Reading opens our minds to the endless possibilities for spiritual growth, depending on where God is leading us and in what direction our energies drive us.
In the past spiritually minded people read the lives of the saints. There was a great benefit in that as well as enjoyment. In getting rid of saints, many modern christians deprived themselves of an army of inspiring whitnesses to faith and heroic spirituality.
Besides reading, prayer is essential. Our relationship with God grows from our constant awareness of His presence in our lives. At first it is difficult to think of Him. But as His presence becomes more real, our sense of His nearness blossoms into an intimate communing with Him in a beautiful kind of prayer. It may be a monologue, but in prayer God works on our attitudes:
- He alters our vision, our understanding of life. Over a period of time spent communing with God, we will notice our attitudes changing toward everything. We think differently about God. We think differently about material things but foremost we think differently about ourselves and others.
- We see God´s creation and everything in it as sacred. Given the time God will eventually transform our whole life. He does this so subtly we do not even know it.
This is what St. Paul meant when he wrote, "I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me."
- From the book "Never alone" by Joseph F. Girzone
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