Pope: "True Knowledge of God, not Found in Books"

(16 Sep 09 - RV) Pope Benedict, reflecting on the figure of St Symeon during his weekly audience, prayed that Christians would pay greater attention to their spiritual lives.


''The Love of God grows in us if we remain united to him in prayer and listen to his word”. Those were Pope Benedict’s words at his general audience on Wednesday as thousands gathered to hear his latest instalment on the early father’s of the Church, this week focusing on St Symeon known as the New Theologian.


 He was born in nine hundred and forty nine in Asia Minor. As a young man, he moved to Constantinople to embark on a career in the civil service but, during his studies, he was shown a work called The Spiritual Law by Mark the Monk which completely changed his life. It contained the phrase: “If you seek spiritual healing, be aware of your conscience. Do everything it tells you and you will find what is useful to you”.

The Holy Father continued on this theme of “conscience” saying that St Symeon made it his way of life always to listen to his conscience and added that this Saint’s example shows us that by giving attention to spiritual life, the Holy Spirit becomes really present in us.

True knowledge of God comes, not from books, but from an interior purification through conversion of the heart. For Symeon, union with Christ is not something extraordinary, but the fruit of the baptism common to all Christians.

Finally, Looking out a the sea of people gathered in the Paul the VI hall the pope prayed that the life of this Saint would inspire “greater attention to our spiritual life, seeking the guidance we need to grow in the love of God”.