The Necessity of Prayer and Study II: Today’s Problem
A recent survey shows that individuals of the
general public ages 15 to 54 read on average for 10 minutes or less per day
while spending 2.8 hours a day watching TV. The pew Research center says that
only 25% of Catholics read Scripture daily. I can’t believe that other
spiritual reading among Catholics is any higher. As Catholics, there is no question that we are
seriously lacking when it comes to reading and learning about our faith. One
indicator is how Protestant bookstores vastly outnumber Catholic bookstores. The
fact that a Lifeway superstore is found in many large cities and there are no
Catholic competitors should tell us we are far behind. I believe this lack of
reading indicates a severe problem in the desire of Catholics to understand
their faith beyond a superficial level.
How often do we read the headlines or a summary
of a work rather than indulging in careful study of the subject at hand? “…we
moderns are inundated with facts to the detriment of understanding.”[1] Catholics
in our day and age are the most poorly Catechized generation since the black
plague hit Europe! I assure you this is no exaggeration. This lack of
catechesis is in large part due to the mass defection in the Church to the ways
of the world. Bishop Athanasius Schneider in talking about the core problem in
the Church said, “Yes- a tremendous state of confusion over doctrine, morals
and liturgy. The Church in our days is infected with the virus of an egoistic naturalism
and an adaptation to the spirit of the unbelieving world.”[2] Proper
Catechesis and prayerful study then are important in our spiritual life. Reading
for Catholics is not something done in order to just gain knowledge, but it is
a method of understanding, prayer, meditation, and a means to obtain something
much grander in scope, union with God.
YouTube is one of the fastest-growing internet
media outlets in the world. I find a lot of material on it related to the
Catholic faith. Some of it is good, most of it is not so good. Can the good online
videos we watch related to the Catholic faith be a good substitute for reading?
It is certainly true that the video medium is more easily digested compared to
the effort that it takes to read a book. This, however, is one of the core
problems. Watching a video or listening to an audio podcast although
informative, does not allow for prayerful recollection and meditation. The aim
of prayerful study is not only to learn about God. It is important that as we read we receive two benefits: first that we understand the text, second, that
we begin to speak with God, or more importantly, we begin to listen to Him! The
art of prayerful study demands our undivided attention and focus, but it also
leaves room for the text to breath and speak to us. It allows moments of pause
to digest the material, whether it be Biblical, theological, philosophical, historical
or spiritual. As we gain understanding from the text, we can listen for what God
desires from us to take away from this new knowledge and put it into action. It
is my hope to inspire Catholics to spend at least 15 to 30 minutes a day in
addition to their normal prayer routine to engage in prayerful study. This can
be done at home, at lunch, even at a quiet coffee shop or the local public
park. Any place where you can focus without distraction is desirable. The most
important thing is making a commitment to do it.
Proper Reading Material
The great Henry Cardinal Manning (1808-1892)
once wrote, “Evil men,
evil lives, evil examples, spread a moral pestilence openly and powerfully; but
nothing spreads falsehood and evil more surely and deeply than a bad book. A
bad book is falsehood and sin in a permanent and impersonal form; all the more
dangerous because disguised, and tenacious in its action upon the soul.”[3]
If we are going to make the effort to read
every day, we should make sure that we are reading beneficial material. I
recommend going back to sources before the 1960s and starting off with
spiritual classics or classic catechetical texts. I am not saying there are no
profitable books being written today otherwise I would negate the validity of
the writings on my blog! I do however believe that it takes much effort to weed out bad
material in today's “Catholic” publications. The reliability varies greatly,
and I find that even some authors considered to be “orthodox” are very shallow
in their theological understanding of the faith. I usually have great success in
deepening my understanding of the faith when I pick up old Catholic books.
Many reprints are now available online. For example, Archive.org is a great
place to find old Catholic works that are out of print and they are free of
charge. The texts are in multiple formats and can be read online, downloaded or
even printed. We live in a digital age and there is no reason we should not make
good use of technology.
