Hello again beloved friends and children of God!
Today we continue opening together another inquiry into the path of contemplative living. We will also expand on our current theme of Lectio Divina. Those who are called to a Christian contemplative way of life experience that God has engaged them in a deep interior dance of self-discovery of God with us and within us. In times of contemplative prayer, we enter into an interior dialogue with the Spirit of God, where slowly over time we undergo a metamorphosis of consciousness, which leads us to an ever-greater interior clarity. That inner clarity expresses itself, exteriorly, as God’s love in Christ Jesus ministering to the world moment to moment, right where we are.
This process of metamorphosis is slow and takes a concentrated effort, which lasts our entire life. In this metamorphosis our life is renewed, transformed by union with Jesus Christ. All deeply committed Christians discover this truth to some extent; how fully and richly depends on how willing we are to yield to this reality. As lay contemplatives, in our case as Benedictine Oblates, we choose, daily, to maintain an openness to this metamorphosis through a variety of practices. All the practices involve periods of time set aside for reflection, prayer, meditation and contemplation, which involve movement into this deep interior dance with the Spirit of God.
Since the pandemic, we have joined in Zoom and Facebook times of prayer with both Fr. Robert Baker’s daily evening prayers[1] at Christ Episcopal Church in Bradenton, FL[2] and Rev. Carol Fleming’s Wednesday evening prayers[3] at Parrish Episcopal Church in Parrish, FL. Both are different in content and structure, but both offer a time to be embraced into God’s love. Rev. Carol’s evening prayer uses the Celtic Benediction by John Philip Newell.[4] She incorporates these prayers in PowerPoint Presentations in which she couples the prayers with beautiful artistic images, including lovely natural scenes. She changes the slides slowly, making an effort to create space for personal and communal reflection between each slide. Both of these are examples of places to turn to for spiritual support and renewal, particularly during the challenges of this time.
Lectio Divina, Latin for divine reading, is an ancient monastic method for the reading and praying of Scripture, which has become popular in recent times. For many years, as a family and with church groups, we have used Lectio Divina as an extremely effective method or practice for entering into this dialogue with the Spirit of God. Our faith tells us that Scripture, the Word of God is alive and active, a dynamic reality of truth, grace and love. The Word of God has the power to awaken, affirm, heal and transform our inner life and our outward actions.
In January, we will be sharing Lectio Divina via Zoom with Fr. Robert and Christ Episcopal Church in Bradenton, FL. We will be using a form of Lectio Divina that is popular in our contemporary setting. It will involve the reading of a brief passage of Scripture, a period of silence, a time for reflection and then brief sharing. This process will be repeated three times. The brevity of the reading of Scripture, it’s repetition, brief reflective requests and silence are purposely developed to move those praying inward and into tasting their personal dance of inner depth with the Spirit of God. What our hearts long for most is this direct realization of our oneness with God. The simplicity of words and the simplicity of the reflective tasks are integral to the recognition of God’s personal dialogue of affirming and transforming love waiting to engage us.
Next week we will continue to unfold the mystery of how Lectio Divina can open us to this great gift of awareness of our union with God and with each other.
[1] https://www.facebook.com/ChristChurchBradenton
[2] https://christchurchswfla.org/
Spiritual Homesteading 