\u201cThis book is not for reading,\u201d begins the introduction to the book \u201cThe Ladder to God.\u201d Perhaps it refers to the deep meaning of spiritual reading. The first thing we must clarify here is the meaning of \u201cspiritual life\u201d itself. It is not, of course, the romantic life, or merely an interest in human matters and texts, etc. But in short, it is the life of the \u201cspirit\u201d within us. As the Apostle Paul says, \u201cIt is no longer I who live, but Christ lives (through the Spirit) in me.\u201d And this is the goal of Christian life according to Saint Seraphim of Sarov: \u201cto acquire the Holy Spirit.\u201d Therefore, spiritual life is kindled (lives) in man in many ways. Among these ways are also daily work. Professions, work, and occupations were not created to become a reason for forgetting God, but rather the Lord originally said to Adam, who forgot the divine commandment in Paradise: \u201cBy the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread,\u201d so that effort and the sweat of your brow would lead him to remember God. Our work and professions should be part of \u201cspiritual exercises.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There is no doubt that \u201cprayer\u201d is the direct connection that opens our hearts to the graces of the Holy Spirit. Prayer, as Al-Salami defines it, is \u201ccommunion with God\u201d and \u201cunion with Him.\u201d This prayer and these works are frameworks for encountering divine grace. But here we would like to dwell more on another framework.<\/p>\n
Spiritual reading constitutes a very necessary framework, which is always darkened by life\u2019s circumstances, in addition to the neglect of believers, or perhaps also the confusion between useful books and the many tiring and sometimes stumbling books.<\/p>\n
Saint Evagrius advises monks and Christians, saying: \u201cDo not let the sun see you unless you have the Holy Book in your hands.\u201d (9)<\/a>There are honorable laws that instruct priests to encourage believers to engage in spiritual reading and frequent reading of the Holy Bible.<\/p>\n St. John Chrysostom considers reading the Holy Bible and spiritual books to be very necessary for monks, but no less important for those living in the world: \u201cWe (those living in the world) have more need of reading than they do, because the permanent wounds caused by our interests require the greater use of medicines.\u201d (10)<\/a>Origen believes that reading is not an additional activity, but rather one of the basic components of spiritual life. Because it is the path that leads us to spiritual life and develops us in it. (11)<\/a>Reading the Bible and spiritual books is part of our spiritual formation. (12)<\/a>.<\/p>\n Spiritual reading connects us to our tradition and makes us aware of our way of life through the lives of the saints. Reading is the environment in which we grow up in the tradition of our fathers and not in our worldly environment, which leaves no place for God and spiritual life.<\/p>\n It is not strange, then, to see, for example, Saint Gregory Palamas (14th century) thinking exactly in the spirit of John Chrysostom (4th century), and it is not good for us (21st century) to think except as they and the holy apostles thought about the essential issues of life. Christian morality is the same in its spirit and tradition, even if it is in keeping with the circumstances, because it is ultimately actions and not statements, so it cannot but apply to current realities in order to show in them a Christian spiritual morality.<\/p>\n \u201cFaith with knowledge\u201d is the true formula of faith. Christian faith is not a vague surrender, but rather a faith that mimics the human mind and answers it to facts; it is ultimately \u201cthe truth.\u201d This does not negate the fact that this faith, even if it addresses the mind, will go beyond it, but with it and not beyond it. Many young people in their teenage years and beyond (the university years) have many questions about the existence of God, creation, the Trinity, the Church, etc., and some of them often think that these are manifestations of disbelief or a kind of atheism! On the contrary, these questions are natural, even necessary, and they are evidence of the existence of faith and not its absence. These are questions of truth, not doubts of faith. It is the stage in which a person seeks to transform his faith from innate and inherited faith without questions to the type of faith \u201cwith knowledge,\u201d which is firm and steadfast and which personal conviction has chosen to commit to and spread. These are the years of human life in which faith can become, instead of mere habits, human motives, and then the human heart chants the words of the Bible: \u201cFreely you received, freely give.