Session 6, Concluding Post

This Session concludes our follow up series putting in practice what we learned from our workshop by Mike Potter on October 18. My thanks to all who followed this blog in any way. I encourage you to comment on this session or to let us know in an email what your experience of the blog has been, if and how your understanding or practice of Lectio Divina has been changed.

For this session I'll again insert some wisdom from books on our bibliography, give the moments, reproduce the scripture, then close with a prayer, and hope you will comment.


Opening Prayer
Gracious God, let me be open to your Word, to your Spirit as you seek me and transform me through this reading. Amen.

from Sacred Reading by Michael Casey

What we sometimes forget is that this gift of salvation often runs counter to our own perceptions and expectations. The disposition that makes us capable of receiving salvation includes a willingness to be guided and to be changed.
Of our own free choice we entrust ourselves to the book we are reading. We come to it defenseless and ready to be influenced. . . .God's saving of us takes place by dragging us beyond our own comfort zone into new territory and new adventures. . . .This means that we have to stop trying to control the process. We have to take the risk of reading what is before us, allowing it to speak to our hearts and consciences and to cause us to look in a direction we had previously ignored. (p. 6)

The moments of Lectio Divina as presented by Mariano Magrassi in Praying the Bible
Lectio--Reading

The starting point is reading. With it I get ready to listen: God speaks to me. It is the moment when, as Jerome would say, "I unfurl my sails to the Holy Spirit" in whom I have the joy of hearing the Lord's true voice.

Full hearing requires attentive reading. . . .contemplative calm.

Read the Scripture, slowly, letting the words sink in.

Meditatio--Meditation, Reflection

First, we must create within our heart a flexible space of resonance, so that the Word can penetrate its deepest parts and touch its innermost fibers. This demands the kind of recollection we feel the need for when something great and beautiful appears in our life.

The quiet at the end of a piece of music, or the space that opens up when we see a painting that draws us in, or the gasp of awe when we have read a poem that speaks to where we are in our lives. This kind of reflection, of questioning--what am I attracted by? What is it saying to me? What is it pointing to or illuminating in my life?

Read the Scripture again, listening for the call of a word or phrase. Sit with the word or phrase for a few moments, unfurl your defenses and go where the Spirit leads you.

Oratio--Prayer

Meditative reading as we have described it leads spontaneously to prayer. In fact, it is prayer: "Reading too is Prayer." (St. Irenaeus of Marseilles) In any case, the two activities complement each other. They are two moments in the mystical dialogue, harmoniously alternating. The soul leaves it reading to run to God.

Read the Scripture yet again and let yourself run to God--with thanksgiving, with questions, with fear, with awe, in short with all the humanity that needs healing, needs to connect with God's life in us.

Contemplatio--Contemplation, Resting in God

Contemplation is certainly the peak of this entire activity. It is not something superimposed from without but is like a delicious fruit that ripens on the tree of Bible reading. And it is a normal fruit--provided we do not understand the term to mean extraordinary mystical graces. There is, in fact, a form of contemplation available to us all. It is a normal complement of the Christian life taken seriously.

To contemplate means to enter into a relationship of faith and love with the God of truth and life, who has revealed his face to us in Christ. That face is revealed to us on every page of the Bible. All we need to do is look: open ourselves to the light, and desire that it shine in us.

Read, Rest in God.

Scripture-- Matthew 4: 12-17, 23-25
When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galiliee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled:

Land of Zebulun and land of Napthali
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galillee of the Gentiles,
the people who sit in darkness
have seen a great light,
On those in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.

From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand."

He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every diesease and illness among the people. His famer spread to all of Syria, and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases and racked with pain, those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds from Galillee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed him.


Read, Meditate, Pray, Rest/Contemplate


Then take the fruits of this time into the rest of your life. Perhaps take a word or phrase with you to be an active prayer sentence and recall you to the presence of God as you move through your day. Perhaps take a resolution to reread this passage before bed at night, that you may expand what you've learned from God today. Perhaps share with a spiritual friend what you have found in todays reading.

Of course your comments on the blog are most welcome!


Concluding Prayer
Good and Gracious God, may the reading of this blog and the Suggested Scripture passages bring to those who participated the grace of renewed love of your Word. May the graces I have felt with me as I put into practice what the workshop taught be experienced too, by those who continue in Lectio. With thanks for the blessings of this project, in Jesus name I pray,
Amen

Resources

Overview and Bibliography

From Contemplative Outreach Ltd.; found in your folder from Oct. 18 and online at

http://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_practices_lectio

Online Course

http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ecourses/ecourses.php?id=45&key=co

Session 5

Prayer:

Come Holy Spirit, pour into my heart from the depths of the Trinity, the rays of your light.

Help me listen more deeply to the words of scripture you have enflamed.

May your holy fire penetrate our hearts and minds

so that we in turn may penetrate your words at ever deepening levels of understanding, and response.

Lectio: (Prayerful Reading) Luke 1: 26-38

The Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her he said "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you." But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

Then the angel said to her, "Do no be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David, His Father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

But Mary said to the angel "How can this be since I have no relations with a man?" And the angel said to her in reply, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth monthfor her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.

Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

Meditatio: (Ruminating on the scripture)

Reading this second time be aware of the difference between reading for information and reading for formation. Though bible study can be an important background to lectio divina, it is not, in itself, lectio. In reading about the bible we read for information. As M.R. Mulholland explains:

There must be this constant interplay between the informational and formational modes of reading. But the informational mode is only the "front porch" of the role of scripture in spiritual formation. It is the point of entry into the text. But once we have crossed the porch we must enter into that deeper encounter with the Word that is the formational approach, if we are to esperience our false self being shaped by the Word toward wholeness in the image of Christ. . . .Only in the formational mode where that shif of the inner posture of our being takes place, can we become listeners. Only in that mode can we become receptive and accessible to be addressed by the living Word of God. (Shaped by the Word, p. 62)

Such listening is especially important with familiar scripture passages such as the one from Luke. The scene of the Annunciation has been read over and over in our liturgies, and painted countless times by artists in chapels and palaces throughout the ages. In our own reading of this passage it is important to find the way the words can form us. An example of such listening can be found in Barbara E. Reid's column, A Dwelling Place for God in the Dec. 15 issue of America magazine.

While not spelling out how, Gabriel Reassures Mary that in the midst of this messy situation, God will bring forth blessing, holiness and salvation for all. Twice God's messenger assures her that she is grace-filled and is favored in God's sight, even if others will question this. He also reassures her that she is not alone. Her relative, Elizabeth, will help mentor and support her. Without knowing how God will accomplish all this, Mary opens a space for God to dwell within her, enabling the divine to make a new home within all humankind.

Oratio: (prayer rising like incense from the third reading)

Having listened by reading and reflection, you can now speak in prayer. If you know what the text says and what the texts says to you, now what do you say to God?

Fr. Bernardo Olivera

Contemplatio: (Reading again, we come to rest in the Word)

There is an inner dynamic in the evolution of all true love that leads to a level of communication "too deep for words." There the lover becomes inarticulate, falls silent, and the beloved receives the silence as eloquence. . . .a simple and time-honored way of prayer. . .through a gentle unfolding, opens us to that deep level of communication with the Divine. From earliest times in Christian tradition, the way has been known as "Lectio Divina." (Thelma Hall, Too Deep for Words, p. 7)

Response (Taking the word into daily life)

One good way to respond is to comment on the blog, to share your insights with others who share your reading.

We also respond when we ask ourselves how we have been visited by God? What experiences have we had, of help, for example, in times of stress and difficulty? What have we seen or heard of the presence of God in our lives? Who are the people in our lives who mentor and support and Elizabeth did Mary? Having mulled the words of scripture, rested in the word and felt the presence, we return to daily life transformed. As St. Francis of Assisi has said: preach the gospel at all times; if necessary use words.

Note: The next, and final, blog session will appear Dec. 30.

Session 4

Review Notes

Why practice Lectio Divina? (also known as holy reading)

This way of "being " with the Scriptures, of taking a passage, perhaps only of a few lines or a few words, seems to many in our modern and post-modern culture (16th-21st centuries) to be a waste of time. The mind can range freely over paragraphs and pages at a short sitting. We turn to lengthy and learned commentaries to understand the meaning of the Scriptures, instead of spending time with the sacred Word of God itself. But what the ancients discovered was that the Scriptures often hide their message from the grasping mind, hungry for mere information, and only reveal it to the heart thirsting for meaning, salvation, and God's holy consolation. . . .The Scriptures, after all, come from the love of God and can only be understood by those who read them with faith and love.

by the late Abbot, Francis Kline OCSO, in Chapter & Verse, the Mepkin Abbey newsletter, Spring and Summer 2006.

Lectio, as I shall refer to it hereafter, is a holistic way of prayer which disposes, opens and "in-forms" us for the gift of contemplation God waits to give, by leading us to a meeting place with him in our deepest center, his life-giving dwelling place. It begins this movement by introducing us to the power of the word of God in scripture to speak to the most intimate depths of our hearts to gift and challenge and change us, and to promote genuine spiritual growth and maturity."

by Thelma Hall in Too Deep for Words, p. 7.


How to Select Readings

• Thelma Hall's book, Too Deep for Words, has a large section of passages, arranged by topic.
• Christine Painter and Lucy Wynkoop's book, Lectio Divina, has a similar section titled "Shortened Lectio for Busy Days."
• The late Abbot Kline from Mepkin Abbey recommends that we begin by doing the Sunday or daily readings of the Church, being in tune with the liturgical season. Or, he suggests that one might want to read a book, or an epistle,or a gospel, in other words, a whole section of the Bible, a little at a time, even if it takes several weeks to complete.

Scripture for Session 3

Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11

Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; indeed she has received from the hand of the lord double for all her sins.

A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with poser the Lord God, who rules by his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.

The Moments of Lectio Divina

Reading
Sows the Word in your heart

Reflecting
Waters the Word in your heart

Responding
Roots the Word in your heart

Resting
The Word flowers and bears fruit in your heart

in the Contemplative Life Program booklet, Lectio Divina, excerpted from Fr. Carl Arico in Taste of Silence

The fruit is that we become the word of God--

That perfect love of God, by which we were loved first,
will pass into our heart’s disposition…

and then every love,
every desire,
every effort,
every undertaking,
every thought of ours,
everything that we live,
that we speak,
that we breathe
will be God…
whatever we understand
will be God…

John Cassian (reprinted from the Contemplative Outreach Lectio Divina workshop slides)