Reading: Nourishment of thought and spiritual light

“Reading nourishes the mind and helps cultivate a conscious and well-formed critical sense, guarding against fundamentalism and ideological shortcuts…
Reading books is an antidote to closed-mindedness, which is reflected in rigid attitudes and reductive visions of reality.” “When we hold a book in our hands, we encounter its author in an ideal sense. At the same time, we also encounter those who have read it before us, those reading it now, and those who will read it in the future.” “We know well how reading the biography of a saint or a well-presented spiritual reflection can touch the heart”. “The Virgin Mary, is often depicted, in scenes of the Annunciation, intent on reading the Sacred Scriptures. Saint Anthony of Padua is portrayed holding the open Book of the Gospels, upon which the Child Jesus stands. Saint Augustine is often shown seated at a writing desk before a large book and, at times, holding a heart in his hand: truth and charity.” “In the school of Mary and the Saints, let us nourish ourselves with the Word of God, so that it may shape our way of thinking and acting.”