The Bible: The Most Useful Book for Devotion

A Reflection Based on Alberiones Spiritual Treatise

Sem. John Paul D. Olea, SSP

For devotion the bible is the most useful for it is divine: it is useful for spiritual reading,
meditation and prayer. It so not only because it contains many prayers, like the Psalms, but also
because it helps us to unite ourselves totally to God with our mind, heart and will.
With the mind: it presents the truth of faith, and thus help us to think according to God.
With the heart: with the feeling of love for God and for human beings according to the heart of
Jesus.
With the will: fixing our life in the will of God, to the point of reaching the highest state of
perfection (UPS III, 11-12)

The Bible
I only started to appreciate the Bible when I noticed, some years ago, the beauty of its
literary artistry through music. A lot of poetic lines and stories in the Bible were set into
classical and contemporary music. Some were taken from the Psalms, the Canticles of
Solomon, and from sacred stories in the New and Old Testament. When I was studying
Eric Whitacres choral work When David Heard I discovered a heartbreaking line in the
Old Testament that is sadly moving. It is written in the second book of Samuel:
When David heard that Absalom was slain
He went up into his chamber over the gates and wept.
He said, My son, my son, my son Absalom!
If only I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son!

The Canticles of Solomon is also lavished with themes about love that by mere reading
you will find yourself being weaved in its own silent music. It is written:

In my bed at night
I sought him whom my soul loveth:
I sought him, and found him not.

Even the letters of Saint Paul were fashioned in manner that is gloriously and
majestically pleasing to the ears. He wrote:
Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her
That he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle

In every book within this collection of books is a garden of literary forms and musical
dialogue that has the capability of sculpting the soul into a beautiful masterpiece. I do
believe that words are powerful and more potent when set into music because the
message intended to be understood by its author is fastened deeply into the soul of the
person who hears it. The Bible is said to be the Word of God, therefore, devotion to it is
an efficacious way to move our heart, mind, and will to eternal things what more if we
use it with joyful strains from our lips as suggested by St. Paul addressing one another
through psalms and hymns. If this spiritual and musical synergy works well, as Plato
proposed and saints of old affirmed, this can be of great help to our mind, heart and will
the threefold reflective mirror of our spirituality.

With the mind: it presents the truth of faith, and thus help us to think according to
God.

Based on my experience, kids learns faster when you teach them through songs. Their
minds seems to be much focused than the conventional lesson method. In my basic
catechism class at Bukid Kabataan, an orphanage in Cavite, I presented to them the
Seven Sacraments. Each sacrament presented every Friday is integrated with an
opening song or a hymn which reflects the biblical and doctrinal message of the sign.
At this stage, these young people havent yet reached the profound understanding of
this sublime mystery. They can only perceive the tangible surface but not the whole of it.
The Church, a great psychologist herself, used the means of art in communicating to
her children the beautiful truths of our faith. By means of scriptural music, repetition of
text, melody and rhythm, the message goes deep into their subconscious thus allowing
them to be programmed according to the intention of the teacher. Thus, memory is
captured and sealed. The lesson will resurface repeatedly whenever a particular melody
and rhythm is again channeled to them. The mind is immersed in things holy and lifted
up to thoughts divine.

With the heart: with the feeling of love for God and for human beings according to
the heart of Jesus.

The beauty of scriptural music can also be found on the account of St. Augustines
Confessiones,
The music surged in my ears, truth seeped into my heart, and feelings of devotion overflowed

Augustine wrote that music became instrumental in his conversion: the mysterious voice
of a young child singing the refrain, Take it and read, take it and read, which prompts
Augustine to pick up a copy of the Scripture and come to a final decision about
Christianity (Conf. 8.12); and his profound response to the hymns sung in St. Ambroses
church (Conf. 9.6). He alludes this to Platos words [music] find their way into the
inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace (Republic
III)

Within the womb the first lullaby of an unborn child is the heartbeat of the mother: the
first music about love. Thats why humans have an affinity to the rhythm of music. His
heart is either moved to love and contemplation or toward the opposite of it. If we want
to feel God and become one heart with Jesus Master we recourse back to scriptures
which the Church has woven to music. The heartbeat of God, lover of men, is found in
the scripture. If we want to dance according to His divine will, listen well to the song of
the Holy Child, Take it and read.

With the will: fixing our life in the will of God, to the point of reaching the highest
state of perfection.

Under various circumstances our will tends to go along with the wave of this world. We
find it difficult to practice virtue and to exercise our catholic faith. We become so lax that
sinning becomes, almost, a natural habit. This is not the way our life is intended to end
here on earth lost and dragged away. We are created for a glorious purpose. A
purpose that is in harmony with his divine will. All of us are beloved sons and daughters

of the Most High planned to be co-heirs in Christ. Thats why the Bible is there to be our
earthly guide. It is a pilots manual, a sailors compass, a soldiers helmet, and a
travelers map. An architect cannot proceed without his blueprint design and so is the
soul without a map and a compass to guide him back from exile to his Creator.
If we are not careful enough in choosing what kind of guide we are to follow we will end
up unhappy somewhere. Same is true with the music that we listen to day and night:
does it convey Gospel truths? Or it is intended to celebrate worldly pleasures?
Our will is having difficulty in reaching the highest state of perfection because we are so
immersed in an ungodly communication. We are sabotage unconsciously through viceladen and demonic music, carrying along with them the message of hatred, anger, and
lust. Little children knows how to sing Lady Gagas Bad Romance and Miley Cyrus
Wrecking Ball while the simple Our Father remains a stranger to them. Television and
radio stations taught them, at this early stage, how to make love without their parents
consent. How are you going to expect them to discipline their will then?
The Church, a mother herself, knows how to educate her children very well that she
allowed the art of singing to be part of her glorious liturgy; edifying the soul by
constantly repeating the Word of the Lord throughout the cycle of her liturgical year. She
is capable of taming mans impure passion by wrapping him in heavenly sounds that
carries sacred words from Holy Scriptures. And by doing so, the will is strengthen, virtue
flourishes and a foretaste of paradise is given thus, the hope of achieving the state
perfection is established.

I learned that we must use wisely the treasury of Holy Scriptures handed down to us.
Not for academic or lip-service purposes but for a holy outpouring of music, of melody
and rhythm coming from the heart. If we want to enrich our mind, heart and will and to
conform it to Jesus Master, Way, Truth and Life then there is no other greater devotion
than using the Bible itself.

March, 2016