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)

Session 3

To Begin

We begin by stilling the body and mind, reflecting in our action our inner resolve to be only with God and his word for the four "moments" of lectio divina: reading, meditating, praying, contemplating.

from Michael Casey in Sacred Reading:

We begin to defer to another time the tasks remaining undone. This is the negative phase of moving into prayer or lectio: we place a temporary block on activities and concerns that belong to another part of the day. This is easier said than done, but it is not impossible. As the evacuation of thoughts proceeds, we gradually turn our minds and hearts to things of God.

Reading (lectio): Immersing ourselves in the word.

Scripture passage: Cure of a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath--Luke 13, 10 - 17

Again, Michael Casey:

Lectio divina is like reading poetry: we need to slow down, savor what we read, and allow the text to trigger memories and associations that reside below the threshold of consciousness. . . .One useful technique is to revert to the ancient practice of verbalizing as we read. This means that as we read we vocalize the words saying them quietly to ourselves or even aloud. . . .By adding sound to sight, reading aloud increases its power to both capture our attention and to evoke latent memories.

Meditating (meditatio): Finding the word or phrase that seems to call to us, to well up from the Spirit within.

From Lectio Divina by Painter and Wynkoop.

Meditation is like a key that unlocks something in our hearts and minds. Another image for meditation is the kaleidoscope that opens up new associations and patterns. . . .Meditation allows us to withdraw, to listen deeply and to be attuned to the Holy Spirit so that we can see our problems in a fresh new way.

Practical hint: If having difficulty with either Meditating or the next step Praying, you might try journaling. Simply write the word that has seemed to call out to you and any other words that seem to come to you. Then look at what you have written and listen to any connections the Spirit may be making in you. Surrender to the repetition of the word and any connections you might feel.

Praying ( oratio): Responding to God in prayer

Michael Casey in Sacred Reading:

Sometimes prayer wells up naturally during our lectio divina; in such cases we do no need much external guidance. At other times our reading may seem dry; then we have to prime the pump. If no prayer rises spontaneously from the text, we have to make a positive ewffort to add prayer. If prayer is slow in coming, it makes sense for us to go out and meet it halfway.

Again, a practical hint at this stage might be to journal a prayer. Just writing "Dear Lord" might get you started. Or the prayer might flow naturally out of the journaling done in meditating.

Contemplating (contemplatio): Responding to God in silence

Painter & Wynkoop, Lectio Divina

We move from reading the Word, to savoring individual words and allowing them to unfold within us. God touches our hearts and we respond with a yes to an invitation toward transofrmation. This leads to contemplatio, which is a prayer of soaking, of simply basking in the experience of love, of allowing that love to work its transforming renewal within.

Transformation & comment
We take the word, backed up by the insights and prayer we experienced, into our day. We say it whenever we have a lull in activity, when we are impatient, when we become aware of a special grace in our day. In this way, we become the word and the word shapes our life.

We share our insights or our difficulties by clicking on comment and entering our thoughts there. If you share, please remember to click publish so your comments will be posted.
Peace!

Schedule Reminder

Just a reminder--the upcoming posts, with new Lectio passages will emerge on the following dates:
Nov. 18
Dec. 2
Dec. 16
Jan 6, 2009

Meanwhile, feel free to comment on any of the past or current (Lesson 2) posts. Any comments and/or suggestions are welcome.

Thoughts about Lectio
From Fr. Thomas Keating:

The ripe fruit of the regular practice of Lectio Divina is assimilating the Word of God and being assimilated by it. It is a movement from conversation to communion. It also enables us to express our deep spiritual experience of union with God in words or symbols that are appropriate. There is thus a movement, not only iinto silence, but from silence into expression.

Father Thomas's complete article can be found on the Contemplative Outreach web site:
www.contemplativeoutreach.org (under "articles and resources" Lectio Divina)


From M. Robert Mulholland's Shaped by the Word (see your bibliography):

Keep asking yourself, "What is God seeking to say to me in all of this?" By adopting this posture toward the text, you will begin the process of reversing the learning mode that establishes you as the controlling power that seeks to master a body of information. Instead, you will begin to allow the text to become an instrument of God's grace in your life. You will begin to open yourself to the possibility of God setting the agenda for your life through the text.

Lectio Extension - Session 2

To Begin
The extension of our Lectio Divina learning is Chapter 4, "Lectio Divina" in Thelma Hall's book, Too Deep For Words. This chapter covers the four moments of lectio (see Session 1 Blog) but in great depth, especially oratio (prayer) and contemplatio (resting in God).

It is suggested that you read the highlights of the chapter reproduced below, then move into the practice of lectio.

