A phenomenon that I see all too often is the absurdity of young adults who try to plow through writings of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Church Fathers, which is g

A phenomenon that I see all too often is the absurdity of young adults who try to plow through writings of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Church Fathers, which is great, so when do they have time to read Scripture itself? I think it's great that literacy and the printing press has democratized the reading of books, but when you're faced with such a corpus presented by Catholic tradition, you really need to pick and choose your weekly time investments! I've inquired with a few religious orders as a layperson. The first thing you will find when inquiring with them is the thickness of tomes that land on the table for all adherents to read. Each religious order has a particular spirituality that is synthesized in the writings of saints and mystics. So if I was not already well-acquainted and well-grounded in the Old and New Testaments, and in the habit of reading those every day, what good would it do me to read Aquinas? Or Leo XIII encyclicals? Pointless. The Bible itself has so many layers and aspects and messages for us. Many scholars invest entire lifetimes in understanding only the Bible. The only way to be a good Christian is to live the life. It doesn't matter what books you've read, at the end of the day, only your experience and your response to the Holy Spirit. If that means reading books, then good. If that means welding metal, also good. But, don't try to break open the words of Aquinas before you've read Daniel, or Matthew!