Stop for a moment. Listen to all the voices around you

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Stop for a moment. Listen to all the voices around you. I don’t mean the voices that might be accidentally reaching your ear from nearby speakers. I mean the hundreds of meaningful communications being beamed to you from all parts of the world. You can’t hear them? Well, get out your little transistor radio and tune in. Given sufficient power and finesse in your radio, you can tune in to any message you want.

When we come to lectio empowered by faith, we tune in to the Word beamed to us by God, whether it is coming to us through the printed page before us, the voice of a reader, or the inner voice or imaginative page offered to us from memory. Since we don’t have to have a book in front of us to do lectio, the blind and sight-impaired can still do lectio, as many an old monk and nun will tell you. But our inner attitude—the listening we are—will make all the difference in our ability to hear what God is saying to us.

Certain dispositions are indispensable and enhance our reception making our listening able to receive the divine communication. These dispositions do not run down like the batteries in our transistor but rather grow in strength like a muscle if they are properly exercised, for like our muscle they are a gift from God, available for development with our cooperation. M. Basil Pennington from his book Lectio Divina
 
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contemplative:
Stop for a moment. Listen to all the voices around you. I don’t mean the voices that might be accidentally reaching your ear from nearby speakers. I mean the hundreds of meaningful communications being beamed to you from all parts of the world. You can’t hear them? Well, get out your little transistor radio and tune in. Given sufficient power and finesse in your radio, you can tune in to any message you want.

When we come to lectio empowered by faith, we tune in to the Word beamed to us by God, whether it is coming to us through the printed page before us, the voice of a reader, or the inner voice or imaginative page offered to us from memory. Since we don’t have to have a book in front of us to do lectio, the blind and sight-impaired can still do lectio, as many an old monk and nun will tell you. But our inner attitude—the listening we are—will make all the difference in our ability to hear what God is saying to us.

Certain dispositions are indispensable and enhance our reception making our listening able to receive the divine communication. These dispositions do not run down like the batteries in our transistor but rather grow in strength like a muscle if they are properly exercised, for like our muscle they are a gift from God, available for development with our cooperation. M. Basil Pennington from his book Lectio Divina
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Certain dispositions are indispensable and enhance our reception making our listening able to receive the divine communication
Faith
Humility
Openness
Faithfulness

I can elaborate on any of these (as written by Pennington) by request.
 
I’ve read that book, but it’s refreshing to see it posted here. We need more of this…

Thank you so much for sharing that.

Mike
 
Humility please, I find this extremely interesting, thank you.
 
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allhers:
Humility please, I find this extremely interesting, thank you.
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An important disposition for the operation of living faith within us is humility, the full acceptance of reality is that we very much need and want the divine communication. Humility is the acceptance of our profound ignorance with regard to God as well as to so many other things. We know what we know, and it is not very much. We know what we do not know, and that is a lot more. And we accept the fact that beyond this there is an infinity that we do not even know we do not know. We know that our mind and our heart, our feeling and our emotions, our body and our soul are all a listening, given to us by God, and that this listening can only be filled by the Giver. We come to our listening hungry and thirst, filled with longing and need. And God who is mighty does great things for us. He fills the hungry with good things. M. Basil Pennington from his book Lectio Divina
 
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contemplative:
An important disposition for the operation of living faith within us is humility, the full acceptance of reality is that we very much need and want the divine communication. Humility is the acceptance of our profound ignorance with regard to God as well as to so many other things. We know what we know, and it is not very much. We know what we do not know, and that is a lot more. And we accept the fact that beyond this there is an infinity that we do not even know we do not know. We know that our mind and our heart, our feeling and our emotions, our body and our soul are all a listening, given to us by God, and that this listening can only be filled by the Giver. We come to our listening hungry and thirst, filled with longing and need. And God who is mighty does great things for us. He fills the hungry with good things. M. Basil Pennington from his book Lectio Divina
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Thank you. Brings to mind about how our ways are not His ways and that our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.
more please, how about just a little from each catagory?
 
