Reading And Prayer

Oportet vos et assiduitatem habere legendi, et instantiam orandi, quia vita viri justi lectione instruitur, ornatur, et assiduitate lectionis munitur homo a peccato, juxta illum qui dicebat: In corde meo abscondi eloquia tua, ut non peccem tibi. Haec sunt enim arma, lectio videlicet et oratio, quibus diabolus expugnatur: haec sunt instrumenta quibus aeterna beatitudo acquiritur: his armis vitia comprimuntur: his alimentis virtutes nutriuntur. Theodulfus Aurelianensis, Capitula ad Presbyteros Parochiae Suae, Capitula II Source:Migne PL 105.193a-b

It is necessary that you should be assiduous in your reading, and zealous in your prayers, for the life of the righteous man is instructed by reading, and so adorned, and by diligent reading a man is protected from sin, according to which it was said: 'In my heart I placed your word, that I not sin against you.' 1 For these are all arms, reading and prayer, that expel the devil. By these instruments eternal life is acquired. By these arms vices are crushed down. These are the foodstuffs which nourish the virtues. Theodulf of Orleans, Chapters For His Local Priests, Chapter 2 1 Ps 118.11