Thus the church is our first spiritual director by directing our hearts and minds to him who makes our lives truly eventful. The second discipline is the discipline of the book. When we are really committed to moving away from an absurd life towards an obedient life, we have to keep listening in a very personal and intimate way to the word of God as it comes to us through the scriptures. The discipline of the book is the discipline of meditation. Meditation means to let the word descend from our minds into our hearts and thus become flesh in us.
Meditation means eating the word, digesting it, and incorporating it concretely into our lives.
Meditation is the discipline by which we let the word of God become a word for us and anchor itself in the centre of our being. In this way, meditation is the ongoing incarnation of God in our world. While the discipline of the church keeps reminding us of what is really happening, the discipline of the book leads us on the road to true inner obedience. Through the regular practice of spiritual meditation we develop an inner ear that allows us to recognize God's word as a word that speaks directly to our most intimate needs and aspirations. When we listen to a sentence, a story, or a parable not simply to be instructed, informed, or inspired but to be formed into a truly obedient person, the book becomes a spiritual director to us.