I’ve changed my reading routine to include 20-30 minutes of spiritual reading in the mornings. That is dramatic change in my usual speed reading zoom through books — an occupational hazard when you’re an English teacher with multiple courses. Enjoying, even savoring a book is not a thing. Enter the spiritual reading: not just a slow-down, but a conscientious discipline to read a small portion of a work and meditate upon it prayerfully. I look for texts that lend themselves to this, and I discovered that I already had G.K. Chesterton’s Essential Writings (part of the Modern Spiritual Masters Series) compiled by William Griffin.
This collection of essays are the perfect fit for my routine, and gave me many weeks of deep thoughts, the occasional guffaw, and plenty of reflection. Each selection has a brief set-up to facilitate the context of the piece, and was indispensable for my journaling later.
Chesterton’s observations are a little quirky and often surprising, but always spot-on. My favorite essay, “Why I’m Not a Pagan,” explores the limitations of a plain humanity found in paganism, and the elevation of the person through Christian virtue. I return often to my favorite passage :
Charity means pardoning what is unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all. Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And Faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all.
Essential Writings is a great introduction to Chesterton.