Faith - another component of lectio Divina

First and foremost is the disposition of faith, a firm belief that the Word of God is the Word of God. For the full and effective reception of the communication, we believe not only that the Word who is God speaks to us through this inspired Word, But that the word is truly present in his inspired Word and present to us as he communicates with us through the Word.

Faith enables us to find and hear the Word, one with the Father and the Spirit, in his Word. But as St. Paul told us, faith comes through hearing. Even as we faithfully hear the Word, the Word renews and strengthens our faith. This is brought about not just by hearing again of the words and deeds of God in salvation history and in Person of Jesus and in the witness of those who saw and believed. At the deeper level, this actual experience of the Word brings us to that point where we can say with Paul: “I know in whom I believe.” M. Basil Pennington from his book Lectio Divina
 
Openess - another component to lectio Divina

While an insensitivity to this need will make it difficult for us to be faithful in our regular practice of lectio, one of the things that can most undermine our actual practice of lectio is a subtle or not-so-subtle boredom that seems to say: “I’ve heard all this before.” It is precisely the alert listening for a Real Presence—our openness to all that is possible in the moment—that forestalls this. I am not simply reading a book I have read so often before. I am meeting a Person, a Divine Person, the God who loves me and who has a wondrous plan for me.

Our familiarity does tend to take away the shock that the Bible, especially the Hebrew Bible, should be for Christians. Coming to know the God and Father of infinite love and compassion, patience, and mercy, the Prodigal Father revealed by Jesus Christ, the revelation of God that we find in the early unfolding of salvation history is certainly not what we would expect. At least not at first thought. It takes a bit of insight to see the God of Love lovingly adapting himself to a very primitive people, meeting them where they are and leading them to take the next small step in faith and trust that can lead to the high moments of friendship and love that do constantly break through. One of the lessons for us to learn here is this way of Divine Love. God made us. He know the greatest thing he has given us is our freedom, because herein lies our power to love, the source of our merit and our potential to enter into the communion of Divine Life. He does not want to overwhelm or impair this freedom. So he gently leads us, bit by bit, into the intuitions of Divine Love. No matter what the words are that we read as communications of his love, or how many times we have encountered them before, there is an opportunity for the love to expand and at the same time fill our listening for the Divine each and every time we meet our God of love in our lectio. M. Basil Pennington from his book Lectio Divina
 
-Faithfullness-

One more essential ingredient for the true experience of lectio is a disposition of faithfulness to the practice.

For our lectio to reach its full receptivity is a thing of love. It is the sensitivity of lovers that enables us to intuit more fully what the Divine Lover is seeking to convey to us through his Words of Love. Again, so obviously, we are here in a wondrous spiral. The more our love receives the intuitions of love, the more we get to know the Lover through our lectio, the more we love. This is why fidelity of lectio makes it ever more delightful—a lover exploring ever more intimately the Beloved. And we not only get to know the love and the Lover more, we get to know ourselves more as we come to see ourselves, as it were, in the eyes of the Beloved.

As powerful as all this is, there is still another whole dimension that takes us far beyond this place, infinitely so. This is the action of Holy Spirit through the gifts. As our spirit enters into a unity of spirit with the Divine Spirit of Love, we are brought into that experience of God that no eye has seen, no ear has heard—an experience that has not even entered into the loftiest concept of the human mind. Ultimately this word lectio describes a communication of love—a contemplative experience. M. Basil Pennington from his book Lectio Divina
 
A young associate pastor a couple months ago actually led Lectio session during the homily! 🙂

This associate pastor has now gone to Kapaun High School as spiritual director for the school.

Then my daughter came home and said, "dad, guess what? You wouldn’t believe what my religion teacher told us today! He said, “I’m going to teach you children something off the syllabus that nobody taught me when I was your age – Lectio Divina.”

