By MITCHELL KALPAKGIAN
How To Read Your Way to Heaven, by Vicki Burbach (Sophia Institute Press: Manchester, NH, 2016), 275 pp., $18.95. Available from www.SophiaInstitute.com.
Because faith is like a mustard seed that needs to grow, it requires cultivation and nourishment to bloom and flourish. One of the traditional ways to nurture Christian faith comes from the wisdom of the saints who teach the importance of spiritual reading. In the words of St. John Chrysostom quoted by the author, “A religious cannot be wounded, because she is far from the combat. But you who are in the midst of battle, must protect yourself with the buckler of holy thoughts drawn from good books.”
To read your way into Heaven, then, means nourishing the mind, heart, and soul with the spiritual wisdom of the Church’s treasury of holy books intended to lift the heart and inspire the mind to a greater understanding of the ideals of Christian living. The special attraction of Vicki Burbach’s book lies not only in its appreciation for the immense value and practical benefits of spiritual reading but also in its methodical plan for organizing this great literature in an accessible, simple format for all people to follow as a small portion of their daily life.
For example, it offers a flexible one-year, two-year, three-year, four-year, and five-year reading plan that requires no more than 30 minutes each day for five days of the week. Each plan encompasses the four main sections of The Catechism of the Catholic Church so that each of the plans selects readings to correspond to “The Profession of Faith,” “The Celebration of Christian Mystery,” “Life in Christ,” and “Prayer.”
In the Five-Year Program — the one most highly recommended — the daily readings for the first year assign the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Letters of Paul. The short sections from the Catechism proceed as far as the first half of “The Profession of Faith.” Readings from ten spiritual classics compose the third portion of the day’s literature. The first year includes works like Cardinal Newman’s Mary the Second Eve, Frank Sheed’s A Map of Life, Peter Kreeft’s Practical Theology, and Charles Rice’s 50 Questions on the Natural Law.
In the second year of The Five Year Program, the Sacred Scripture reading begins with Genesis and concludes with Chronicles I. The study of the Catechism proceeds to the second half of “The Profession of Faith,” and the spiritual classics include works like Romano Guardini’s The End of the Modern World, H.W. Crocker III’s The Power and Glory of the Catholic Church, and Hilaire Belloc’s How the Reformation Happened.
The third year continues with Sacred Scripture from Chronicles I to the Song of Solomon, includes the second part of the Catechism, “The Celebration of the Christian Mystery,” and selects spiritual works like Dom Eugene Boylan’s This Tremendous Lover, Venerable Louis of Grenada’s The Sinner’s Guide, Georges Bernanos’ The Diary of A Country Priest, and Cormac Burke’s Covenanted Happiness. The spiritual classics, then, feature both older masterpieces and more recent works that offer a broad, universal perspective.
To illustrate the plan in more detail, the book provides daily assignments like the following: Year 1 (Week 10, Day 1): Luke 2, Catechism (80-82), 50 Questions on the Natural Law, Questions 1-2. A typical daily reading for Year 3 (Week 20, Day 2) follows the same pattern: Job 29, Catechism (1302-1303), and The Sinner’s Guide, chapter 42 (half). Anyone beginning the program discovers the reasonable expectations that are in no way onerous, appreciates the variety of sources that provide spiritual enlightenment, and recognizes the valuable discipline and habit it instills in the course of each day and week.
These One, Two, or Five Year Plans have no grandiose ambitions or unrealistic promises but provide the daily fare that enriches the mind with moral wisdom, spiritual nourishment, and a knowledge of the love of God and the perennial truths of the Catholic faith. While many give great care to the body in the pursuit of health through diet and exercise and many value the education of the intellect by higher education, often the condition of the soul does not receive the caring attention and daily cultivation it needs to grow in Christian faith, hope, and love and to reach a greater knowledge of the sublime truths of theology and of the mystery of divine Providence.
So often people have good intentions to examine their conscience and give greater priority to the life of the soul but do not know how to begin. Or they begin and become discouraged because of the rigor of the regimen. This book, however, provides a map, a guide, clear directions, simple instructions, and a great goal for a destination. It is impossible to get lost, and no one can feel the weight of exhaustion. A person is not running a marathon or lifting weights but enjoying the brisk invigoration of sunlight and the fresh air of ocean breezes that clears the mind and breathes life into the heart and soul.
As Mrs. Burbach explains, “A strong and vigorous will is always encouraged by an enlightened mind,” and in the words from Frank Sheed’s Theology for Beginners (one of the readings in the First Year Program), “each new thing learned and meditated about God is a new reason for loving Him.”
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