Reddit reviews The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods

Edit: Never think that your study is getting in the way of your devotion. Your pride might, but learning is not the problem. My theology and scripture professor always tells us students to "take our homework to the chapel" and to "take it to prayer." That said, here's some important aspects of prayer, which as an intellectual, you should find especially suited to your spirituality and devotion.



I already posted this in another comment today, but its extremely relevant:


I recommend checking out these sections of the Catechism:


The Life of Prayer

Vocal Prayer

Meditation

Contemplation

Summary of the Life of Prayer



In addition, here's an excerpt from Guigo II's work The Ladder from Earth to Heaven (full version can be found here)

> Reading seeks the sweetness of the blessed life, meditation finds it, prayer asks for it, and contemplation tastes it.^1 Reading places solid food in the mouth; meditation chews and breaks it; prayer extracts the flavor; contemplation is the very sweetness that gives joy and refreshes. [The function of] reading is in the bark, meditation in the pith, prayer in the request for what is desired, and contemplation in the enjoyment of the sweetness obtained. That one may grasp this more clearly, I will give one of many possible examples.

>In reading I hear: Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. Behold, this saying, brief but packed full with a sweet and multiple meaning for the soul to graze upon, provides, as it were, a cluster of grapes, and when the soul has diligently examined it she says to herself: “There could be something good here. I will withdraw into my heart and see whether perhaps I can find and understand this purity. For [most] precious and desirable is that thing whose possessors are called blessed, to which the vision of God—which is eternal life—is promised, which is highly praised by so many passages in sacred Scripture.” Desiring, therefore, to elaborate this more clearly for herself, she begins to chew and break this cluster of grapes, and places it, so to speak, in a wine press by arousing the power of reason to search out what this very precious purity is, and how it can be possessed.

>As diligent meditation goes to work, it does not remain outside, does not linger on the surface, but climbs higher, penetrates the interior [truths], and probes each one. Paying close attention, it considers that he did not say, Blessed are the pure of body, but the pure of heart; for to have hands innocent of evil deeds is not enough unless we be cleansed in mind from wicked thoughts. It confirms this by the authority of the prophet, when he says, Who shall ascend the mountain of God, or who shall stand in his holy place? He who is innocent in hands and pure of heart. It also considers how much that same prophet longs for this purity of heart, praying, A pure heart create in me, O God, and again, If I have contemplated iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. It thinks how anxious blessed Job was to guard [this purity] when he said, I made a covenant with my eyes that I would not so much as think about a virgin. See how much the holy man restrained himself: he shut his eyes lest he should see vanity, lest he should carelessly gaze upon what he would then unwillingly desire.

> After [meditation] has studied these and similar [truths] regarding purity of heart, it begins to think about the reward, how glorious and delightful it would be to see the longed-for face of the Lord, beautiful above the sons of men, no longer downcast and despicable, no longer clothed in the appearance given him by his mother, but wearing the robe of immortality and crowned with the diadem given him by his Father on the day of resurrection and glory, the day which the Lord has made. It ponders that this vision will offer that satisfaction of which the prophet says, I will be satisfied when your glory appears.

>Do you see how much juice has come from the smallest grape, how much fire has arisen from a spark, how much this small mass, Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God, has been stretched out on the anvil of meditation? But how much further it could still be stretched if someone experienced approached it! I perceive that the well is deep, but I am still a clumsy beginner and have scarcely found a small amount to draw from it. Inflamed by these fires, incited by these desires, the alabaster broken, the soul begins to have a presentiment of the ointment’s sweetness—not by the sense of taste as yet, but as it were by the sense of smell.

> Thence she infers how sweet it would be to experience this purity, if simply meditating upon it is so delightful. But what shall she do? The desire to have it consumes her, but she does not find within herself the means of having it; and the more she seeks, the more she thirsts. When she takes up meditation, she takes up sorrow, because she does not experience the sweetness that meditation shows to be in purity of heart without itself providing it. For to experience this sweetness belongs neither to the one who reads nor to the one who meditates unless it be given from above.

> For to read and to meditate is common to the good and to the wicked. Even the Gentile philosophers discovered what the main part of the true good consisted in, guided by the power of reason; but since when they had known God, they did not glorify him as God, and placing confidence in their own powers, they said, We will make our tongue great, our lips are from ourselves, they did not deserve to obtain what they were able to see. They became vain in their thoughts, and their wisdom was swallowed up—the wisdom that the pursuit of human learning gained for them, not the Spirit of wisdom, who alone gives true wisdom—that is, savory knowledge^2, which delights and refreshes the soul that possesses it with an invaluable flavor.

>Of this [wisdom] it is said, Wisdom will not enter a wicked soul. It comes only from God. And as the Lord has bestowed the faculty of baptizing on many, but has reserved the power and authority to remit sins in baptism for himself alone—hence John said, speaking antonomastically^3 and by way of distinction, This is he who baptizes—so also can we say of him, “This is he who gives the flavor of wisdom, and makes knowledge savory to the soul.” Words are given to all, but wisdom of soul only to a few; the Lord dispenses it to whom he wills, and when he wills.



> ^1 A 15th-century manuscript found at the abbey of Melk contains the following wonderful insertion: “Hence the Lord himself said: Seek, and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you (Matt. 7:7). Seek by reading, and you shall find by meditating; knock by praying, and it shall be opened to you by contemplation.”

> ^2 Guigo alludes here to a popular etymology according to which the word sapientia (“wisdom”) is formed from the combination of sapidus (“savory” or “sweet”) and scientia (“knowledge”).

> ^3 Antonomasia is a figure of speech whereby a title or epithet is substituted for a proper name; in this case “he who baptizes” replaces “Jesus.”



I also recommend this book


And this prayer