On parents’ night the other night, I met him. He is a priest, probably late 30s, very nice and gentle and as concerned for the kids as any teacher I’ve seen. I let him know how much I appreciated what my daughter has come home and told me so far about this class.

Alan
 
The Listening That We Are ~ another excerpt from Lectio Divina by Basil Pennington

One day, when I had gathered my monastic community together for a sharing, I brought in a book. I had made a special cover for the book. The front was red, the spine white, and the back green. I held the book up with the spine toward the center of the community gathering. Then I asked a monk on my left: “What color is this book?" “Red,” he said with assurance. Then I asked a monk on my right. With equal assurance he declared: “Green.” They were, of course, both right and both wrong. Without a shifting of their position in the group, neither of them could approach the whole truth, except by accepting the other’s “listening” or perception of reality. Together they could come to a fuller possession of the truth, yet it would still be incomplete without at least a third perspective to include the spine. This is part of the great value of meeting, of dialogue, of sharing Scripture, of shared lectio.

Our individual listening then is in part defined by our position in time and place. We do have the privilege of living in the time of the fullness of the Revelation, of living among the People of God to whom that Revelation is delivered. We have the grace of our times of being able to receive easily the Revelation in our own Bible and in other forms of the media. But far more than time and place, our listening is profoundly influenced by our attitudes, our experiences, and our prejudices.
 
PAX

May I Hear without a word spoken…

May I See without light glow’n…

May I Feel without a breeze blowing…

May I Be without God Will’n…
 
ACCEPTING THE
EMBRACE OF GOD:
THE ANCIENT ART of LECTIO DIVINA

by Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B.

1.THE PROCESS of* LECTIO DIVINA*

A VERY ANCIENT art, practiced at one time by all Christians, is the technique known as lectio divina - a slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible, the Word of God, to become a means of union with God. This ancient practice has been kept alive in the Christian monastic tradition, and is one of the precious treasures of Benedictine monastics and oblates. Together with the Liturgy and daily manual labor, time set aside in a special way for *lectio divina *enables us to discover in our daily life an underlying spiritual rhythm. Within this rhythm we discover an increasing ability to offer more of ourselves and our relationships to the Father, and to accept the embrace that God is continuously extending to us in the person of his Son Jesus Christ.

Lectio - reading/listening

THE ART of lectio divina begins with cultivating the ability to listen deeply, to hear “with the ear of our hearts” as St. Benedict encourages us in the Prologue to the Rule. When we read the Scriptures we should try to imitate the prophet Elijah. We should allow ourselves to become women and men who are able to listen for the still, small voice of God (*I Kings *19:12); the “faint murmuring sound” which is God’s word for us, God’s voice touching our hearts. This gentle listening is an “atunement” to the presence of God in that special part of God’s creation which is the Scriptures.

THE CRY of the prophets to ancient Israel was the joy-filled command to “Listen!” “Sh’ma Israel: Hear, O Israel!” In lectio divina we, too, heed that command and turn to the Scriptures, knowing that we must “hear” - listen - to the voice of God, which often speaks very softly. In order to hear someone speaking softly we must learn to be silent. We must learn to love silence. If we are constantly speaking or if we are surrounded with noise, we cannot hear gentle sounds. The practice of lectio divina, therefore, requires that we first quiet down in order to hear God’s word to us. This is the first step of lectio divina, appropriately called *lectio *- reading.

THE READING or listening which is the first step in lectio divina is very different from the speed reading which modern Christians apply to newspapers, books and even to the Bible. Lectio is reverential listening; listening both in a spirit of silence and of awe. We are listening for the still, small voice of God that will speak to us personally - not loudly, but intimately. In *lectio *we read slowly, attentively, gently listening to hear a word or phrase that is God’s word for us this day.

