For Ames, writing sermons was a spiritual discipline that was unseated by an apophaticisim of sorts. The spiritual discipline fails in the face of actual Love. That's something all preachers know too; probably all pursuers of any spiritual discipline know - at least, we hope we'll come to know, if we persist long enough in the Christian life. We hope to know that the disciplines fail in the face of Love, that in Love's company we feel the poverty of our efforts, as Ames's sermons turn to ash in his mouth when Lila is there.
Lauren Winner, Thinking about preaching with Marilynne Robinson, in Balm in Gilead p.88
