Studying = Attention = Better Prayer

Academic work is one of those fields containing a pearl so precious that it is worthwhile to sell all our possessions, keeping nothing for ourselves, in order to be able to acquire it.  - - Simone Weil

I first read about Simone Weil's concept in this blog post called "Simone Weil on Study and Prayer."  I have since read the essay this blogger refers to, which comes from Weil's work Waiting for God.  To provide some biographical and historical context, "Weil was born in Paris and died in Ashford, England.  [She was a] religious philosopher, essayist, dramatist, and poet, as well as social critic and political activist."*

Source

In her essay, "Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God," she contemplates how 'school studies' and 'academic work,' when done attentively, can "increase the power of attention with a view to prayer" (59).  This is certainly good news for those of us who spend most of our time reading and studying for school.  I oftentimes feel quite guilty reading literature and feminist theory rather than spending that time reading the Bible or devotions.  But, I don't think Weil is saying that's not important either; rather, she makes room for the notion that "in every school exercise there is a special way of waiting upon truth, setting our hearts upon it, yet not allowing ourselves to go out in search of it" (63).

What I found most interesting about this short essay, was her assertion that we should "contemplate attentively and slowly each school task in which we have failed, seeing how unpleasing and second rate it is, without seeking any excuse or overlooking any mistake. . . trying to get down to the origin of each fault" (60).  In this way, she adds, it is "perhaps even more useful to contemplate our stupidity than our sin" (60).  Furthermore, "when we force ourselves to fix the gaze, not only of our eyes but of our souls, upon a school exercise in which we have failed through sheer stupidity, a sense of our mediocrity is borne in upon us with irresistible evidence" (60).

It's interesting to read her commentary on the difference between those who have chosen academia as their field of interest and those who have not (but we must consider her historical context here):

"Happy are those who pass their adolescence and youth in developing this power of attention.  No doubt they are no nearer the goodness than their brothers [and sisters] working in fields and factories.  They are near in a different way. . . [W]orkmen [and women] possess a nearness to God of incomparable savor which is found in the depths of poverty, in the absence of social consideration and in the endurance of long drawn-out sufferings" (64).

Lastly, I appreciated her connection of academic studies to loving thy neighbor: "paradoxical as it may seem, a Latin prose or a geometry problem, even though they are done wrong, may be of great service one day, provided we devote the right kind of effort [and attention] to them.  Should the occasion arise, they can one day make us better able to give someone in affliction the help required to save him, at the supreme moment of need" (65).  This might seem an unlikely connection, but she argues that loving thy neighbor "means being able to say to him [or her]: 'What are you going through?'. . . this way of looking is first of all attentive.  The soul empties itself of all its own contents in order to receive into itself the being it is looking at, just as he is, in all his truth.  Only he who is capable of attention can do this" (64-5).

Right now, for some of us, our school work and academic year is drawing to a close.  We've given our attention to school work and study, some of which we might not have understood or seen as helpful.  But if we remember Weil's analysis in these moments of struggle in academic work, we can learn to be more attentive, prayerful, and loving to those around us.

*Back cover of Waiting for God