in the Gospels we learn that Christ spent many nights “alone on the mountain” in prayer and conversation with the Father. “We know that his speech, his word, comes from silence and could mature only there,” he said. “So it stands to reason that his word can be correctly understood only if we, too, enter into his silence, if we learn to hear it from his silence.” Although historical context is necessary in order to interpret Christ's words, that in itself is not enough “really to comprehend the Lord’s message in depth,” Benedict said. Those who today read the “ever-thicker” commentaries on the Gospels often still end up “disappointed” he said, because they learn “a lot that is useful about those days and a lot of hypotheses that ultimately contribute nothing at all to an understanding of the text.” “In the end you feel that in all the excess of words, something essential is lacking: entrance into Jesus’s silence, from which his word is born,” he said, adding that “if we cannot enter into this silence, we will always hear the word only on its surface and thus not really understand it.” Pointing to Cardinal Sarah’s book, Benedict said the prelate “teaches us silence -- being silent with Jesus, true inner stillness, and in just this way he helps us to grasp the word of the Lord anew.” Although the cardinal rarely speaks of himself in the text, Benedict said his answers reveal the depth of his spiritual life. In response to one of Diat’s questions on whether in his life he has ever felt that words were too “cumbersome” or heavy, Cardinal Sarah responds by saying, “In my prayer and in my interior life, I have always felt the need for a deeper, more complete silence...The days of solitude, silence, and absolute fasting have been a great support. They have been an unprecedented grace.” This answer, Benedict said, makes visible “the source from which the cardinal lives, which gives his word its inner depth.” “From this vantage point, he can then see the dangers that continually threaten the spiritual life,” he said, noting that this also goes for priest and bishops. This threat endangers the Church as well, “in which it is not uncommon for the Word to be replaced by a verbosity that dilutes the greatness of the Word,” Benedict said. He then pointed to another passage of the book which he said is a good examination of conscience for every bishop: “It can happen that a good, pious priest, once he is raised to the episcopal dignity, quickly falls into mediocrity and a concern for worldly success.” “Overwhelmed by the weight of the duties that are incumbent on him, worried about his power, his authority, and the material needs of his office, he gradually runs out of steam,” Cardinal Sarah said. 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The emeritus Pope added that we ought to be grateful to Pope Francis for his 2014 appointment of Cardinal Sarah as prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The liturgy, Benedict said, has a certain type of “specialization” which ultimately “can talk right past the essential thing unless it is grounded in a deep, interior union with the praying Church, which over and over again learns anew from the Lord himself what adoration is.” “With Cardinal Sarah, a master of silence and of interior prayer, the liturgy is in good hands,” he said. Benedict’s afterword to Cardinal Sarah’s book marks one of the rare occasions he has spoken publicly or published any sort of document since his retirement in 2013. Although Cardinal Sarah’s book, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise, was published last month, future printings will include Benedict’s afterword, which he wrote during the Easter Octave. The full text of the essay was published by First Things May 17. The book is in interview format, and was conducted by French journalist and author Nicolas Diat, who also collaborated on Cardinal Sarah’s 2015 interview-book God or Nothing. In his afterword, Benedict reflected on the topic of silence itself, pointing to the letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians that reads: “It is better to keep silence and be (a Christian) than to talk and not to be.” Referring to Christ as a teacher, the text says that “even what he did silently is worthy of the Father. He who has truly made the words of Jesus his own is able also to hear his silence, so that he may be perfect: so that he may act through his speech and be known through his silence.” Benedict then reflected on what it means to hear Christ's silence and to know him through it, noting that in the Gospels we learn that Christ spent many nights “alone on the mountain” in prayer and conversation with the Father. “We know that his speech, his word, comes from silence and could mature only there,” he said. “So it stands to reason that his word can be correctly understood only if we, too, enter into his silence, if we learn to hear it from his silence.” Although historical context is necessary in order to interpret Christ's words, that in itself is not enough “really to comprehend the Lord’s message in depth,” Benedict said. Those who today read the “ever-thicker” commentaries on the Gospels often still end up “disappointed” he said, because they learn “a lot that is useful about those days and a lot of hypotheses that ultimately contribute nothing at all to an understanding of the text.” “In the end you feel that in all the excess of words, something essential is lacking: entrance into Jesus’s silence, from which his word is born,” he said, adding that “if we cannot enter into this silence, we will always hear the word only on its surface and thus not really understand it.” Pointing to Cardinal Sarah’s book, Benedict said the prelate “teaches us silence -- being silent with Jesus, true inner stillness, and in just this way he helps us to grasp the word of the Lord anew.” Although the cardinal rarely speaks of himself in the text, Benedict said his answers reveal the depth of his spiritual life. In response to one of Diat’s questions on whether in his life he has ever felt that words were too “cumbersome” or heavy, Cardinal Sarah responds by saying, “In my prayer and in my interior life, I have always felt the need for a deeper, more complete silence...The days of solitude, silence, and absolute fasting have been a great support. They have been an unprecedented grace.” This answer, Benedict said, makes visible “the source from which the cardinal lives, which gives his word its inner depth.” “From this vantage point, he can then see the dangers that continually threaten the spiritual life,” he said, noting that this also goes for priest and bishops. This threat endangers the Church as well, “in which it is not uncommon for the Word to be replaced by a verbosity that dilutes the greatness of the Word,” Benedict said. He then pointed to another passage of the book which he said is a good examination of conscience for every bishop: “It can happen that a good, pious priest, once he is raised to the episcopal dignity, quickly falls into mediocrity and a concern for worldly success.” “Overwhelmed by the weight of the duties that are incumbent on him, worried about his power, his authority, and the material needs of his office, he gradually runs out of steam,” Cardinal Sarah said. Benedict said that given the depth of Cardinal Sarah’s own spiritual life, he is a “spiritual teacher” who, because of his silent prayer with God, has something to say to everyone.