St. Alphonsus on Spiritual Reading

St. Alphonsus (1760): “To a spiritual life the reading of holy books is perhaps not less useful than mental prayer. St. Bernard says reading instructs us at once in prayer, and in the practice of virtue. Hence he concluded that spiritual reading and prayer are the arms by which hell is conquered and paradise won… Hence St. Athanasius used to say that we find no one devoted to the service of the Lord that did not practice spiritual reading.” (T.S., p. 513)

What an awesome quote. This is one of those topics we all sort of understand intuitively, but need to be often reminded about.