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

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CONCLUSION

LECTIO *DIVINA is an ancient spiritual art that is being rediscovered in our day. It is a way of allowing the Scriptures to become again what God intended that they should be - a means of uniting us to Himself. In lectio divina we discover our own underlying spiritual rhythm. We experience God in a gentle oscillation back and forth between spiritual activity and receptivity, in the movement from practice into contemplation and back again into spiritual practice.

*LECTIO DIVINA teaches us about the God who truly loves us. In lectio divina *we dare to believe that our loving Father continues to extend His embrace to us today. And His embrace is real. In His word we experience ourselves as personally loved by God; as the recipients of a word which He gives uniquely to each of us whenever we turn to Him in the Scriptures.

*FINALLY, lectio divina teaches us about ourselves. In lectio divina we discover that there is no place in our hearts, no interior corner or closet that cannot be opened and offered to God. God teaches us in lectio divina what it means to be members of His royal priesthood - a people called to consecrate all of our memories, our hopes and our dreams to Christ. *by Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B.
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**Pope Benedict and ***Lectio Divina
*In an address to a congress of Biblical scholars meeting in Rome to discuss “Sacred Scripture in the Life of the Church,” the Holy Father recommended the monastic practice of lectio divina, the prayerful, meditative reading of the Bible. “Assiduous reading of sacred Scripture accompanied by prayer makes that intimate dialogue possible in which, through reading, one hears God speaking, and through prayer, one responds with a confident opening of the heart,” the Pope said (zenit.org).
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Thanks so much for this wonderful thread.

I was listening to a radio program with Fr. Ed and Jonet. Their topic was on Lectio Divina. They had a guest on there that wrote a book as well.

She read an article by the Pope about this as well. He is very for this form of prayer.
 
This is completely new to me! 🙂 What’s the difference between this and just meditating on something?
 
You can meditate on anything but when you follow Lectio Divinia you meditate on scripture. Many of the Saints have used this method. St. Teresa being one of them.
 
I don’t have time right now, as you might notice by the time it says it is now, to read this entire thread. But I’ve bookmarked it.

I am finishing my novice year for Benedictine Oblation and I just simply can’t get “into” lectio. I’m stopped at that first step. I read Scripture and the Rule regularly, working towards daily, but rarely do I hear anything. there is either silence or something totally unconnected with what the topic is. I can’t get into meditating on what I’ve so slowly read and reread. Rarely does anything come. Part of my problem may stem from some neurological damage I’ve sustained and some other mental disabilities. I can’t think of things on my own. And I no longer have the ability to memorize, which is terrible because I read all these books for my studies and retain so little. But we start voer and over and over… as Benedict says. But it really bothers me that I’ve made so very little progress in this over almost a year.
 
BonnieBj said:
Have you tried determining a duration time for lectio?

If we we say we will read a page or a chapter, we are so ordered to getting things done that there will be a real push from within to get to the end of the page or chapter. But if we have decided we are just going to sit here with the Lord for these few minutes, then we can receive the Word with a certain openness and sense of leisure. If the first word or the first sentence speaks to us, we can just sit with it, let it come alive within us, respond to it. There is no need to push on. The rest of the text will be there for tomorrow’s encounter.
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It is good to set a fairly short time for ourselves, something we can fit easily into each day. The Lord can say a lot to us in two minutes, if he wants to.
Even if we find ourselves at the end of a very full day and have not yet made time for our lectio, we can take two minutes or five minutes to sit with Lord before crawling into bed.

B. Pennington
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Rarely does anything come.
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**A few rare moments is what most people hope for in a whole lifetime!
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Basil Pennington writes…

I spent a few years in our monastery in the Ozarks. This is one of the poorest areas in the United States. The people living in these mountains are very poor but often very devout. I found among the people there a very good practice. Do you know where they enthrone their Bible? On the pillow on their bed. This means that when they go to bed, they have to pick up their Bible. And they take a moment to get a word from the Lord to carry with them into sleep. Then they place the Bible on their shoes. In the morning, of course, when they rise, they have to pickup the Bible. And again they receive a word from the Lord to carry with them through the day. Clever people, those friends in the mountains. 🙂
 
Through the Word all things were made. (John 1:3)

Psalm 33

Rejoice, you just, in the LORD; praise from the upright is fitting.