There
are many methods of organizing your reading material. I usually have more than
one book going at the same time but usually in different categories. I will
have a book on spirituality, one on theology, and one on Church history going
at once. I find that having books in my rotation classified into categories
allows me to keep my attention focused and compartmentalized into certain
areas. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I read them all every day. I try and
let God inspire through my prayer life on what I should read. Setting aside
Sacred Scripture which should be a part of your daily prayer routine, I split
my reading into a variety of subjects: 1. The Spiritual Life, 2. Theology, 3. Church
History, 4. Biography/Saints, 5. Liturgy, 6. Philosophy. I know many people
cannot stay focused this way, so this may not be the best reading form for you.
Since the focus of this article is on prayerful study, I would argue that if
you are not able to focus on more than one book or do not have time to read
more than one book at a time, then rotate through the set of categories as you
feel spiritually inclined.
I first recommend classic books like Saint
Catherine of Siena’s ‘the Dialog’ or the writings of Saint Teresa of Avila and other
similar spiritual books. These spiritual classics are of great importance. Of
course, no one should be without some basic catechetical texts such as the
Catechism of Trent, and the newly republished ‘Apologetics and Catholic
Doctrine’ by Archbishop Michael Sheehan. Books on Our Blessed Mother such as
‘The Glories of Mary’ is also important in one’s study since she is
instrumental in helping us live our faith. Finally, classic books on the Saints
are always inspiring.
In addition, I always encourage my fellow Catholics
to read the papal encyclicals and other Church documents written before the Second
Vatican Council. In my opinion Catholics over the past half-century have to
their own peril acted as if the Church began in 1962. Some now act is if the
Church began with Pope Francis, but I digress. Many Catholics continually quote
only from the post-Vatican II documents, and the result is that they create a
church in their own image and likeness. Catholics rarely read the great encyclicals
of Pope Pius IX, Pius X, Pius XI, Leo XIII and others that contain great wealth
for today’s Church. These Church documents are extremely important if one is
going to make any profitable use of the Vatican II documents. Nowhere do the
Vatican II Documents tell us that they were meant to be read in isolation from
the rest of the Church’s vast body of documents. They were not written to stand
on their own.
There is no such thing as a Vatican II Catholic! How unfortunate
it is when I meet those proclaiming to be such. We are all called to be
Catholic in its full sense, not cut off from our rich heritage as if we are
living on an island where the only texts we have are from the Council. This is
a dangerous game Catholics are playing today. It is only through reclaiming our
connection with the trunk of the Church that we can understand how to live our
faith in the most profitable manner. Please do not neglect to study these older
documents. They can be found for free at the Vatican website or others such as PapalEncyclicals.net.[4] The
point here is to get into a routine reading and studying reliable orthodox
material on the Catholic faith. On this website, I have compiled a list of recommended reading material that I have found to be reliable and spiritually
profitable.
A Method of Study
I think it is important to briefly establish
a method of prayerful study. After finding a suitable place of study, it is
important to start with a prayer. The prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas is good to begin
your study,
Creator of all things, true source of light and wisdom, origin of all
being, graciously let a ray of your light penetrate the darkness of my
understanding. Take from me the double darkness in which I have been born, an
obscurity of sin and ignorance. Give me a keen understanding, a retentive
memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally. Grant me
the talent of being exact in my explanations and the ability to express myself
with thoroughness and charm. Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and
help in the completion. I ask this through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.
After praying I take a mechanical pencil, and
as I read, and I underline passages that speak to me. Many people feel guilty
about underlining their books. I don’t feel bad about it unless it is a very
old antique book. In general, when I study the book becomes a part of my
personal prayer and by underlining inspirational texts or making notes, I make
it my own. I put other markings like stars next to things that I may want to
quote or use sometime later, or I may write a brief comment in the margin. If
it bothers you too much to underline an old rare expensive book, then make a
study journal for it and write the quotes in it. They also make sticky tabs to
mark your pages. Many times, you can find the older books online at Archive.org
and you can cut and paste selections into a Word document for later reference.
