How spiritual reading is different from ordinary reading

If you bring a book to your holy hour, it is important to keep in mind the goal of your reading and how to turn it into a meditation.

Help Aleteia continue its mission by making a tax-deductible donation. In this way, Aleteia's future will be yours as well.

Donate with just 3 clicks

*Your donation is tax deductible!

Sometimes spending a full holy hour praying can be a daunting challenge. We may want to bring a book, any book, to help pass the time.

It certainly isn’t bad to bring a book to a holy hour, but the process of spiritual reading should be different from ordinary reading.

In order to turn your reading into a meditation, you need to keep in mind your primary goal.

Not a study hour

St. Francis de Sales in his Introduction to the Devout Life explains how meditative reading needs to be different from any reading that you do for study:

Now meditation differs therein from study and ordinary methods of thought which have not the Love of God or growth in holiness for their object, but some other end, such as the acquisition of learning or power of argument.

In order for our reading to be spiritual reading and to lead us into meditation, it should have as its end the “love of God or growth in holiness” as the primary goal.

Sometimes study can lead to a love of God, but other times it is more obvious that our goal is the acquisition of knowledge and not growing in love of God.

Spiritual reading typically forces us to pause and think about ourselves, considering our own strengths and weaknesses.

It’s also important to read slowly when we wish to engage in spiritual reading, as it allows us more time and space to meditate.

St. Francis de Sales highly recommends pausing as frequently or as long as needed, especially when we encounter something that strikes our heart:

And if your mind finds sufficient matter, light and fruit wherein to rest in any one consideration, dwell upon it, even as the bee, which hovers over one flower so long as it affords honey. But if you do not find wherewith to feed your mind, after a certain reasonable effort, then go on to another consideration,—only be quiet and simple, and do not be eager or hurried.

The next time you want to use your time in prayer for reading, try and turn it into a meditative experience, pausing often to let the spiritual truths you are reading sink in.