The Prayer of the Frog Called into Question

Ecumenical Review, The, April, 1999 by T.K. Thomas

Censuring the Writings of Fr Anthony de Mello, S.J.

People's Reporter, a fortnightly Christian journal published from Bangalore, carried a letter to the editor in its 1-15 November 1998 issue in which the writer expressed his distress over the ban imposed by the Vatican on the books of Fr Anthony de Mello. The letter was full of praise for the writings of the late Jesuit priest, concluding with the hope that the ban would be lifted and the books made available again, perhaps "with the insertion of a caution". That, happily, has happened. The books are now available, and carry a rather ambiguous, though amiable, note of caution:

   The books of Father Anthony de Mello were written in a multi-religious
   context to help the followers of other religions, agnostics and atheists in
   their spiritual search, and they were not intended by the author as manuals
   of instruction of the Catholic faithful in Christian doctrine or dogma.

I must confess that I feel grateful for the banning, or the temporary withdrawal, of de Mello's books. I had heard of him, but never read his writings. Excommunication, somehow, has far more news value than beatification. So also the suppression of a book attracts greater publicity than its publication. My own work has been largely confined to editing rather than reading (and there is a difference between the two); and the editing was itself confined for the most part to Protestant and so-called ecumenical writings. It was not surprising that I had not read de Mello. What was surprising is that the students and teachers of theology I know seemed to share my ignorance of the work of this Roman Catholic writer. It shows how denominationally compartmentalized our theological interests and pursuits are, and that is distressing.

The Vatican is not normally interested in the dead, unless of course they are seen to qualify for sainthood, in which case the process of canonization is initiated, and gone through, with bureaucratic thoroughness. Fr de Mello did not obviously qualify for such treatment. He was raised up, more than a decade after he died, only to be put in his place. Not to be dismissed outfight, only to be warned against.

Thanks to this belated and rather dubious recognition of de Mello by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, I started collecting and reading his writings. The collection has fared better than the reading, mainly because, although de Mello has written only a few books, these are not meant to be read through as books normally are. They are to be taken in small doses, and "read the way one would read a medical book - wondering whether one has any of the symptoms; and not a psychology book - thinking what typical specimens one's friends are."(1)

"I am not a writer" de Mello once said: "I am a story-teller ... I write stories and meditations, but not essays and treaties."(2) His books are for the most part collections of anecdotes, stories and jokes, drawn from a variety of religious and spiritual traditions - a compendium, in fact, of wisdom, humour and insights from everywhere, especially from Oriental cultures. They are invariably entertaining as stories, often hilarious, sometimes mischievous and in most cases thought-provoking. Precisely because they make interesting reading, we are likely to miss the point the writer wants to make and pass on without pausing to ponder and appropriate the message they are meant to convey or the critique they are supposed to provide.

Anthony de Mello, as the name indicates, was a Goan. He was born in Bombay in 1931. At 30, he was ordained a Jesuit priest, and in 1973 he established the Sadhana Institute of Spirituality and Counselling at Lonavla. He served as director of the Institute, conducting annual retreats, occasional seminars and regular renewal meetings. He travelled widely, and was in great demand to give leadership at spiritual retreats in many countries, especially in the USA. He died in 1987, while on a visit to New York.

The writings of de Mello

Nine of Fr de Mello's books have been published in India, six of them posthumously. The first, brought out in 1978, is entitled Sadhana: A Way to God; and a note on the cover, attributed to the Catholic Theological Society of America, calls it "perhaps the best book available in English for Christians on how to pray, meditate and contemplate".

The Sanskrit word Sadhana means spiritual training. Fr de Mello had spent several years as "a retreat master and spiritual director helping people to pray", and Sadhana is a collection of exercises to enable people "to get satisfaction and fulfilment from prayer". It is legitimate to seek such satisfaction; to secure it, one must pray "less with the head than with the heart".

The exercises are meant to increase awareness, facilitate fantasy and deepen devotion. Awareness is a key concept in de Mello's understanding and practice of Sadhana, and silence is integral to awareness. The very first exercise is to enable us to appropriate the riches of silence and it starts with a saying of Lao-tse: "Silence is the great revelation." The exercises are designed for contemplation groups, and are in line with the approach of a Hindu guru who advised one of de Mello's Jesuit friends to concentrate on his breathing: "The air you breathe is God. You are breathing God in and out. Become aware of that, and stay with that awareness."