\u201d And every young man repeats Philip\u2019s words to Nathanael: \u201cCome and see, we have found the Messiah, of whom we heard in Moses and the prophets and the New Testament\u2026\u201d(13)<\/a>Then the expression of faith (knowledge) is done by the verb \u201cwe found\u201d and not \u201cwe heard.\u201d This knowledge of the depth, truth and dimensions of our faith cannot be achieved without reading, and wise and chosen reading. However, as long as the necessity of spiritual reading is great, the important question remains: How do we read spiritual books?<\/p>\n There are undoubtedly two types of reading. The first type is informational and religious reading. For example, when we read scientific, geographical, demographic studies\u2026 that concern any issue of faith or interpretations of the Bible. These can be written and read even by atheists themselves. These should \u2013 in the right condition \u2013 lead us to spiritual readings and help us with them. Among these \u201cinformational\u201d books are many works on church history and canon law and even some on the interpretation of the Bible itself; and others.<\/p>\n But there is spiritual reading, which moves us from reading to prayer. There are then - according to Saint Isaac the Syrian - three degrees of reading the Holy Bible and spiritual books.<\/p>\n The first reading is \u201csuperficial\u201d, that is, \u201creading\u201d itself. When we \u201cperuse\u201d the sayings and events of the Bible or other books. Thus, we know the event or the word in the sense of \u201cgetting to know it for the first time\u201d (perceiving). From this perspective, reading a text once is enough and makes it unnecessary to read it a second time. Thus, I can say, for example, that I know the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, I know the story of the Good Samaritan, and I know all the commandments (since my youth, as the rich young man said to Christ). Thus, we teach children to \u201cremember events\u201d, that is, to preserve them \u201cby memory\u201d and to recognize them.<\/p>\n The second level of spiritual reading is the \u201crational\u201d level. Here we search the books and learn not about the event but what it wants to indicate. For example, the word \u201cPharisee\u201d contains many meanings necessary to understand and interpret the event\u2026 Here the mind participates in analyzing the texts, understanding them and revealing their deep meanings. This stage requires a lot of study and reading.<\/p>\n The true and complete third degree in reading is the \u201cspiritual\u201d degree. Then we read the things that concern us from these lines, words and pages. The books become a \u201cmessage\u201d for us, that is, they turn from a text into a question, and from pages into a dialogue. Thus says John Chrysostom, that someone who knows a foreign language superficially and simply, when a message in that language reaches him, tries to decipher it, and can speak about it a little. As for someone who really knows and understands that language, he reads in the message its full and rich meanings. But finally, when the spiritual person reads the message, he \u201cconnects with the sender.\u201d Here reading becomes prayer and reading becomes a dialogue.<\/p>\n Therefore, we must not distort spiritual readings to the limits of reason or superficiality. Reading the Bible, for example, is not an attempt to learn about what is in it, but rather a fellowship with Jesus. The Bible is not a book that we read, but rather a \u201creading\u201d in which He (Jesus) speaks. Thus, when we sit in reverence and read the Bible, Jesus speaks to us. This dialogue is the true meaning of the book, and without it we are reading letters and following lines without touching the true meaning, which is the encounter with the Lord. Only in the latter case do we enter into the events of the Bible and live them when we read them. Otherwise, we read the book historically as a novel, and this is not spiritual reading.<\/p>\n Fasting, prayer and spiritual reading are integrated spiritual exercises in which man asks the question and God answers, in which man searches and God reveals. (14)<\/a>Thus, reading becomes a discovery of divine love and provision.<\/p>\n Therefore, the true and safest state of reading is the state in which reading becomes \u201cten,\u201d that is, prayer. Reading the Bible, for example, is another form of prayer in which we listen to Jesus. (15)<\/a>The Bible is the pages where we \u201cmeet Jesus\u201d and from which Jesus sends us. The martyrs are the ones who understood and interpreted the Bible the most, not the scholars and researchers.<\/p>\n The divine \u201cWord\u201d in the spiritual books is not the \u201cwords\u201d and letters. From the latter we must go to the \u201cdiscourse\u201d in them, that is, to the \u201cWord.