Meditatio - meditation

ONCE WE have found a word or a passage in the Scriptures which speaks to us in a personal way, we must take it in and “ruminate” on it. The image of the ruminant animal quietly chewing its cud was used in antiquity as a symbol of the Christian pondering the Word of God. Christians have always seen a scriptural invitation to lectio divina in the example of the Virgin Mary “pondering in her heart” what she saw and heard of Christ (Luke 2:19). For us today these images are a reminder that we must take in the word - that is, memorize it - and while gently repeating it to ourselves, allow it to interact with our thoughts, our hopes, our memories, our desires. This is the second step or stage in lectio divina - meditatio. Through meditatio we allow God’s word to become His word for us, a word that touches us and affects us at our deepest levels.

continued…
 
Oratio - prayer

THE THIRD step in lectio divina is oratio - prayer: prayer understood both as dialogue with God, that is, as loving conversation with the One who has invited us into His embrace; and as consecration, prayer as the priestly offering to God of parts of ourselves that we have not previously believed God wants. In this consecration-prayer we allow the word that we have taken in and on which we are pondering to touch and change our deepest selves. Just as a priest consecrates the elements of bread and wine at the Eucharist, God invites us in lectio divina to hold up our most difficult and pain-filled experiences to Him, and to gently recite over them the healing word or phrase He has given us in our lectio and meditatio. In this oratio, this consecration-prayer, we allow our real selves to be touched and changed by the word of God.

Contemplatio - contemplation

FINALLY, WE simply rest in the presence of the One who has used His word as a means of inviting us to accept His transforming embrace. No one who has ever been in love needs to be reminded that there are moments in loving relationships when words are unnecessary. It is the same in our relationship with God. Wordless, quiet rest in the presence of the One Who loves us has a name in the Christian tradition - contemplatio, contemplation. Once again we practice silence, letting go of our own words; this time simply enjoying the experience of being in the presence of God.

to be continued…
 
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allhers:
Thank you. Brings to mind about how our ways are not His ways and that our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.
more please, how about just a little from each catagory?
Click to expand...
Hey, didn’t St. Augustine say that? Or was it another saint? I know it started with an A!
 
  1. THE UNDERLYING RHYTHM of* LECTIO DIVINA*
IF WE are to practice lectio divina effectively, we must travel back in time to an understanding that today is in danger of being almost completely lost. In the Christian past the words action (or practice, from the Greek *praktikos) *and contemplation did not describe different kinds of Christians engaging (or not engaging) in different forms of prayer and apostolates. Practice and contemplation were understood as the two poles of our underlying, ongoing spiritual rhythm: a gentle oscillation back and forth between spiritual “activity” with regard to God and “receptivity.”

PRACTICE - spiritual “activity” - referred in ancient times to our active cooperation with God’s grace in rooting out vices and allowing the virtues to flourish. The direction of spiritual activity was not outward in the sense of an apostolate, but inward - down into the depths of the soul where the Spirit of God is constantly transforming us, refashioning us in God’s image. The active life is thus coming to see who we truly are and allowing ourselves to be remade into what God intends us to become.

IN THE early monastic tradition contemplation was understood in two ways. First was theoria physike, the contemplation of God in creation - God in “the many.” Second was theologia, the contemplation of God in Himself without images or words - God as “The One.” From this perspective lectio divina serves as a training-ground for the contemplation of God in His creation.

IN CONTEMPLATION we cease from interior spiritual doing and learn simply to be, that is to rest in the presence of our loving Father. Just as we constantly move back and forth in our exterior lives between speaking and listening, between questioning and reflecting, so in our spiritual lives we must learn to enjoy the refreshment of simply being in God’s presence, an experience that naturally alternates (if we let it!) with our spiritual practice.

IN ANCIENT times contemplation was not regarded as a goal to be achieved through some method of prayer, but was simply accepted with gratitude as God’s recurring gift. At intervals the Lord invites us to cease from speaking so that we can simply rest in his embrace. This is the pole of our inner spiritual rhythm called contemplation.

