For prayer cleanses us, while reading instructs us. And, therefore, he who wishes to be always with God must frequently pray and frequently read. For when we pray, we speak with God; but when we read, God speaks with us. All progress, then, proceeds from reading, prayer and meditation. What we do not know we learn by reading; what we have learned we retain by meditations; and by prayer we reach the fulfillment of what we have retained. Therefore, the reading of the Sacred Scriptures confers a twofold gift: it instructs the mind’s understanding, and brings the one who is withdrawn from the world’s vanities to the love of God.
St. Isidore
Sententiae, III. 8. 1-4