\u201d The Word is not \u201cfor perusal\u201d but \u201cfor obedience.\u201d Therefore, reading does not move the mind in us but the heart, and it does not change or enrich information in us but rather changes life itself. Therefore, we do not explain the Word (although explanations are necessary), but the Word guides us. We peruse (read), understand (listen), and hear (obey) the Word that comes to us from the words and letters of the divine books.<\/p>\n Therefore, spiritual reading is not accomplished by our personal and individual efforts, but rather by the Holy Spirit, who enlightens our minds. In the Divine Liturgy, the priest recites a supplication before reading the Gospel text to the faithful: \u201cO Lord, who loves mankind, shine in our hearts the unfading light of your divine knowledge, and open the pupils of our minds to understand the teachings of your Gospel\u2026 so that we may behave spiritually, thinking about and doing all that pleases you\u2026\u201d The daily prayer books include this supplication for us to pray before reading the Holy Bible and spiritual books in general. We ask \u201cthat God may shine in us the light of knowledge\u201d so that we may read, understand, and live and do what pleases him. Saint Ephrem the Syrian advises us to pray to the Lord so that he may reveal to us his will through it before spiritual reading.<\/p>\n \u201cSpiritual reading\u201d then, after all the above, is not just reading but \u201cfood\u201d through which we receive our essential bread and our necessary share of divine grace, because \u201cman does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.\u201d So the Holy Bible is a table and not stories. The encounters and coincidences that take place during spiritual reading with God, the saints and oneself are breaths of grace and life and are spiritual food.<\/p>\n The Divine Liturgy is divided into two parts, the first of which revolves around the Word and the second of which revolves around the offering. In the first part we receive grace through the Word, and in the second part we receive grace from Him through the precious Body and Blood of the Lord. (16)<\/a>Therefore, we are not talking about reading the Bible, but about \u201ceating the Bible\u201d according to Origen. (17)<\/a>And so when God spoke to the prophets, He gave them His book as a scroll to eat. (18)<\/a>We \u201cbreak bread\u201d and \u201cbreak the word.\u201d (19)<\/a>Hence the importance of prayer before reading, that is, asking for the presence of the Holy Spirit to \u201copen the pupils of our minds\u201d because we read these words as seeds of life. Accordingly, the Church has arranged for us to read the Word before we receive \u201cthe Word\u201d in the Divine Liturgy.<\/p>\n Explanations are not enough for us to actually \u201cread\u201d the spiritual word in the Gospel or the spiritual books. There is a special event that happened with the disciples of Emmaus. They were going to that village at dawn on the day of the resurrection, and women had told them that Jesus had risen. Jesus came among them and walked with them \u201cand explained the Scriptures to them,\u201d that is, everything that the prophets had spoken about Him. \u201cBut their eyes were kept from knowing Him,\u201d as the matins say. They did not understand, until \u201cHe opened their minds.\u201d We cannot understand the Scriptures without God opening our minds. (20)<\/a>.<\/p>\n Spiritual reading is therefore an attempt to put us in a state of prayer. That is why the Holy Fathers call it \u201chalf prayer.\u201d In fact, it brings us into prayer. It is not easy for a person to emerge from the noise of his daily life immediately to stand before the divine presence that he has forgotten or pretended to forget throughout the day. Therefore, spiritual reading takes us from the world to the kingdom and from noise to prayer. Spiritual reading is the best ladder we can climb in order to stand before God in prayer.<\/p>\n And after prayer! We go out to return to our troubled world, and how quickly we are taken by it and surrender the divine companionship to oblivion. Here comes reading as a necessity to carry the blessing of prayer and extend it over a distance longer than the day and time.<\/p>\n Reading reaches its goal when it becomes \u201cdelirious,\u201d that is, when the mind is saturated with spiritual words that accompany it after the time of reading throughout the time of work and occupation. In the face of every situation, these words return to extract from his heart the cry of prayer that is able to decide in him a decision according to the divine will and not according to worldly temptation. \u201cI remembered your commandments and did not stumble,\u201d says David in the Psalms. Reading is also an introduction to prayer and an extension of it. Spiritual reading ferments the entire day, preparing for prayer and extending it. Reading transforms the hours of the day into the time of the kingdom.