Attention

Attention emerges throughout the book as one of the primary means by which an individual person can establish and maintain contact with God. As such, the collection of letters and essays is, in many ways, a sustained meditation on the idea of attention and its effects. Attention is first referenced in Weil’s letters to Father Perrin and is more fully explained in “Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God.” The remaining essays each deploy the concept of attention, some more frequently than others, as a means of demonstrating its power in facilitating connection with God.

Rather than providing a single, overarching definition of attention, Weil explores its use in varying situations or contexts as a means of highlighting its different dimensions. In each case, attention is taken to be synonymous with attending and waiting. To wait upon something...