Spiritual reading

READING is, of course, a necessity to us. What eating and drinking do to the body, that’s what reading does to the mind. It keeps the mind alive, in good health and in condition to work and carry out its proper mission.

We need to give due attention to this need. There are signs we are taking it for granted, and thus we may not realize that we are not doing it well.

Just like there are improper eating and drinking, there is also improper reading. If we are not careful with what we eat and drink, we can get instant indigestion and diarrhea, or we fail to get proper nourishment, or, in long term, we can develop serious illnesses like elevated cholesterol, sugar, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, etc.

In an analogical way, these anomalies can happen to us also if we are not careful with our reading. We have to go beyond random and impulse reading, so rampant these days.

Many people just get contented with reading newspapers and magazines, or even leaflets and other propaganda and advertising materials. This is like eating junk food only. Nothing wrong there, as long as we don’t get stuck there.

The problem is precisely that many do not go beyond what is immediately available and easy to read. We even have to go beyond reading only materials that somehow are forced or assigned on us mainly because of work or hobby, etc.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with this kind of reading. But we should not stop there. A lot more has to be done. We have to make our reading correspond to our needs as persons and also as children of God.

There has to be a more scientific way of determining the proper diet for our reading. This obviously means we have to go through the process of finding out the objective needs of our mind and heart. And since, these are the main faculties of our soul, then we have to know the objective needs of our soul.

Only then should we try to find what reading materials are appropriate for us, what priority to give them, translating this priority in terms of time to be spent, and the other relevant means and resources needed.

This is where we have to realize deeply the importance of spiritual reading. This is the kind of reading that directly feeds and cares for our soul. All other readings, one or another, will have an effect on our soul, but the spiritual reading is the soul’s staple food.

Spiritual reading keeps our mind, heart and soul in proper condition. It keeps in them the natural desire for the greater and ultimate truth, which is God himself. Our problem is that without spiritual reading, our appetite for truth gets stuck in the merely sensible or even intelligible levels, but not beyond them.

If we notice that we find it hard to connect to God what we are doing at the moment or what we are engaged in now, it is simply because the soul is not properly developed. Worse, it can be held captive by the law of the flesh.

Spiritual reading develops the proper desire for God in our soul. It helps us to get the appropriate means and skills to discern the things of God. It at least familiarizes us with the things of God, with spiritual and supernatural realities that are also a big, if not the main part of our lives.

In short, without spiritual reading, we will just be hovering in the human and natural level. We would not be spiritually literate and supernaturally friendly and open.

We have to learn to read the Gospel, study the doctrine of our faith and morals, savor the intimate testimonies of saints and other holy men and women, keep abreast with papal encyclicals and other Church documents. These should be the basic dietary items for our soul.

St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, once said: “Don’t forget your spiritual reading. Reading has made many saints.”

He also said: “In my spiritual reading I build up a store of fuel. It looks like a lifeless heap, but I often find that my memory, of its own accord, will draw from it material that fills my prayer with life and inflames my thanksgiving after Communion.”

This is also what I experience personally. And I, of course, would strongly recommend it to everyone.