Does Reading Detract From My Vocation?
Written Nicki Johnston
I loved reading Elizabeth Goudge’s My God and My All this Advent, but I must admit that I struggled with parts of Saint Francis’s life. It made me pause to think about this great saint whose life was so completely different from my own. Saint Francis is known as the saint who most closely exemplified Christ. Does that mean I, a Christian desiring to be more Christ-like myself, ought to emulate him? Even as a married woman and mother? Saint Francis’s call was a very difficult one. But, as I had to remind myself, it was his call – not my own.
Goudge addresses this. The reason Francis founded a new order, rather than follow “any rule, neither of Saint Augustine, nor Saint Benedict, nor of Bernard, nor any way or form of living” was because “the Lord called [him] by the way of simplicity and humility” (201). Francis’s call was specific to him, just as the Lord calls each of us in a unique way. Many of us are doing God’s will as wives and mothers. Francis saw the value in this and so created the Third Order so that lay people could have “deeper devotion and discipline in the service of God, and membership of the order, and yet not separate them from those duties in the world to which God had called them” (149).
Francis’s devotion and discipline were inspiring to me, and I’m still praying about how I may follow his example in a way fitting to my state in life. But there was one part of Francis’s poverty that particularly bothered me: his rejection of books. Goudge tells us (through the story about the novice asking to have his own psalter) that Francis, too, “had longed for books but he had prayed about it and God had shown him that it was not his will” (247).
As good literature often does, reading this led me to examine my conscience. Francis knew that “if his sons spent more and more time reading and writing about the selfless deeds of others they would spend less and less time in performing them, and it was to the ministry of mercy that they were called” (248). I think it fair to ask this question of myself. As a literature-loving homeschooler in two Well-Read Mom groups, does the time I spend reading (and writing about my reading) detract from my vocation? Or is reading good literature the best way for me to, borrowing from the phrase Well-Read Mom loves to use, take care of my heart?
One gift of the Communion of Saints is to see how the Christian faith has been so beautifully and courageously lived in many different ways by many different people. And as I pondered this question about the role (or rejection) of reading in my life and in the lives of the saints, I thought immediately of Servant of God Dorothy Day and her deep love of literature.
In the introduction to her autobiography, The Long Loneliness, Robert Coles recalls a time he brought journalism students to meet Dorothy Day and how, when asked what she hoped people would remember about her, Day replied that she’d like people to say that “She really did love those books!” She went on to say that she’s “always telling people to read Dickens or Tolstoy, or read Orwell, or read Silone”. She remarked that she is “not a great one for analyzing those novels; [she] want[s] to live by them!” (4)
Coles wrote that “For her, literature or art were no mere opportunity for entertainment, mere occasions for aesthetic satisfaction or self-enhancing erudition. She hungered for answers to the big questions – how ought one live this life, where, in what manner, and for what purpose?” (5)
Exploring these big questions in community is exactly what we do in our Well-Read Mom groups, and I think Dorothy Day would approve. The title of her autobiography addresses the fact that “Women especially are social beings, who are not content with just husband and family, but must have a community, a group, an exchange with others… Young and old, even in the busiest years of our lives, we women especially are victims of the long loneliness” (157-8). Day later writes that her daughter Tamar was partly responsible for the title of the book because she had confided to her mother “how alone a mother of young children always is” (243).
Doesn’t this resonate with the mission of Well-Read Mom? Isn’t this mother-daughter exchange reminiscent of the story Marcie tells about how she came to start Well-Read Mom thirteen years ago?
Reading was not God’s will for Saint Francis, and perhaps it is not for everyone, but many saints loved literature, including Saint Therese, whose biography by Dorothy Day (Therese, Year of the Giver) included an entire chapter about books and reading. In it, Therese remarks that reading was her “favorite recreation” (100).
Through my years in Well-Read Mom, I’ve encountered many other book lovers. Some are women I’ve meet in person through my WRM groups. Others are authors – both living and deceased – or characters who live only in my imagination. My life is enriched by knowing each and every one of them.
Well-Read Mom connects us with other women who know that reading is a most worthy pursuit, a re-creation in the truest sense of the word, and it fosters a beautiful community. Day wrote in her autobiography, “The only answer in this life, to the loneliness we are all bound to feel, is community. The living together, working together, sharing together, loving God and loving our brother, and living close to him in community so we can show our love for Him” (243). Saint Francis exemplified this perfectly. And for the rest of us, we might add to Day’s list “reading and discussing together” – exactly what we do in Well-Read Mom.
About Nicki Johnston
Nicki Johnston lives in Kansas with her husband, Graham, and their four sons. Together they homeschool, hike, camp, craft, square dance, and read many, many books.
About Well-Read Mom
In Well-Read Mom, women read more and read well. Our hope is to deepen the awareness of meaning hidden in each woman’s daily life, elevate the cultural conversation, and revitalize reading literature from books. If you would like to have us help you select worthy reading material, we invite you to join and read along with us. We are better together! For information on how to start or join a Well-Read Mom group visit our website wellreadmom.com.