HOW DIFFERENT this ancient understanding is from our modern approach! Instead of recognizing that we all gently oscillate back and forth between spiritual activity and receptivity, between practice and contemplation, we today tend to set contemplation before ourselves as a goal - something we imagine we can achieve through some spiritual technique. We must be willing to sacrifice our “goal-oriented” approach if we are to practice lectio divina, because lectio divina has no other goal than spending time with God through the medium of His word. The amount of time we spend in any aspect of lectio divina, whether it be rumination, consecration or contemplation depends on God’s Spirit, not on us. *Lectio divina *teaches us to savor and delight in all the different flavors of God’s presence, whether they be active or receptive modes of experiencing Him.

IN LECTIO DIVINA we offer ourselves to God; and we are people in motion. In ancient times this inner spiritual motion was described as a helix - an ascending spiral. Viewed in only two dimensions it appears as a circular motion back and forth; seen with the added dimension of time it becomes a helix, an ascending spiral by means of which we are drawn ever closer to God. The whole of our spiritual lives were viewed in this way, as a gentle oscillation between spiritual activity and receptivity by means of which God unites us ever closer to Himself. In just the same way the steps or stages of lectio divina represent an oscillation back and forth between these spiritual poles. In lectio divina we recognize our underlying spiritual rhythm and discover many different ways of experiencing God’s presence - many different ways of praying. by Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B.
to be continued…
 
  1. THE PRACTICE of LECTIO DIVINA
*****Private Lectio Divina
*CHOOSE a text of the Scriptures that you wish to pray. Many Christians use in their daily lectio divina one of the readings from the Eucharistic liturgy for the day; others prefer to slowly work through a particular book of the Bible. It makes no difference which text is chosen, as long as one has no set goal of “covering” a certain amount of text: the amount of text “covered” is in God’s hands, not yours.

PLACE YOURSELF in a comfortable position and allow yourself to become silent. Some Christians focus for a few moments on their breathing; other have a beloved “prayer word” or “prayer phrase” they gently recite in order to become interiorly silent. For some the practice known as “centering prayer” makes a good, brief introduction to lectio divina. Use whatever method is best for you and allow yourself to enjoy silence for a few moments.

THEN TURN to the text and read it slowly, gently. Savor each portion of the reading, constantly listening for the “still, small voice” of a word or phrase that somehow says, “I am for you today.” Do not expect lightening or ecstasies. In *lectio divina *God is teaching us to listen to Him, to seek Him in silence. He does not reach out and grab us; rather, He softly, gently invites us ever more deeply into His presence.

NEXT TAKE the word or phrase into yourself. Memorize it and slowly repeat it to yourself, allowing it to interact with your inner world of concerns, memories and ideas. Do not be afraid of “distractions.” Memories or thoughts are simply parts of yourself which, when they rise up during lectio divina, are asking to be given to God along with the rest of your inner self. Allow this inner pondering, this rumination, to invite you into dialogue with God.

THEN, SPEAK to God. Whether you use words or ideas or images or all three is not important. Interact with God as you would with one who you know loves and accepts you. And give to Him what you have discovered in yourself during your experience of meditatio. Experience yourself as the priest that you are. Experience God using the word or phrase that He has given you as a means of blessing, of transforming the ideas and memories, which your pondering on His word has awakened. Give to God what you have found within your heart.

FINALLY, SIMPLY rest in God’s embrace. And when He invites you to return to your pondering of His word or to your inner dialogue with Him, do so. Learn to use words when words are helpful, and to let go of words when they no longer are necessary. Rejoice in the knowledge that God is with you in both words and silence, in spiritual activity and inner receptivity.

