We are used to hearing the present age in the Church’s history described as the age of catholic action: there is a possibility that we may not sufficiently realize that catholic action essentially demands and implies catholic contemplation. By catholic action we mean the sharing, by the laity, in Christ’s redeeming work in and for the world: trying to make known the truth entrusted to the Church, trying to create a Christian order of society, trying to reclaim for men and women those fundamental rights and duties which our Lord came to teach the world and which the world has so largely lost. But all this work, and every part of it, implies the need of contemplation; and if the contemplation is lacking, the action will not achieve much lasting good. Misguided benevolence can do almost as much harm in the long run as sheer wickedness; and action without contemplation is blind.

Action of any sort is blind without contemplation of some sort. The symphony played on the concert platform is significant only if it expresses an artist’s vision; the military campaign would be military chaos without the precedent thought of the strategist. And the need of contemplative vision becomes greater as the aim of given action is more important for humanity: the artist whose material is stone or paint must be a contemplative, but it is still more important that the maker whose material is human flesh and blood should be a contemplative; and when you come to those whose material is the souls of men and women you come to the greatest need of contemplation of all.