Reading

I have  been reading a long time.  A really long time.  I do not know who had a hand in teaching me to read.  I wish I knew those teacher's names.  Most likely they are long gone from teaching, but I wish I could thank them.  Long ago I fell in love with words.  It is a love affair that has never ended.  To this day I am fascinated with the way some people can use words to create verbal images as clear as anything which can be seen in a painted portrait.  I envy them.  I would choose to be a master at the craft of reading and writing, but even though a life time has been invested, the title "master" is not yet mine.

 

Learning to read opened books up to me.  But, more than just books, it opened the Sacred Word to me.  How impoverished my life would be had I not been able to read that Word and carry it with me on my spiritual journey.  When I was learning to read, the emphasis was on reading silently without having to mouth out each word on the page.  As we practiced reading, we came to that place of no longer needing to call each word out silently.  Reading aloud to hear the words was no longer needed so we ceased doing it.

As we read the Word during these days of Lent, it might be a helpful thing for us to practice reading aloud again.  Find a place where reading aloud is no problem for the rest of your world and give it a try.  Reading aloud helps us slow down in our reading.  If we find ourselves reading so fast the words are running together in our ears, it is likely we are speeding along without really hearing and knowing what the Words are saying.  Reading aloud is also something which helps us to focus more.  Few people fall asleep while reading aloud while many of us have been guilty of doing it while reading silently.  Whatever it takes to help us hear what God is saying to us through His Sacred Word is worth the effort.  Give it a try during Lent.  It may become a habit kept even beyond the end of the season.