HeartThoughts

For the time being, HeartThoughts Retreat will be inactive. However, the past discussions and articles will remain an open archive for anyone who wishes to visit. I look forward to when we can reopen at some date in the future.

A room of her very own should be every young girls’ retreat. Here she may enjoy the half-hours for devotion which tend to the soul’s growth and may read and study and entertain her girlfriends. In this her den, her bower, her nook, her special fancies may be indulged and her individuality find fit expression.

If a girl admit me to her room, I need no other interpreter of her character. Her daintiness, her delicacy, her fondness for art, her little fads and caprices are here revealed. Does she care for athletics? Her room tells the story. Her guitar and flute, her books on her bedside table, her closet explain her, for wherever we live we set our seal, and this unconsciously…

As to the room itself, it may be plain to bareness, or beautifully luxurious; a cell or a shrine, it owes its grace or lack of charm more to its occupant than to its paper and paint, its bed and dresser, its rug and chairs. A girl’s room is as much an expression of herself as her mother’s house is an expression of herself. We need not resign our right to beautiful surroundings because we must keep a strict rein upon expenditure and have an eye to ways and means. Unless a young woman learns early to make the most of her little in hand, she will never be successful when she has a large sum in her stewardship.

- Winsome Womanhood, chapter one

“There is a strange idea abroad,” he begins, “that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals [that is, academics], and that the amateur [that is, everyone else] should content himself with the modern books.” Lewis could not disagree more.

First, he argues, “A new book is still on its trial, and the amateur is not in a position to judge it.” Classics are still read because they have stood the test of the ages. A modern book about Athanasius may or may not be any good. The author may want either to debunk or deify the man. He has probably read everything Athanasius wrote and everything written about him, and he has drawn his conclusions for better or for worse. It may be a fine book or it may be junk. On the other hand, if you read Athanasius himself (or Plato or Augustine or Calvin or Shakespeare, for that matter) you need not worry if the author is any good. He is.

Old books are not perfect. They do, however, challenge our modern assumptions and sharpen our focus on truths we only dimly recognize. So dust off an ancient volume or two. If you need direction, On the Incarnation is a good place to begin. Read more…

“In reading great literature,” Lewis wrote, “I become a thousand men and yet remain myself . . . Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.”

Lewis also strongly felt that we should read more old books—and fewer new ones. “Every age has its own outlook,” Lewis wrote. “It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes.” In other words, we are all, in a sense, a captive to our own age, limited by the times in which we live. So, Lewis concludes, “The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books.”

What makes great books great? Great books transcend. They explore themes important to all people of all ages: the struggle of good versus evil, our own mortality and destiny. Great books test and train our minds and stir our imaginations. They create in us a longing for beauty, for Truth and the good. And they sharpen our vision so we can better discern the beautiful from the ugly, the truth from falsehood. Read more…

An excerpt from this piece by Gina R. Dalfonzo…

We read Dickens for the sheer love of words and the pleasure of meeting new and unusual characters. We race through a mystery by Agatha Christie for the breathtaking excitement of a good plot, or linger over a P. G. Wodehouse story for the pure fun of it. But even this enjoyment enriches our understanding and our intellect. Education and delight are so intertwined in the reading of a good book that it’s impossible to say where one leaves off and the other begins.

And this is why the reading of imaginative literature is so vital, why we cannot allow ourselves to become a nation of non-readers. Nothing else speaks to us quite on the same level that literature does. It is a source of spiritual and emotional nourishment, and without it, something inside us dries up. We lose a critical connection with the world and with each other. And then our situation is indeed dire.

One of the best booklists I’ve seen online can be found here. Actually, it’s more of a list of lists.

You know how much I stress the importance of reading truly great books. The problem is that great works of literature—especially those that are centuries old—can be intimidating.

If the Confessions were only a personal story, it would still be a must-read. But it is much more. Most scholars, both Christian and secular, rank Confessions as one of the classics in the Western literary tradition. And Augustine himself was the single most critical influence in shaping the civilization in which we live. - Chuck Colson