In
going over the text in this manner, it allows me to digest them. In an initial
reading, I am reading the book twice through, underlining and marking as I go. It
allows me to pause at times in reflection where God can speak to me and reveal
something to me that I have had questions about. I cannot begin to account for
the many times I have had a theological question only to have it answered weeks
or even months later in a book or document that I was inspired to read.
Sometimes certain books are meant to be read at certain times in our lives so
that we may learn and profit from them in God’s time. If you pick up a book and
you find yourself not drawn to it, put it down and find another. Eventually,
God will bring you back to it. This happened to me when I first went to read
St. Catherine’s ‘Dialog.’ I got about three chapters in and I was lost. I
didn’t pick it up again for about 6 years. I have since read it twice and it
has been an immeasurable help to me.
Nothing is more important than the
disposition that you approach your studies. Prayerful study demands humility,
and from humility, you will have understanding. Only then with this true
understanding can you truly possess charity and hear the guidance of the Holy
Spirit. Many read books for the pure pleasure of learning but only apply it
superficially in discussions with others to boast about their extensive
knowledge of things. True knowledge allows one to act with the virtues of the
Holy Spirit. Study should bring the reader to a more loving relationship with
God. This requires the proper disposition; in much the same manner you should have before receiving Holy Communion. We remove all the obstacles that we can in
order to open ourselves up to God’s light and grace. As I said earlier, Sacred
Scripture is our priority when it comes to prayerful study because it is God’s
written Word. With the right disposition nurtured by daily prayer and the
reception of the Sacraments, we study and meditate on Scripture or other
profitable books. We then wait for the Holy Spirit to speak to us, if not
during our study then maybe days, weeks, months or even years later. The seed
must be planted in order for anything to grow!
Repetition and Purification
I want to close this article by offering you
some thought on the positive effects of developing a consistent rule of
prayerful study. In our time we have many things competing for our attention.
The world is first in line with feeding our intellects. We get up, we get the
kids up, we fix breakfast, we go to work, we spend the day trying to do our
jobs, please our supervisors, then we get home and have other things to do. In
the meantime, throughout the day we digest worldly things in our conversations
with our coworkers or acquaintances, and we look at social media on our phones.
If we watch TV, we see worldly television ads which put bad images in our
heads. Suffice it to say, most people are bombarded with secularism daily. In
order to compensate for this, the action of prayerful study can bring the mind
to a calm state where it can meditate on the things of God. The repetitious reading
of Sacred Scripture and spiritual works supported by daily prayer allow us to
remain oriented towards God. It keeps our intellect and will focused on the one
true end to which we are striving for, heaven. We cannot afford to be apathetic
concerning our spiritual lives. Saint Catherine tells us, “Never be lazy, but
use your time for prayer, for holy reading, and for manual work, keeping your
memory always filled with God...”[5] Prayerful
reading is the one remedy for a mind under assault from the world and the devil.
It is my hope that if you are not an avid reader you inspire to become one!
Finally, it is important that you close your
study with a prayer such as,
Incomprehensible Creator, the true Fountain of light, and only Author of
all knowledge, vouchsafe, we beseech thee, to enlighten our understandings, and
to remove from us all darkness of sin and ignorance. Thou, who makest eloquent
the tongues of those that want utterance, direct our tongues, and pour on our
lips the grace of thy blessing. Give us a diligent and obedient spirit,
quickness of apprehension, capacity of retaining, and the powerful assistance
of thy holy grace; that what we hear or learn, we may apply to thy honour and
the eternal salvation of our own souls, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.[6]
[1]
Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book (Simon and
Schuster 1972) P4
[2] Bishop
Athanasius Schneider, Christus Vincit
(Angelico Press 2019) P153
[3]
Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, Towards Evening, (Kegan Paul, Trench
& Co.1889)
[5] Suzanne
Noffke, O.P., Catherine of Siena an Anthology, Letter T154 (ACMRS 2012)
[6]
Taken from the Dominican Manual (Browne and Nolan, LTD 1913)
Matthew J. Bellisario
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