Reading Day

Last December on 19th we had a reading day organised by Valent. He had brought up the idea to me after noticing many of us were reading books from the Emmaus library and talking about those books with each other.

“We should get together one day just to read our books,” he suggested. He got Abi in, and Reynard, and Liz, and even Irma, and today we had it.

I had to miss the actual reading portion of the day – about 3 hours or more sitting in San Damiano, silently reading their individual books. When they had finished I met them, and heard of their success. I wanted to know more, and we decided we could go to a cafe and discuss our books, or what we had read from them.

One of the best ideas I had ever contributed to.

We sat down, in a warmly-lit cafe, with nice wooden tables, chocolate smoothies, chamomile and green teas, maybe even coffee. And the 5 people at the table shared. And we questioned, and clarified... we exchanged thoughts, and reflected. We remembered stories, homilies, other books and articles. We pontificated, we wondered, we ruminated. We stared blankly into space as the Spirit took effect in our thoughts.

This was Christianity!

We shared what we had learnt about God. And then we knew Him more. Besides worship, the early Christians must have shared – they told each other what they knew, and their faith grew. They didn’t have personal Bibles. They didn’t have mp3’s. They learnt from readings at Mass, and they learnt from sharing.

“Oh no, did you hear how Peter died?” “Have you heard? John’s alive, and he’s writing letters from Patmos!” “Someone just read out a letter from Paul, you know what he wrote this time...” they must have discussed around meals and drinks. Thoughts passed on so closely, not just their faith grew, their community would have grown so strong, so intimately close.

I felt that just now. I think the others did too. Reading day, by my gauge, was a resounding success. And Reading day, must, have a portion of sharing, moments of exchange. I get the feeling the other participants over the coffee table will agree. I don’t think we can prevent another such day...

There shall be more!