Thought Triggered By Flos Carmeli

Steven Riddle writes,

Of recent date, I've been typing in older poetry--poetry from 1980, at present. And I have to admit to being occasionally astounded by a line or two the gleams out from the mass of rubbish that surrounds it. There is some good poetry hidden under the pretension of youth, just waiting to be dug out.

That's how I feel about many books, although with the difference that what surrounds the gleams is not rubbish (and it's likely Steven was being hyperbolic anyway). But, for me at least, Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear it Away was worth reading for the ending. There's one chapter in Meehan's Two Towers that resonated in a life-changing way. There are a few paragraphs in Scott Hahn's Rome Sweet Home that had a profound impact back in the '90s when I was finding my way back. A single line or two in a biography of Pope St. Pius X impacted. Those books all contained nuggets that lingered way past the normal "expiration date" of biblio memory.

My point? You often have to read a lot to get to the part you wanted to read.

Reminds me of what a bishop (I think it was a bishop) once said. He said he usually prays for three minutes. But it takes thirty minutes of prayer to get there.