<\/p>\n Reading fertilizes the human mind and makes it understand the meanings of life and prayer, picking up the seeds of grace and not wasting them. This fertile mind finds many rich meanings in the words of prayers, and easily reaps from them humility and reverence. In contrast to the poor mind that spiritual words pass by and do not settle in it because they are foreign in nature to it. Reading, then, gives the human being a \u201cspiritual sense\u201d and makes his soul transparent and enthusiastic towards the divine presence, not wounding it. In the event of the slightest human shortcoming before grace, the spiritual sense leads the human being to pray deeply and with repentance.<\/p>\n This \u201chalf-prayer\u201d for beginners allows them to live the Kingdom and its peace over larger areas of the day, since these people do not yet master the art of constant prayer. Therefore, reading is considered the basic tool in living inner peace, and this peace is the peace of God and not the peace of the world \u201cMy peace I give to you, not as the world gives you peace.\u201d It is the peace that results from the union of man with grace and sitting and living in the divine presence.<\/p>\n Last but not least, spiritual reading portrays us in the image of its authors. It does not only connect us with the informational tradition, i.e. the texts, but it also colors us with its color. Whoever reads the lives of the saints is colored by their hues. Therefore, the first fruits of spiritual reading are \u201cwisdom,\u201d along with prayer and peace. Once, some German scholars and researchers visited Mount Athos. There they came across an old monk who was not allowed by his age or circumstances to study languages and philosophies. He was reading a spiritual book at the door of his cell, \u201cThe Ladder to God\u201d! This astonished these scholars, for the book was deep and difficult! When they asked him: \u201cDo you understand this book?\u201d his answer was even more astonishing, for he said: \u201cIf you wish, take it and I will write you something like it!\u201d This monk read for years, and the spiritual experience in the books was transmitted to him, and he acquired it. It is not surprising that many \u201creadings\u201d are more necessary for beginners than for advanced ones. We know that the more a person advances in spiritual life, the more prayer takes precedence over reading. The Russian traveler spent his entire life on one book, \u201cThe Philokalia,\u201d but all his time was spent in \u201cconstant prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n Various non-spiritual readings introduce us to many things. Books, novels, and volumes are all like windows surrounding the world of man, through which he looks out on new and new things, and through which he visits other worlds that are not part of his world. However, spiritual reading is different. They are windows not to the outside but to the inside. Rather, it is not a window but a mirror. We read \u201cThe Ladder to God\u201d and see ourselves. The disciples were wondering about the Kingdom of God, and the divine books were supposed to guide them to it. But Jesus answered clearly: \u201cThe Kingdom of God is within you.\u201d Therefore, reading is one thing and spiritual reading is another.<\/p>\n If reading is knowledge, it does not need to be repeated. We read the book once and put it aside. But since spiritual reading is prayer, nourishment, peace, discovery of the kingdom, and adoption of spiritual wisdom, the spiritual book is \u201cnot for reading,\u201d but rather a secret of life that we take and find bitter on the lips and sweet in the stomach. The more we take it, the more the need to nourish ourselves from it increases over and over again.<\/p>\n \u201cThis book is not for reading.\u201d So it is a book of life that we eat as food and read as prayer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n (9)<\/a> PG 40, 1283 A.<\/p>\n (10)<\/a> \u201cOn the Commentary on Matthew,\u201d 2, 5.<\/p>\n (11)<\/a> Clement of Alexandria, \u201cThe Carpet,\u201d 1, 20.<\/p>\n (12)<\/a> Nilus, PG 79, 213 C.<\/p>\n (13)<\/a> See, John 1:45.<\/p>\n (14)<\/a> See, Symeon the New Theologian, PG 120, 385.<\/p>\n (15)<\/a> Nicolas Cabasilas, \u201cOn the Interpretation of the Divine Liturgy,\u201d 20, 1 and 62, 2.<\/p>\n (16)<\/a> Clement of Alexandria, \u201cThe Carpet,\u201d 1, 1.<\/p>\n (17)<\/a> PG 13, 130.<\/p>\n (18)<\/a> Ezekiel 3; Revelation 10.<\/p>\n
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