SOMETIMES IN LECTIO *DIVINA one will return several times to the printed text, either to savor the literary context of the word or phrase that God has given, or to seek a new word or phrase to ponder. At other times only a single word or phrase will fill the whole time set aside for lectio divina. It is not necessary to anxiously assess the quality of one’s lectio divina as if one were “performing” or seeking some goal: lectio divina has no goal other than that of being in the presence of God by praying the Scriptures. by Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B.
to be continued…
 
Lectio Divina as a Group Exercise

**
**

IN THE churches of the Third World where books are rare, a form of corporate* lectio divina* is becoming common in which a text from the Scriptures is pondered by Christians praying together in a group. The method of group lectio divina described here was introduced at St. Andrew’s Abbey by oblates Doug and Norvene Vest: it is used as part of the Benedictine Spirituality for Laity workshop conducted at the Abbey each summer.

THIS FORM of lectio divina works best in a group of between four and eight people. A group leader coordinates the process and facilitates sharing. The same text from the Scriptures is read out three times, followed each time by a period of silence and an opportunity for each member of the group to share the fruit of her or his lectio.

THE FIRST reading (the text is actually read twice on this occasion) is for the purpose of hearing a word or passage that touches the heart. When the word or phrase is found, it is silently taken in, and gently recited and pondered during the silence which follows. After the silence each person shares which word or phrase has touched his or her heart.

THE SECOND reading (by a member of the opposite sex from the first reader) is for the purpose of “hearing” or “seeing” Christ in the text. Each ponders the word that has touched the heart and asks where the word or phrase touches his or her life that day. In other words, how is Christ the Word touching his own experience, his own life? How are the various members of the group seeing or hearing Christ reach out to them through the text? Then, after the silence, each member of the group shares what he or she has “heard” or “seen.”

THE THIRD and final reading is for the purpose of experiencing Christ “calling us forth” into *doing *or being. Members ask themselves what Christ in the text is calling them to *do *or to become today or this week. After the silence, each shares for the last time; and the exercise concludes with each person praying for the person on the right.

THOSE WHO who regularly practice this method of praying and sharing the Scriptures regularly find it to be an excellent way of developing trust within a group; it also is an excellent way of consecrating projects and hopes to Christ before more formal group meetings. A summary of this method for group lectio divina is appended at the end of this article. by Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B.
to be continued…
 
Lectio Divina on Life

IN THE ancient tradition lectio divina was understood as being one of the most important ways in which Christians experience God in creation. After all, the Scriptures are part of creation! If one is daily growing in the art of finding Christ in the pages of the Bible, one naturally begins to discover Him more clearly in aspects of the other things He has made. This includes, of course, our own personal history.

OUR OWN lives are fit matter for lectio divina. Very often our concerns, our relationships, our hopes and aspirations naturally intertwine with our pondering on the Scriptures, as has been described above. But sometimes it is fitting to simply sit down and “read” the experiences of the last few days or weeks in our hearts, much as we might slowly read and savor the words of Scripture in *lectio divina. *We can attend “with the ear of our hearts” to our own memories, listening for God’s gentle presence in the events of our lives. We thus allow ourselves the joy of experiencing Christ reaching out to us through our own memories. Our own personal story becomes “salvation history.”

FOR THOSE who are new to the practice of lectio divina a group experience of "lectio on life" can provide a helpful introduction. An approach that has been used at workshops at St. Andrew’s Priory is detailed at the end of this article. Like the experience of *lectio divina *shared in community, this group experience of *lectio *on life can foster relationships in community and enable personal experiences to be consecrated - offered to Christ - in a concrete way.

HOWEVER, UNLIKE scriptural *lectio divina *shared in community, this group *lectio *on life contains more silence than sharing. The role of group facilitators or leaders is important, since they will be guiding the group through several periods of silence and reflection without the “interruption” of individual sharing until the end of the exercise. Since the experiences we choose to “read” or “listen to” may be intensely personal, it is important in this group exercise to safeguard privacy by making sharing completely optional.

IN BRIEF, one begins with restful silence, then gently reviews the events of a given period of time. One seeks an event, a memory, which touches the heart just as a word or phrase in scriptural lectio divina does. One then recalls the setting, the circumstances; one seeks to discover how God seemed to be present or absent from the experience. One then offers the event to God and rests for a time in silence. by Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B.
to be continued…
 
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