Reading the Bible

Reading the Bible is the most direct way to receive the teaching of Jesus. But in Christian discipleship we can be mentored not just by the Master, but also by other more experienced disciples.

As we cited earlier in this series, St. Paul encourages the Church in Corinth “to be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Over the years, we have the examples of many saints, mystics, preachers, and pastors to provide models for us to imitate.

And so in addition to reading the Bible, we also can find great encouragement and instruction through “spiritual reading.” Spiritual reading is not the same thing as Biblical study or theological research. Rather, it is finding instruction in how to live our lives either from the examples of the Saints (their biographies) or from their instructions about how to live the Christian life.

There are many examples of Saints discovering their callings through the inspirational stories of those who came before. The braggart soldier Ignatius became St. Ignatius of Loyola after reading a book on the lives of the saints and realizing that their example was more glorious than anything he found on the battlefield.

And the advice great saints have about life in Christ can be just as inspirational. St. Ignatius’s own Spiritual Exercises has inspired untold numbers of Christian disciples; much the same could be said for St. Theresa of Avila’s The Interior Castle, St. Francis de Sales’s Introduction to the Devout Life, or St. Therese of Lisieux’s The Story of a Soul.

Spiritual reading connects us with the patrimony of the Church throughout history. It invites us to see how discipleship has been lived out throughout history, in times much closer to our own than that of the New Testament era.

Above all, it lets us fill our hearts and minds with things that are edifying for our spiritual growth. As I’ll discuss next week, we need fellowship with our fellow believers to live out the Christian way of discipleship. Spiritual reading extends that fellowship with all who have come before us.

Challenge: Find the autobiography of a saint to read over the next month.