Give thanks to the LORD on the harp; on the ten-stringed lyre offer praise.

Sing to God a new song; skillfully play with joyful chant.

For the LORD’S word is true; all his works are trustworthy.

The LORD loves justice and right and fills the earth with goodness.

By the LORD’S word the heavens were made; by the breath of his mouth all their host.

The waters of the sea were gathered as in a bowl; in cellars the deep was confined.

Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all who dwell in the world show reverence.

For he spoke, and it came to be, commanded, and it stood in place.

The LORD foils the plan of nations, frustrates the designs of peoples.

But the plan of the LORD stands forever, wise designs through all generations.

Happy the nation whose God is the LORD, the people chosen as his very own.

From heaven the LORD looks down and observes the whole human race,

Surveying from the royal throne all who dwell on earth.

The one who fashioned the hearts of them all knows all their works.

A king is not saved by a mighty army, nor a warrior delivered by great strength.

Useless is the horse for safety; its great strength, no sure escape.

But the LORD’S eyes are upon the reverent, upon those who hope for his gracious help,

Delivering them from death, keeping them alive in times of famine.

Our soul waits for the LORD, who is our help and shield.

For in God our hearts rejoice; in your holy name we trust.

May your kindness, LORD, be upon us; we have put our hope in you.
 
So it is, we might say, “natural” for us to go first of all to the Bible to listen to the Word. But it is also true: “Through him all things were made.” The whole of the creation bespeaks its Maker. As the Greeks would say, the whole of creation is full of logoi, “little words,” that give expression to the Logos, the Word.
B. Pennington from his book Lectio Divina







The heavens shout forth the glory of God,
the vault of heaven proclaims his handiwork.
Day tells of it to day,
night to night hands on the word.
no sound that anyone can hear,
Yet their voice goes out through all the world,
their message to the ends of the earth. - Psalm 19

Watkins Glenn, NY 9/22/05
 
When it is time to conclude this particular meeting (Lectio Divina) with the Lord, we thank him and take a “word”–a word or a sentence or a phrase–with us.

Taking time to thank the Lord follows from our sense of his very real presence and reinforces this belief. And it is most appropriate. If we want to talk with the pastor, we usually have to go chasing after him. If we want to talk to the bishop, we have to make an appointment. If we want to talk to the pope, well, we have to pull a few strings. But if we want to talk to almighty God, we can just sit down and open our Bible and there he is, ready to talk with us! We are indeed privileged: whenever we want, we can sit with our Lord!:love:
B. Pennington/Lectio Divina
 
“I will feed them on the heights of Israel.” He has set up the authors of the divine Scriptures as the heights of Israel. Feed there to feed safely. Whatever you hear from that source, savor it well. Whatever is outside, reject. Lest you should go astray in the mist, listen to the shepherd’s voice. Gather together on the mountain of holy Scripture. There are your heart’s delights, there is nothing poisonous there, nothing you should not eat. Its pastures are richest. St. Augustine of Hippo
 
I almost wish I could take the word “prayer” and throw it out and begin over with some new word. We all have so much baggage around that word. Whenever I hear it, one of the images that comes to my mind is little Sister Floretta, who taught me in the second grade. I can still experience Sister standing over me, saying in no uncertain terms: “When you pray, kneel up straight, fold your hands, close your eyes….” Even as a second-grader, I thought: This is a funny way to talk to my Father.

Prayer is any and every kind of communication with our God who loves us. If our listening is for God, our whole life is prayer.

