Primera parte. Capítulo V. De la lección
The Art of Devout Reading
Reading should be a slow, meditative practice that invites the heart to pause and converse with God.
After the preparation comes the reading; it must not be hurried or rushed through, but very calm and attentive, applying to it not only the understanding so as to grasp what is read, but much more the will so as to savor what is understood. And when we come upon some devout passage, it will be good to linger a little longer on it and make a kind of station there, thinking over what has been read and offering some brief prayer about it, as Saint Bernard advises when he says: «It is often necessary to gather a little spirit and devotion from the Scripture that is being read, and to cut the thread of the reading with some prayer»; by which the heart may rise to God and speak with him according to what the feeling and the subject of the passage that was read call for.1
Prioritizing Prayer Over Reading
While reading is helpful, prayer is the superior exercise, and we must be careful not to use reading as a distraction from the labor of prayer.
It's worth noting here that our reading shouldn't be too long, so it doesn't take up most of our time and steal away from other, more important exercises. For, as Saint Augustine says, "It is good to pray and to read, if we can do both; but if we cannot, prayer is better than reading." But because prayer sometimes involves hard work and reading comes easily, our miserable heart often refuses the labor of prayer and takes shelter in the comfort of reading—as Saint Bernard himself, complaining of himself, says he sometimes used to do.2
Wrestling for Grace
Though reading can help a distracted mind, the ultimate goal is to persevere in the struggle of prayer until God grants his blessing.
It's true that just as, when wheat bread is lacking, people usually eat rye or barley so they won't go completely hungry, so when the heart is so distracted that it can't enter into prayer, one may linger a little longer over the reading, or join meditation and reading into one—reading a passage and meditating on it, then another and another in the same way—because when the mind is thus bound to the words of the reading, it has less room to scatter into various imaginings and thoughts than when it's free and loose. Still, it would be better to wrestle with God that whole time, as the patriarch Jacob did, because in the end, once the struggle was over, he would give us his blessing: either by giving us the devotion we seek, or some other greater grace—which is never refused to those who faithfully work and fight for his love.✦
Read the original Latin
Después de la preparación se sigue la lección; la cual no ha de ser apresurada ni corrida, sino muy sosegada y atenta, aplicando a ella no sólo el entendimiento para entender lo que se lee, sino mucho más la voluntad para gustar lo que se entiende. Y, cuando halláremos algún paso devoto, será bien detenernos un poco más en él, y hacer allí una como estación, pensando en lo que se ha leído y haciendo alguna breve oración sobre ello, según que lo aconseja san Bernardo, diciendo: «Menester es muchas veces recoger algún poco de espíritu y devoción de la Escritura que se lee, y cortar el hilo de la lección con alguna oración»; con la cual se levante el corazón a Dios, y hable con él conforme a lo que pide el sentimiento y la materia del paso que se leyó.
Aquí conviene avisar que la lección no sea muy larga, porque no nos ocupe la mayor parte del tiempo y así se hurte a los otros ejercicios más principales. Porque, como dice san Agustín, «bueno es orar y leer, si podemos hacer ambas cosas; mas, si no las podemos hacer, mejor es la oración que la lección». Mas, porque en la oración algunas veces hay trabajo, y en la lección facilidad, de aquí nace que este nuestro miserable corazón muchas veces rehúsa el trabajo de la oración y se acoge al regalo de la lección; como el mismo san Bernardo, quejándose de sí mismo, dice que algunas veces lo hacía.
Verdad es que así como a falta de pan de trigo suelen comer los hombres el de centeno, o de cebada, por no quedar del todo ayunos, así, cuando el corazón está tan distraído que no puede entrar en la oración, puede detenerse algo más en la lección, o juntar en uno la meditación con la lección, leyendo un paso y meditando sobre él, y luego otro y otro, de la misma manera; porque, yendo así atado el entendimiento a las palabras de la lección, no tiene tanto lugar para derramarse en diversas imaginaciones y pensamientos, como cuando está libre y suelto. Aunque mejor sería luchar todo aquel tiempo con Dios, como el patriarca Jacob, porque, en fin, acabada la lucha, nos daría su bendición: o dándonos la devoción que procuramos, o alguna otra mayor gracia; la cual nunca se niega a los que fielmente trabajan y pelean por su amor.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.32.24-Gen.32.29 — And he took them and sent them across the stream, and he sent across what was his. Gen.32.25 — And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of dawn. Gen.32.26 — And he saw that he could not prevail against him, and he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was dislocated as he wrestled with him. Gen.32.27 — He said, 'Let me go, for the dawn has risen.' But he said, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.' Gen.32.28 — And he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." Gen.32.29 — And he said, 'No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.'
Notes
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