Reading

(Found here)

“Do you soon forget what you read?

So do I. And usually very quickly.

So why continue reading if all or most is soon forgotten?

I think a comparison can help to answer that question. Spiritual nourishment has much in common with physical nourishment. We enjoy a well-prepared, good meal. A glass or two of wine makes it even more enjoyable. And we try to eat healthy foods, cut down on carbs, maybe add some nutritional supplements. Then what? The body doesn’t absorb it all. But where is what is absorbed? We don’t know. (For many of us we do know where a lot of it goes: around the mid-section.)

What we do know is that it goes somewhere, it’s part of what and who we are, and without it we would languish and then die. And so we continue to eat regularly. We’re nourished. But we can’t correlate specifically what we eat with what we are as a result.

Reading is similar. We can enjoy what we read and learn many things--even when reading fiction. But then we forget. Still, what we read becomes part of us, it shapes us, forms us. We may not be able to correlate specific details of what we read (though sometimes we can) with our way of looking at the world and those around us—or with our relationship with God. But our attitudes are changed, or reinforced, often subtly, by our reading. And, as with eating, if we neglect it we wither.

I am reminded of this in a particular way as the year 2024 unfolds. We are facing major world-changing events, perhaps catastrophic ones: war in Ukraine, Israel, and the Middle East; severe economic challenges; political unrest and conflict. It’s easy to be caught up in the ‘things of this world’, important as they are.

But we don’t stop eating. And we shouldn’t stop reading. Especially reading that reminds us of the ‘permanent things’ amid the maelstrom of current events.

So prepare yourselves [and] feast [on] inspiring, nourishing reading. (And remember, unlike with eating, you can’t ‘over-read’.)”
~Joseph Fessio (Editor, Ignatius Press)