Part 2 Chapter 1
"Spiritual Reading-Its Advantages"
I don't think that I ever considered the particular value of spiritual reading, as Monsignor uses the term in this chapter. The writings of saints, or biographies of saints, can be such gentle and forgiving teachers. There have been many times when I realized that a particular work was beyond me, spiritually speaking, and I was able to simply return the book to the shelf without the guilt or shame that could have come from face-to-face direction. Even better, the book and its lessons will remain on my shelf until a time when I am better disposed to accept its wisdom.
It is an overwhelming gift to have many spiritual writings from our Church's two thousand year history. Through regular reading from the saints, in particular, someone living in an isolated or heavily non-Catholic area (or a mom greatly outnumbered by little ones all day) may have the benefit of a multitude of saintly 'friends' with whom to converse and from whom to learn.
Monsignor suggested 15 minutes each day to begin. I think that is a very reasonable goal. Let's do it!
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Additional notes:
I'd like to recommend "Searching for and Maintaining Peace" as a good book for people who are pursuing holiness and are at any place along the journey. Does anyone else have any recommendations? (It's helpful if you would indicate if the selection is for someone just starting out, so as to decrease the chance of discouragement.)
It's funny that you should mention putting a book back on the shelf because it was beyond you. We've owed The Imitation of Christ for many years now. When it was still new in our house I tried reading it but felt I was no where close to even aspiring to what it calls the reader to do. After reading this chapter, I thought I would try again. The couple of chapters I read didn't seem that daunting at all. Still very much a challenge but something I could work toward.
ReplyDeleteI guess I will start with my daughters books about the saints for homeschool classes. We use Kolbe Academy's curriculum. They have an elementary reading program that includes books about various saints.
ReplyDeleteDoes G.K. Chesterton count as spiritual reading?
It's wonderful to hear this resolve! I can only imagine the fruit that come from godly women making real strides in holiness.
ReplyDeletePractically speaking, I found a pretty good list of books categorized by type (spiritual/ historical / fiction / biography etc.) and by age. The priest who compiled it is in Nebraska, and I would trust his judgment.
http://www.frcoulter.com/books/booklist.html (Sorry that I can't figure out how to link in a comment.)
From this part I was really interested in this sentence: " ...the success of our struggle against nature is always the measure of our progress towards perfection."
ReplyDeleteI am glad to find practical tools to measure the progress, and it really works in my experience, that sometimes I am weak against nature and sometimes I am stronger, and it is a direct co-relation to the state of my daily environment (reading practices/people that I surround with/state of my soul...).