Caput V. De lectionis studio
The Mirror of Holy Reading
Scripture reveals divine blessedness, mirrors the soul's true state, and purifies the reader by awakening fear of hell and desire for heaven.
Reading the holy Scriptures is knowledge of divine blessedness. In these, as in a kind of mirror, a person can consider what sort of person they are, or where they're heading. Steady reading purifies the soul, strikes the fear of hell into the reader, and stirs the heart toward heavenly joys.
Prayer and Reading: Speaking with God
To remain with God one should pray often and read often, for in prayer we speak to God, and in reading God speaks to us.
Whoever wants to be with God always should pray often and read often. For when we pray, we speak with God ourselves; but when we read, God speaks with us.
The Twofold Gift of Scripture
Holy reading instructs the mind and draws the heart from worldly vanity to the love of God, nourishing the inner person as flesh is fed by bodily food.
Reading the holy Scriptures bestows a twofold gift: it either instructs the mind's understanding, or it draws a person withdrawn from the vanities of the world to the love of God.1 The work of studying reading is an honorable labor, and it greatly profits the cleansing of the soul. For just as flesh is nourished from bodily food, so the inner person is nourished and fed from divine utterances, as the Psalmist says: How sweet are your words to my palate, O Lord!2
Turning God's Word into Blessed Action
The one who reads Scripture and acts on it is most blessed, for all of Holy Scripture was written for our salvation and growth in truth.
Above honey and the honeycomb to my mouth (Ps. CXVIII, 103). But the one who reads Holy Scripture and turns those words into action is most blessed. All of Holy Scripture was written for our salvation, so that by coming to know the truth we might grow in it.
The Need for a Teacher in God's Law
Just as a blind person stumbles without sight and a guide, so one ignorant of God's law sins more often and can barely walk rightly without a teacher.
A blind person stumbles more often than one who can see; in the same way, someone who doesn't know God's law sins more often through ignorance than the one who does know it. Just as a blind person without a guide can barely walk the right path, so a person without a teacher can barely walk the right way.
Read the original Latin
Sanctarum lectio Scripturarum divinae est cognitio beatitudinis. In his enim quasi in quodam speculo homo seipsum considerare potest, qualis sit, vel quo tendat. Lectio assidua purificat animam, timorem incutit gehennae, ad gaudia superna cor instigat legentis. Qui vult cum Deo semper esse, frequenter debet orare frequenter et legere. Nam cum oramus, ipsi cum Deo loquimur: cum vero legimus, Deus nobiscum loquitur. Geminum confert donum lectio sanctarum Scripturarum, sive quia intellectum mentis erudit, seu quod a mundi vanitatibus abstractum hominem ad amorem Dei perducit. Labor honestus est lectionis studium, et multum ad emundationem animae proficit. Sicut enim ex carnalibus escis alitur caro, ita ex divinis eloquiis interior homo nutritur et pascitur, sicut Psalmista ait: Quam dulcia faucicibus meis eloquia tua, Domine!
super mel et favum ori meo (Psal. CXVIII, 103). Sed ille beatissimus est, qui divinas Scripturas legens, verba vertit in opera. Omnis plane Scriptura sancta ad nostram scripta est salutem, ut proficiamus in eis in veritatis cognitione. Saepius caecus offendit quam videns: sic ignorans legem Dei saepius ignoranter peccat, quam ille qui scit. Sicut caecus sine ductore, sic homo sine doctore viam rectam vix graditur.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin sive...seu presents two coordinated reasons for the 'twin gift'; rendered as 'either...or' to preserve the explanatory alternatives without forcing a strict disjunction.
- 2 ↩The quotation 'Quam dulcia faucibus meis eloquia tua, Domine' echoes Psalm 118:103 (Vulgate) / Psalm 119:103 (Hebrew numbering). The diminutive faucicibus is rendered as 'palate' to preserve the physical-sensory register.
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