Today we celebrate the feast of St. Isidore of Seville, a doctor of the church. Isidore early in his childhood despised school and learning; so much so that he ran away from his brother who was in charge of tutoring him.
In his effort to flee, he found himself before a hollowed out stone; perplexed by the stone before him, a passerby, who came to draw water from a well, informed him that the stone was hollowed over time by the small drops of water falling from the well.
The young Isidore was inspired, realizing that it was only through patience that true wisdom and knowledge could be obtained. Thus, he was encouraged to pick up the tablet and begin his studies anew.
Isidore later on in life wrote this simple reflection: "if a man wants to be always in God's company, he must pray regularly and read regularly. When we pray, we talk to God, when we read God talks to us."
When he speaks of reading he necessarily means reading Sacred Scripture, for only then is our mind trained to be more like Christ. But, he also means other reading, especially in light of studies, for ultimately God seeks to speak to us in all forms of knowledge.
With God, nothing is ever wasted; all becomes an instrument of shedding light on the mystery of God's created world, God's grace in history, God's love through it all.
Nothing is wasted with God. Just like into today's gospel, the fragments that remained behind were gathered and collected, nothing was wasted. so too with us, the fragments of our attempts to grow in knowledge will not be wasted, but a spiritual bouquet will blossom.
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