OF READING.

        After Preparation followeth Reading: the which ought to be done, not lightly, as passed over in haste, but with very great deliberation, and attention: applying thereunto not only thy understanding, to conceive such things as thou readest, but much more thy will, to taste those things that thou understandest. And when thou comest to any devout place, thou shalt do well to stay and pause somewhat longer thereupon, and to make there as it were a station, in thinking upon that matter which thou hast read, and in making some short prayer upon it, according as St. Bernard counseleth us, saying: It is requisite often times to gather and procure a little spirit and devotion out of the matters that we read, and to break of the course of our reading with some kind of prayer, by means whereof we may lift up our heart unto almighty God, and talk with him, according as the sense and matter of such things as we read do require.

            Here must I advertise, that the reading be not very long, least it occupy the greatest part of the time, that ought otherwise to be bestowed upon other more principal and necessary exercises. For as St. Augustine saith: It is very good both to read, and to pray, if we can do both the one, and the other: but in case we cannot perform them both, then prayer is better then reading. But because in prayer there is some times labor, and in reading a facility, therefore our miserable heart doth often times refuse the labor of prayer, and runneth to the delight of reading, as the same holy father complaining of himself saith that some times he hath so done.

            True it is I grant, that like as when there wanteth wheaten bread, men do eat bread of rye, or of oats, because they would not be altogether fasting: even so when thy heart is in such wise distracted, that it can not enter into prayer, then mayest thou stay somewhat the longer in reading, or join meditation and reading together, by reading one place, and meditating upon it, and then an other, and an other, after the like sort. For by this mean when the understanding is once bound unto the words of the reading, it cannot so easily wander abroad into divers imaginations, and thoughts, as when it goeth freely, and at liberty. And yet better it were to wrestle all that time with Almighty God, as the Patriarch Jacob did, that in the end when the wrestling is done, he may give us his blessing, or grant unto us the devotion which we seek for, or some other greater grace, which he never denyeth unto them that do faithfully labor and strive for the love of him.