From a Senseless Monologue to the Saving Dialogue

Today, in F. Ebner, I came across an idea which has been on my mind for some years now, the fact that every man is carrying on an interior conversation, formulating innumerable unspoken words to express the self, all the time. That conversation, which is typically carried out in the way of a monologue, speaking to "oneself," in the activity of one's mind and soul, is meant to become a dialogue. The expression (meaning "to press out") of oneself in words is not meant to be contained within oneself. It is made for communication, for communion, with others, and, ultimately, with God. Turn your constant monologue into a constant dialogue.

That is the object of all prayer, especially Christian prayer, our vocal prayers, our meditation and our contemplation. Prayer is turning your heart and your mind to God, to go from monologue to dialogue. Tell God, tell Christ, tell holy Mary, tell the Angels and the Saints, tell the Church, all that you are telling yourself. God understands your conversation better than your self can understand it. You will come to know yourself by formulating your thoughts, by "expressing" yourself (pressing yourself out) to God. Our conversation is restless until we give it to the Father in heaven, in Christ. Christ, the Son, is constant dialogue with the Father. You too are made for that. Nothing less will give you peace. Your only peace is in your real conversation with God, turning your conversation over to Him, now, and now, and now. Totus tuus sum, et omnia mea tua sunt. Accipio te in mea omnia. Dona mihi cor tuum, O Maria!

"...[W]hy do we record our thoughts? Because of vanity and because we think so much of them? We want to come to rest in the restlessness in which they put us. And the thoughts want to rest by coming to the word. But there is another reason. We think our best thoughts as we talk to someone in spirit. All thinking is 'inner speech' - in monologue or in dialogue. And when we record the thought, it is above all the expression of a secret or obvious need for communication. No thought is entirely at ease in the loneliness of being thought. Because man lives - idealiter or realiter - spiritually in the "relationship of the I to the Thou", and the word is essentially what makes this relationship actual. The word and love."*

Talk to God! all the time.

That is the meaning of Saint Paul's injunction, "pray constantly." 1 Thessalonians 5:17

*Und warum zeichnen wir unsere Gedanken auf? Gerade aus Eitelkeit und weil wir gar so viel von ihnen halten? Wir wollen zur Ruhe kommen in der Unruhe, in die sie uns versetzen. Und die Gedanken wollen zur Ruhe kommen, indem sie zum Wort kommen. Es ist aber noch ein anderer Grund da. Unsere besten Gedanken denken wir, während wir uns im Geiste mit jemandem unterreden. Alles Denken ist "innere Rede"--im Monolog oder im Dialog. Und wenn wir die Gedanken aufzeichnen, so ist das vor allem auch der Ausdruck eines geheimen oder offenkundigen Mitteilungsbedürfnisses. Es ist keinem Gedanken in der Einsamkeit seines Gedachtwerdens ganz wohl. Denn der Mensch lebt--idealiter oder realiter--geistig im "Verhältneis des Ich zum Du", und das Wort ist wesentlich dasjenige, wodurch dieses Verhältnis aktuell wird. Das Wort und die Liebe.

"Geistiges Leben" (1931) in Ferdinand Ebner, Fragmente, Aufsätze, Aphorismen: Zu einer Pneumatologie des Wortes Band I, München: Kösel, 1963, 939-940.