B. Pennington
 
*I have often said that I first learned contemplation the summer I was four years old. That summer I was on the farm with my grandparents. For some reason it was just the three of us at times. After supper I would go out on the porch and sit on the top step. After a bit, Granddad would come out and sit on one end of the porch swing. After a while, Grandma would come (women always do more work than men). And we would usually just sit there in silence. I felt so wonderful! It was only years later that I realized what was happening. This man and woman, who had been together for so many decades, had no need to say anything. It had all been said. They just sat together in love. And that love embraced the little grandson on the top step. He felt good all over as he sat in that love. Now he sits in the love of his heavenly Father. *
B. Pennington
 
Often we may feel frustrated because we cannot remember what we have read during lectio. Perhaps you’ve had the experience of wanting to tell someone of a great book you are reading but cannot even remember the title or author much less what it is you just read. This may lead you to believe that you are getting nowhere with lectio, that nothing is happening, that you can’t even remember what you read. But don’t be deceived. I would like to suggest that lectio is very much like eating. Why do we eat good meals a couple of times a day? To sustain life, to promote health. But what if I can’t remember what I ate? How many can remember what they had for dinner three days ago? If we can’t remember do we stop eating for all that? Of course not! We don’t eat to remember but to nourish our bodies. So too with lectio. We do not read to remember but to give life to our spirit. In the course of faithful lectio my inner being is nourished by the Word of God and slowly transformed by it. Attitudinal changes subltly occur. Perceptions change, priorities change. Slowly but surely I become more Christ-like. When we eat food we change that food into ourselves-in a sense we become what we eat. When we do lectio we are transformed into what we read - in sense we become what we read. ~ Bro. Anthony~
 
What you just said gives me hope. I have chucnkis of days i cannot remember what happened, days when I cannot remember what the Mass readings were a couple of hours after Mass was over, the things that I study for my Oblature that I can’t remember 5 minutes later, the Bible verses lke that 23rd psalm that I have been trying to memorize for over 20 years with no success, etc. I am glad to know that on some level what I am doing is benefitting me even if I can’t remember it. My memory was bad enough before the neurological damage, but now I’m lucky if I can remember anything for longer than a short while. I’d hate to hasve to take a test on any of it.
 
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BonnieBj:
What you just said gives me hope.
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🙂
 
Beautiful, thank you, I remember as a child being at one with God through nature, my Father was very good at taking us to the tops of hills, to lakes and rivers, to big, huge parks that had roses, plants, trees and lots of springs throughout. To the ocean, the waterfalls, the woods, just so many wonderful places. We had a relative that lived on and owned a working farm, I loved being out there among the animals just being happy that God was God and had put me here for a time, just for His purpose. I use to think that God had such a big, wonderful world that He had created for our pleasure and that He just wanted to share the beauty of it with us. (I still believe that.)
God is so good. From sunrise to sunset, God shares His love with us through His creation.
 
Thank you for this thread. I just placed a hold on this book from the public library. It is so refreshing to find that there is nothing wrong with taking things slow and being silent to listen for a message from God. I am hoping this my help me in my prayer life which at present seems to be stuck.
 
There is no lasting pleasure but contemplation; all others grow flat and insipid upon frequent use; and when a man hath run through a set of vanities, in the declension of his age, he knows not what to do with himself, if he cannot think; he saunters about from one dull business to another, to wear out time; and hath no reason to value Life but because he is afraid of death.
  • Bishop Gilbert Burnet
 
DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION
ON DIVINE REVELATION
DEI VERBUM
SOLEMNLY PROMULGATED
BY HIS HOLINESS
POPE PAUL VI
ON NOVEMBER 18, 1965,

PREFACE
  1. Hearing the word of God with reverence and proclaiming it with faith, the sacred synod takes its direction from these words of St. John: “We announce to you the eternal life which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you, so that you may have fellowship with us and our common fellowship be with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:2-3). Therefore, following in the footsteps of the Council of Trent and of the First Vatican Council, this present council wishes to set forth authentic doctrine on divine revelation and how it is handed on, so that by hearing the message of salvation the whole world may believe, by believing it may hope, and by hoping it may love. (1) … more to read here
 
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