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/05\/benedict-xvi-praises-cardinal-sarah-as-great-spiritual-teacher\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Benedict XVI praises Cardinal Sarah as great 'spiritual teacher'","og_description":"Vatican City, May 18, 2017 \/ 04:30 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- In an afterword to a book on silence and prayer recently authored by Cardinal Robert Sarah, Benedict XVI praised the prelate as a spiritual model given the depth of his interior life, saying the liturgy is safe in his hands. “Cardinal Sarah is a spiritual teacher, who speaks out of the depths of silence with the Lord, out of his interior union with him, and thus really has something to say to each one of us,” Benedict XVI said. The emeritus Pope added that we ought to be grateful to Pope Francis for his 2014 appointment of Cardinal Sarah as prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The liturgy, Benedict said, has a certain type of “specialization” which ultimately “can talk right past the essential thing unless it is grounded in a deep, interior union with the praying Church, which over and over again learns anew from the Lord himself what adoration is.” “With Cardinal Sarah, a master of silence and of interior prayer, the liturgy is in good hands,” he said. Benedict’s afterword to Cardinal Sarah’s book marks one of the rare occasions he has spoken publicly or published any sort of document since his retirement in 2013. Although Cardinal Sarah’s book, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise, was published last month, future printings will include Benedict’s afterword, which he wrote during the Easter Octave. The full text of the essay was published by First Things May 17. The book is in interview format, and was conducted by French journalist and author Nicolas Diat, who also collaborated on Cardinal Sarah’s 2015 interview-book God or Nothing. In his afterword, Benedict reflected on the topic of silence itself, pointing to the letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians that reads: “It is better to keep silence and be (a Christian) than to talk and not to be.” Referring to Christ as a teacher, the text says that “even what he did silently is worthy of the Father. He who has truly made the words of Jesus his own is able also to hear his silence, so that he may be perfect: so that he may act through his speech and be known through his silence.” Benedict then reflected on what it means to hear Christ's silence and to know him through it, noting that in the Gospels we learn that Christ spent many nights “alone on the mountain” in prayer and conversation with the Father. “We know that his speech, his word, comes from silence and could mature only there,” he said. “So it stands to reason that his word can be correctly understood only if we, too, enter into his silence, if we learn to hear it from his silence.” Although historical context is necessary in order to interpret Christ's words, that in itself is not enough “really to comprehend the Lord’s message in depth,” Benedict said. Those who today read the “ever-thicker” commentaries on the Gospels often still end up “disappointed” he said, because they learn “a lot that is useful about those days and a lot of hypotheses that ultimately contribute nothing at all to an understanding of the text.” “In the end you feel that in all the excess of words, something essential is lacking: entrance into Jesus’s silence, from which his word is born,” he said, adding that “if we cannot enter into this silence, we will always hear the word only on its surface and thus not really understand it.” Pointing to Cardinal Sarah’s book, Benedict said the prelate “teaches us silence -- being silent with Jesus, true inner stillness, and in just this way he helps us to grasp the word of the Lord anew.” Although the cardinal rarely speaks of himself in the text, Benedict said his answers reveal the depth of his spiritual life. In response to one of Diat’s questions on whether in his life he has ever felt that words were too “cumbersome” or heavy, Cardinal Sarah responds by saying, “In my prayer and in my interior life, I have always felt the need for a deeper, more complete silence...The days of solitude, silence, and absolute fasting have been a great support. They have been an unprecedented grace.” This answer, Benedict said, makes visible “the source from which the cardinal lives, which gives his word its inner depth.” “From this vantage point, he can then see the dangers that continually threaten the spiritual life,” he said, noting that this also goes for priest and bishops. This threat endangers the Church as well, “in which it is not uncommon for the Word to be replaced by a verbosity that dilutes the greatness of the Word,” Benedict said. He then pointed to another passage of the book which he said is a good examination of conscience for every bishop: “It can happen that a good, pious priest, once he is raised to the episcopal dignity, quickly falls into mediocrity and a concern for worldly success.” “Overwhelmed by the weight of the duties that are incumbent on him, worried about his power, his authority, and the material needs of his office, he gradually runs out of steam,” Cardinal Sarah said. Benedict said that given the depth of Cardinal Sarah’s own spiritual life, he is a “spiritual teacher” who, because of his silent prayer with God, has something to say to everyone.