After lectio, when you have space for spiritual reading, go back to Chapter 4 and read each section slowly, meditatively. There are many riches in those sections; they take time to digest.

Highlights of Chapter Four
Lectio:
I prepare for this sacred reading by taking time to quiet my body and mind, in order to bring my whole person into a single focus. . . .This is already the beginning of my response to a person, who calls me to open my mind and heart to him. . . .In all, my goal is to personalize the words, to real-ize them as God speaking to me, now.

Meditatio:
Each person's prayer relationship with the Lord is unique. . . .In some the imaginative faculty is more developed and active, and for such people the use of imagery may be very helpful to bring their meditation alive. . . . In this approach one enters by means of imagination a Gospel scene, seeing and hearing the person, imagining the touch and smells of the environment, etc. I might identify myself with some person in the scene, or be present there as myself, watching, listening, experiencing what is going on. . . . .What do I see? How shall I respond. . . .

One whose imagination is not so active or well developed but who is perhaps more intuitive might gain more by savoring the truth or insight inherent in the passage, deeply interiorizing what Jesus is saying by allowing his words to repeat themselves slowly again and again, in the depths of the heart, until it is deeply penetrated with Jesus' assuring love, and spontaneously responds in kind.

Oratio:
This [moment] is the real beginning of prayer. . . .
For the goal of prayer is not thoughts or concepts or knowledge about God, however sublime, but God himself as he is, mysteriously hidden in my deepest, true self. . . .[An] increase of "holy desire" is one of the effects of Oratio. By it God creates in us a greater capacity for himself, not only by our longing but sometimes through the very frustration and powerlessness we experience as we reach out blindly toward him. It is as though we are being drawn by a magnetic force in our own depths, toward God as our center of gravity, where that center coincides with our true self.

Contemplatio:
All that is asked of us is that we "stay quiet before Yahweh, wait longingly for him" (Ps 37:7a).

Opening Prayer and Scripture:
Lord, let me be open to your spirit in the words of scripture. Let me hear you as I listen. Let me rest in you as I respond. Let me carry your words into my day. Amen.

Pray the moments of lectio using the following scripture passage: Lk 9:46-50 (p. 97 in Hall's book)

After Lectio Divina:
You are invited to share insights, problems, prayer, questions, and comments that have emerged as a result of your time with the Word. Simply click on "comments" below this posting, remembering to publish your comment as you sign out.

Suggestion for taking the Word into your day: Write the word or phrase that caught you today on a post-it note, or on two or three. Place the note(s) on your bedroom/bath mirror, inside your wallet or purse and perhaps on your computer or dashboard. You will be reminded of the moments of resting in God and carry His love with you on your way.

Lectio Extension- Session 1

To Begin
The purpose of these first sessions will be to get you acquainted with both Thelma Hall's book and to provide practice in the monastic method of Lectio Divina, done in private and shared on the blog. Passages for Lectio will be indicated, but you will need to look them up in your own Bible.

Reading I
"The Deepening of an Interpersonal Relationship." Ch. 3, Too Deep for Words, by Thelma Hall.
Thelma Hall's emphasis on relationship in prayer echoes what we heard from Mike Potter in the Lectio Divina workshop. Note especially her comments on the grace of accepted love (p. 28--).

Lectio Divina

Opening Prayer
Lord, We believe that you wish to communicate with us through the words of sacred Scripture. Let our listening to and reading these words open us to ponder more deeply your message. May the message touch our hearts and lead us to respond.
This we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Scripture
Is: 43, 2 - 7 Do not be afraid for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine. . . .I am. . . . your God. . . .I regard you as precious. . . .and I love you. . . .
(The passage is taken from Hall's book, p. 59. Be sure to go to the Bible and read the entire passage.)

Moments in Lectio as we practiced in the workshop (Handout #4)
Lectio: Listening to the word of God, becoming aware of any word or phrase that that catches your attention.
Meditatio: Reflecting on the Word of God. Reading/Listening the second time be aware of any thought or reflection.
Oratio: Responding to the Word of God. Reading/Listening for the third time be aware of any prayer that rises up within you, expressing what you are experiencing.
Contemplatio: Resting in the Word of God. Reading/Listening to the Word of God for the fourth time, just sit with the word and allow God to speak to you in the silence of your hearts.

Take the word or phrase that you spent time with into your day. Let it remind you to consent to God's action and presence within you.

Response
You are invited to share your response to any of our reading, but especially to the Scripture. To respond on the blog simply click on "comments," type your comment in, remembering to click on publish when through.

Note
From the Lectio Divina Workshop: This is an organic, natural process. Let the spirit flow; put yourself in God's hands. Don't try to manipulate the process. If it seems awkward at first, keep on anyway. It will ease as you practice. (that's why they call it practice :-)