Receiving the Word into good soil
May Christ help you, dearest brethren, always to welcome with an eager and thirsting heart the reading of Gods word; then your faithful obedience will fill you with spiritual joy. But if you wish Holy Scripture to bring you sweetness and the divine precepts to profit you as much as they should, then relax from your material preoccupations for a few hours. Read Gods words over again in your house, dedicate yourselves entirely to his mercy. Thus you will succeed in realizing within yourself what is written of the man who is blessed: meditating on the Law of the Lord day and night (Ps 1:2) and Happy are they who observe his decrees, who seek him with all their heart (Ps 118[119]:2).
Merchants dont seek to make a profit on one single product but on several. Cultivators seek a better return by sowing different kinds of seed. You who look for spiritual gains dont be satisfied just with listening to the sacred texts in church. Read them at home. When days are short, profit by the long evenings. Thus you will be able to gather spiritual grain into your hearts storehouse and lay out in the treasure house of your souls the precious pearls of Scripture.
St. Francis de Sales