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/05\/benedict-xvi-praises-cardinal-sarah-as-great-spiritual-teacher\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2017-05-18T22:30:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Pope_Emeritus_Benedict_XVI_holding_the_Pascal_Candle_2_on_Easter_Vigil_Saturday_April_7_2012_in_Vatican_City_Credit_LOsservatore_Romano_CNA_7_28_15.jpg"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/05\/benedict-xvi-praises-cardinal-sarah-as-great-spiritual-teacher\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/05\/benedict-xvi-praises-cardinal-sarah-as-great-spiritual-teacher\/","name":"Benedict XVI praises Cardinal Sarah as great 'spiritual teacher'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-05-18T22:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-18T22:30:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Vatican City, May 18, 2017 \/ 04:30 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- In an afterword to a book on silence and prayer recently authored by Cardinal Robert Sarah, Benedict XVI praised the prelate as a spiritual model given the depth of his interior life, saying the liturgy is safe in his hands. “Cardinal Sarah is a spiritual teacher, who speaks out of the depths of silence with the Lord, out of his interior union with him, and thus really has something to say to each one of us,” Benedict XVI said. The emeritus Pope added that we ought to be grateful to Pope Francis for his 2014 appointment of Cardinal Sarah as prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The liturgy, Benedict said, has a certain type of “specialization” which ultimately “can talk right past the essential thing unless it is grounded in a deep, interior union with the praying Church, which over and over again learns anew from the Lord himself what adoration is.” “With Cardinal Sarah, a master of silence and of interior prayer, the liturgy is in good hands,” he said. Benedict’s afterword to Cardinal Sarah’s book marks one of the rare occasions he has spoken publicly or published any sort of document since his retirement in 2013. Although Cardinal Sarah’s book, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise, was published last month, future printings will include Benedict’s afterword, which he wrote during the Easter Octave. The full text of the essay was published by First Things May 17. The book is in interview format, and was conducted by French journalist and author Nicolas Diat, who also collaborated on Cardinal Sarah’s 2015 interview-book God or Nothing. In his afterword, Benedict reflected on the topic of silence itself, pointing to the letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians that reads: “It is better to keep silence and be (a Christian) than to talk and not to be.” Referring to Christ as a teacher, the text says that “even what he did silently is worthy of the Father. He who has truly made the words of Jesus his own is able also to hear his silence, so that he may be perfect: so that he may act through his speech and be known through his silence.” Benedict then reflected on what it means to hear Christ's silence and to know him through it, noting that in the Gospels we learn that Christ spent many nights “alone on the mountain” in prayer and conversation with the Father. “We know that his speech, his word, comes from silence and could mature only there,” he said. “So it stands to reason that his word can be correctly understood only if we, too, enter into his silence, if we learn to hear it from his silence.” Although historical context is necessary in order to interpret Christ's words, that in itself is not enough “really to comprehend the Lord’s message in depth,” Benedict said. Those who today read the “ever-thicker” commentaries on the Gospels often still end up “disappointed” he said, because they learn “a lot that is useful about those days and a lot of hypotheses that ultimately contribute nothing at all to an understanding of the text.” “In the end you feel that in all the excess of words, something essential is lacking: entrance into Jesus’s silence, from which his word is born,” he said, adding that “if we cannot enter into this silence, we will always hear the word only on its surface and thus not really understand it.” Pointing to Cardinal Sarah’s book, Benedict said the prelate “teaches us silence -- being silent with Jesus, true inner stillness, and in just this way he helps us to grasp the word of the Lord anew.” Although the cardinal rarely speaks of himself in the text, Benedict said his answers reveal the depth of his spiritual life. In response to one of Diat’s questions on whether in his life he has ever felt that words were too “cumbersome” or heavy, Cardinal Sarah responds by saying, “In my prayer and in my interior life, I have always felt the need for a deeper, more complete silence...The days of solitude, silence, and absolute fasting have been a great support. They have been an unprecedented grace.” This answer, Benedict said, makes visible “the source from which the cardinal lives, which gives his word its inner depth.” “From this vantage point, he can then see the dangers that continually threaten the spiritual life,” he said, noting that this also goes for priest and bishops. This threat endangers the Church as well, “in which it is not uncommon for the Word to be replaced by a verbosity that dilutes the greatness of the Word,” Benedict said. He then pointed to another passage of the book which he said is a good examination of conscience for every bishop: “It can happen that a good, pious priest, once he is raised to the episcopal dignity, quickly falls into mediocrity and a concern for worldly success.” “Overwhelmed by the weight of the duties that are incumbent on him, worried about his power, his authority, and the material needs of his office, he gradually runs out of steam,” Cardinal Sarah said. Benedict said that given the depth of Cardinal Sarah’s own spiritual life, he is a “spiritual teacher” who, because of his silent prayer with God, has something to say to everyone.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/05\/benedict-xvi-praises-cardinal-sarah-as-great-spiritual-teacher\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/05\/benedict-xvi-praises-cardinal-sarah-as-great-spiritual-teacher\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/05\/benedict-xvi-praises-cardinal-sarah-as-great-spiritual-teacher\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Benedict XVI praises Cardinal Sarah as great ‘spiritual teacher’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}