Part II, Chapter XVII

How We Ought to Hear and Read the Word of God

Listen with devotion to the word of God, whether you hear it in familiar conversation, with your spiritual friends, or in a sermon. Make all the profit of it you possibly can, and suffer it not to fall to the ground, but receive it into your heart as a precious balm; imitating the most holy Virgin, who carefully preserved in her heart all the words which were spoken in praise of her Son. Remember that our Lord gathers up the words we speak to him in our prayers, according as we gather up those he speaketh to us by preaching. Always have at hand some approved book of devotion; such as the spiritual works of St. Bonaventure, of Gerson, of Denis, the Carthusian, of Louis Blosius, of Granada, of Stella, of Arias, of Pihelle, of Dupont, of Avila, the Spiritual Combat, St. Austin’s Confessions, St. Jerome’s Epistles, etc., etc., and read a little in them with as much devotion, every day, as if you were reading a letter, which those saints had sent you from heaven to show you the way, and encourage you to come thither. Read, also, the histories and lives of the saints, in which, as in a looking-glass, you may behold the portraiture of a Christian life, and accommodate their actions to your state of life; for, although several actions of the saints cannot absolutely be imitated by such as live in the midst of the world, yet they may, in some degree, be followed. For example, we may imitate the solitude of St. Paul, the first hermit, in our spiritual and real retirements, of which we shall hereafter speak, and have already spoken; the extreme poverty of St. Francis, by the practices of poverty, and so of the rest. It is true, there are some of their histories that give more light for the conduct of our lives than others, such as the life of the blessed mother Teresa, the lives of the first Jesuits, that of St. Charles Borromeus, archbishop of Milan; of St. Lewis; of St. Bernard; the Chronicles of St. Francis; and several others.

There are others again, which contain more matter of admiration than of imitation; as the life of St. Mary of Egypt, of St. Simeon Stylites, of the two St. Catharines of Sienna and of Genoa, of St. Angela, and the like; which, nevertheless, fail not, in general, to give us a great relish for the love of God.

About ReligiousBookshelf.com · A Supernerd Media project