Odds are that the vast majority of Catholics, including Catholics who read Catholic newspapers like this one, will respond no to those questions. Some might read an article in a newspaper or magazine about the encyclical. Others might watch a news report or listen to a radio program. But even though Pope Francis has written it for them, few will actually read it.<\/p>\n
The reason is because most Catholics sadly don\u2019t read books\u00a0that will help them grow in faith. An extensive survey of American Catholics done by folks at Dynamic Catholic a few years back revealed that only one percent read a good Catholic book each year. Only one out of 100 reads at least one a year<\/em>. And chances are that that Catholic book isn\u2019t a papal encyclical.<\/p>\n Yet it\u2019s pretty difficult to deepen one\u2019s faith and grow in the capacity to spread it confidently and competently to others unless one is studying the faith. It\u2019s pretty plain, therefore, that one of the most important sources of renewal of one\u2019s life of faith, and of the revitalization of our parishes and the Church as a whole, will come through reading.<\/p>\n As we continue this series on a Catholic Plan of Life, the various\u00a0spiritual practices that help us to grow in faith, holiness, and apostolic effectiveness, the publication of Laudato Si\u2019 <\/em>is a good time for us to focus on the importance of spiritual reading.<\/p>\n Spiritual reading refers to the practice of prayerfully studying or perusing good spiritual literature: the lives of the saints and other important religious figures, books on prayer and the spiritual life, commentaries on Sacred Scripture or the writings of the saints and great spiritual authors, papal encyclicals and exhortations, bishops\u2019 pastoral letters, and works of this genre. The Bible, of course, counts for spiritual reading, but because reading the Bible ought to be a given for Catholics, normally spiritual reading refers to other words besides the Bible. Spiritual reading is\u00a0done not so much as an exercise of information but of formation, not primarily\u00a0to learn but to live. It\u00a0is a particular type of reading done\u00a0specifically to help oneself grow as a Christian.<\/p>\n When we think about spiritual reading, we can ponder the life-altering impact it had in the lives of some of the greatest saints. St. Augustine converted when he heard an angel saying, \u201cTake and read,\u201d and he picked up the Letter to the Romans and read a passage that spoke to him personally of what God was asking. St. Ignatius of Loyola, having read numerous lives of the saints, was moved to ask why he couldn\u2019t do what Saints Francis and Dominic had done. While still an atheist, St. Edith Stein pulled an all-nighter reading the biography of St. Teresa of Avila and in the morning, approached by friends, said, \u201cThis is the truth.\u201d She was baptized soon afterward.<\/p>\n My own spiritual life began to take wings when I began to do spiritual reading as a freshman in college. My parents bought me for Christmas Butler\u2019s four-volume Lives of the Saints <\/em>and for the next decade I spent ten to fifteen minutes each night reading about the saints whose feast day would be celebrated on the morrow. I began prayerfully to read the documents of the Second Vatican Council and of St. John Paul II. I read the spiritual classics written by or about the great saints: I can still remember how much I was changed reading St. Therese Lisieux\u2019s Story of a Soul<\/em>, the biographies of Saints Francis Xavier, John Vianney, and Alphonsus Ligouri, the works on prayer by Saints Catherine of Siena, John of the Cross, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, and Josemaria Escriva, and various others.<\/p>\n Spiritual reading is a habit that, I\u2019m grateful, I\u2019ve never lost. Out of all the aspects of the Plan of Life, I\u2019ve always found spiritual reading the sweetest after the Mass. To some degree, we become what we read, and so our appetite for spiritual reading is more important to our soul than eating in a healthy way is to our body.<\/p>\n One of the great prophets of the importance of spiritual reading today is Matthew Kelly. In his study of the habits that make for dynamic Catholics, one of the most important he discovered\u00a0is spiritual reading. Highly engaged Catholics read about 14 minutes a day on average of a good Catholic book, whereas most Catholics don\u2019t read at all.<\/p>\n One of the challenges Matthew makes to Catholics is to read five pages of a good Catholic book each day. If that were done, he says, in a given year one would read nine average-size (200 page) Catholic books annually\u00a0and 241 in a 25-year period. Imagine how much richer and different one\u2019s Catholic life and apostolate would be if over the next 25 years, one read nearly 250\u00a0Catholic titles. And that can be done by reading simply five pages a day, one page at a time.<\/p>\n To do this, for most American Catholics, it\u00a0will begin by turning off the television, if even for a half hour or hour, and starting prayerfully to read books that can help us grow in faith.<\/p>\n St. Paul\u2019s spiritual counsel\u00a0to the young St. Timothy is still valid:\u00a0\u201cAttend to reading!\u201d (1 Tim 4:13).<\/p>\n
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