Chapter VII. Of the reading

When the preparation has been finished, there should follow the reading of what we have to meditate upon in Prayer. This must not be hasty or flighty, but attentive and serious. We should give to it not only our whole mind that we may fully understand what we read, but still more we should give to it our whole will that we may taste the sweetness of what we understand. And when we come upon some 1 Collect for Whitsunday.

specially devout passage we should pause a little in it, for the better appreciation of its meaning. And the reading should not be very long ; that we may give the more time to meditation, which will yield the greater fruit, the more we ruminate upon, and enter into, the subject leisurely, and with the more affection. But if at any time we should find our hearts so distracted that we cannot fully enter into the Prayer we should linger a little longer in the reading, or join the reading with meditation ; reading a passage and meditating upon it, and then taking another and another in. the same way. For when the mind is too closely tied down to the words we are reading, we cannot so well carry it on to the different parts as when allowed a little more freedom.

‘Nevertheless, it may be well to have to strive in these thoughts, and to persevere in wrestling as did another, Jacob, all through the night, in the labour of Prayer.

For in the end, when the battle is over, the victory will follow through our Lord’s gift of devotion, or some other mighty grace which He never fails to give to those who strive faithfully.