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WAYNE TEASDALE
L.M.: And Mary did.
W.T.: She made him present through her body. So all that has to be looked at. The church has got to discover within, open up to, and make available to everyone the mystical dimension, the contemplative dimension-which is the human vocation.
L.M.: The sannyasic dimension.
W.T.: The sannyasic dimension. Everybody's got it, everybody's got it. The monk, the mystic, the sannyasi is part of everybody. Everybody is that—that is what we are. And to make that available, and to stress love more, that inclusive love of the gospel. Not simply to function on the level of moral rules, of canon law, and so forth. We need good order in the church. But before that, we need love.
L.M.: I love what you say, that everybody's got it. Everybody's got to get it.
W.T.: Everybody's got to get it, exactly; including, especially, the leaders of the church. Father Bede told me a story about how some contemplative gave a retreat to the Pope and some cardinals at Lent. And he was amazed at their lack of capacity for contemplation. They were always coming and asking for a book to read. So if these are the leaders of the Catholic Church, what's going to happen to the flock? We desperately need an encyclical on prayer, on contemplative life.
L.M.: As a Christian sannyasi, you read, meditate on that book every day, don't you? This book of the self, you're looking at the imprint of God upon us.
W.T.: Right, yes, exactly. The book of nature, the book of creation.
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