John Eudes Bamberger once said of Thomas Merton, “He was a theologian in the patristic manner, that is to say, one who could speak of God because he has experienced Him. Evagrius had put it very succinctly: ‘A theologian is a person who truly prays; the one who truly prays is a theologian.’”
We talk about a lot of things. One of the things we talk about is God. Talking about God is not a bad thing. But if we only talk about God, if we don’t the time to be with God, our talk is just dry words. We need to experience God and we need to make sure all the words we so love to use don’t get in the way of that.
Equally, we need to be sure that the people whose words we are listening to are “theologians in the patristic manner.” People who truly pray. People who experience God and who speak out of that experience, and not merely out of their own heads.
Creo en Dios! 