Beloved seekers of God, this week we continue opening our hearts and minds to the mystery of how spiritual reading can expand our awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit with us and within us. In the practice of Lectio Divina only a small amount of scripture is read. The reading of the scripture itself is understood as prayer. In our Christian tradition the Word of God has energy or power. By faith we accept that the words of the living God are at work within us. That power inherent in the Word of God awakens our hearts to the truth the words express. It is that truth that has the power to work within us confronting us where we are, dialoguing within us and then freeing us to live more fully in union with Christ Jesus.

Let us look at some basic terms used in the Christian contemplative tradition such as discursive meditation and active and passive contemplation. We mentioned above spiritual reading or Lectio Divina. The prayer integral to Lectio Divina can move the one praying into discursive meditation. Here, as mentioned above, the energy of God in the words of scripture touches our soul and sets up a life-giving dialogue within us, a dialogue with the spirit. This dialogue may turn to a deeper level, where the one in prayer may find themselves moving into an open place of inner tranquility, into a peace that passes all understanding. In this one begins to experience contemplation. Contemplation can be active or passive. Passive contemplation is pure gifts of God grace where through no act of will or effort we enter this experience of union with God, which may be of many and varied forms. Active contemplation involves an action on our part where we place ourselves in an attitude or pattern of spiritual practice, which will make us more open to becoming receptive to experiencing passive contemplation.

As we grow more comfortable with the spiritual practice of Lectio Divina it becomes easier to open our hearts and commence our personal dialogue with the spirit. Gradually, we come to move more often into experiences of active and passive meditation. Ultimately, we are experiencing a metamorphosis of consciousness, an ever-growing inner clarity out of which we live and move. This clarity of being is our life in union with Christ Jesus, which is the fulfillment of our heart’s yearning and our life’s greatest fulfillment of meaning.