Chapter 48: Daily manual labor (paragraphs 3-5)

As a special provision during these days of Lent each member of the community is to be given a book from the library to read thoroughly each day in a regular and conscientious way. (From para. 4 of Ch. 48 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

For me, a discipline such as daily reading from only one book in a thorough, regular and conscientious way, would be a form of fasting from trivia and distraction, from dipping in and out of all forms of media, from surfing the web. I'm not sure it would even be a very realistic goal for me in the twenty-first century. But I can take to heart Benedict's instructions about of guarding my attention.