Method
Spiritual reading
Overview
Spiritual reading is a practice of reading books and articles about spirituality with the purpose of growing in holiness.
Spiritual reading is devoted to the reading of lives of saints, writings of Doctors and the Fathers of the Church, theological works written by holy people, and doctrinal writings of Church authorities. It is different from lectio divina which focuses on the bible.
The biblical basis is St. Paul's advice "Attend to reading" (1 Tim 4:13) which meant that Timothy his disciple should "apply to the reading of holy books, not in a passing way and for a short time, but regularly and for a considerable time," said St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Catholic Church on Moral theology. St. Bernard of Clairvaux said that "spiritual reading and prayer are the arms by which hell is conquered and paradise won."
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
It yet remains for a man to say, if he will, that "the already perfected and formed natures, visible and invisible, are not signified under the name of heaven and earth, when we read, In the beginning God made heaven and earth, but that the yet unformed commencement of things, the stuff apt to receive form and making, was called by these names, because therein were confusedly contained, not as yet distinguished by…
of Hippo Augustine, The Confessions of St. Augustine
States what Spiritual reading is; the author is tied to Spiritual reading in the knowledge graph.
And regarding what happens after death, it is no absurdity to say that death is good to the good, and evil to the evil. For the disembodied spirits of the just are at rest; but those of the wicked suffer punishment till their bodies rise again,--those of the just to life everlasting, and of the others to death eternal, which is called the second death. 9. _Whether we should say that the moment of death, in which…
of Hippo Augustine, The City of God, Volume I
States what Spiritual reading is; the author is tied to Spiritual reading in the knowledge graph.
Verily the theologians take this meaning otherwise than do the poets: but, because my intention here is to follow the way of the poets, I shall take the Allegorical sense according as it is used by the poets. The third sense is termed Moral; and this is that which the readers ought intently to search for in books, for their own advantage and for that of their descendants; as one can espy in the Gospel, when Christ…
Dante Alighieri, The Banquet
States what Spiritual reading is.
Related ideas
Place in the tradition
Part of Spiritualism (beliefs).