Lectio Divina consists of four parts:

• Lectio (reading)
• Meditatio (meditation)
• Oratio (prayer)
• Contemplatio (contemplation)

• Read
• Reflect
• Respond
• Rest

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*rabbit trail

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In the Name of Jesus,
Soli Deo Gloria

We humans are meant to live in an ongoing conversation with our God, speaking, and being spoken to. I believe one of the main reasons for reading Scripture is to allow ourselves to be spoken to by God.Some say that it is dangerous to have someone read the Bible without teaching them how to read it.The Bible is best engaged in a spirit of silence, of meditation, and reflection, and most important of all, in the context of prayer in order to realize its power to transform us.Silence is key.

I love Thomas Keating’s words: “Silence is God’s first language; everything else is a poor translation.”

That which is infinite cannot be put into a finite container. Therefore, the Bible, if it really is God’s word handed down to us, needs a “new” way of reading. It beckons for a different way of ingesting that we may not be use to. This new way of reading does not change the Bible, but how we approach it. This is the secret of Lectio Divina’s power.

Reading a spiritual text in the “normal” way of reading can have the unintended consequence of pushing God further into hiding. How? We fill ourselves with more head knowledge, crowding out His actual presence. Instead, we read as an act of slow, deliberate prayer. In an unhurried receptive manner. Listening.

In contemplative prayer, you listen in receptive silence, and hold yourself open for the purpose of fostering the experience of God’s presence within you. You listen for and to the “Helper” that Jesus told His disciples about:

“This other helper is the spirit of truth. The world can’t receive him, because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you know him, because he lives with you, and will be in you.” John 14:17

Tomorrow, we’ll start to look at the actual practice of Lectio Divina.

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I do believe God speaks directly to us via the Holy Spirit, but as the humorous picture above suggests, the Spirit’s communication is many times and usually quite clearly through Scripture. Without the Scriptural foundation, especially the four Gospel accounts, then we are quite likely pursuing someone or something other than YHWH.

As David Benner well says, “the God we must come to know is uniquely revealed in His word. Even though the word became flesh, we must start our knowing of the Word in Scripture, not simply in our inner experience.”

And the monks of Saint Meinrad put it this way, “We…follow the Benedictine way of seeking God with the Gospel as our guide.”

In the Name of Jesus,
Soli Deo Gloria

“Let the world be silent in your presence, Lord, so that I may hear what the Lord God may say in my heart. Your words are so softly spoken that no one can hear them except in a deep silence. But to hear them lifts him who sits alone and in silence completely above his natural powers, because he who humbles himself will be lifted up. He who sits alone and listens will be raised above himself.” 
-Guigo II

Lectio Divina is a Latin term that means “Divine Reading” or “Sacred Reading.”

It is an ancient monastic practice that employs a particular method of reading. It is a unique, listening approach to reading that enables you to open up the time you spend with the written word so that your reading becomes a doorway to meditation, prayer, and contemplation.

Historically, it to go back to Origen in the third century, Benedict and his order in the sixth, and Guigo II’s formal instructions in the twelfth.

It is a powerful tool for opening up to the presence of God in your life, in your interaction with sacred Scripture. It opens you up to allow God to lead you where He chooses. You do not choose. You do not seek to control but rather to yield. In a sense, you could say that the text reads you.

Lectio Divina is not mere intellectual exploration, but about actually becoming intimate with God. You’re not studying God. You’re getting to know God.

Before the printing press and modern ideas of scholarship, research, and academic pursuit of knowledge, those who wrestled with the words of Scripture did so to acquire a spiritual, rather than intellectual understanding of the text. It was not an exercise in “figuring out” Christianity, but rather a practice for encountering God through the medium of the written word. The goal of Lectio Divina is simply to create space where God may encounter you via the sacred word.

The ancient spiritual practice of Lectio Divina suggests that, in terms of fostering intimacy with God there are approaches far more valuable than mere study and analysis. That may stimulate the brain, but not transform the heart. Knowing about God more than knowing God.

To be continued…

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In the Name of Jesus,
Soli Deo Gloria

So in keeping with our look at some foundational spiritual practices, and coming off the examen prayer, I wanted to also share something I found a couple years ago that I found helpful and meaningful: The Prayer Process.As has happened to me a few times now, whenever I make fun of a book title, it is that very book that becomes one of my favorites upon actually reading it. So a couple years ago, my spiritual partner Dave and I went to retreat at Saint Meinrad monastery, and each guest room had this book by Matthew Kelly, The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic. Growing up non-catholic, I was like, “What is this? Sounds so cheesy.”

So I pick it up, subconsciously in order to probably mock it, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s really good and pulled me right in. So basically the book is based off of studying the catholic church and specifically those who are the most involved ministering and serving. You know the ole 80/20 rule? 20% of the people do 80% of the work? Well, in this study, they found it was actually 7% doing most of the load. The new 93/7 rule.

So they studied this 7%. What did they have in common? What’s going on there? Well, they found many things, but just four things that they ALL had in common, which were:

• Prayer – They are committed to daily prayer
• Study – They are continuous learners
• Generosity – They are very generous with their time and money
• Evangelization – They invite others to grow spiritually by sharing the love of God with them

So here is what he gives as a possible starting point to prayer, a contemporary version of the examen. You might like it.

THE PRAYER PROCESS BY MATTHEW KELLY From THE FOUR SIGNS OF A DYNAMIC CATHOLIC (2012) His Web Site: DynamicCatholic.com
Be Bold. Be Catholic.

In The Prayer Process we take time – a minute, two minutes or maybe ten minutes – to spend time with the Lord every day. Pick a specific time when you will pray; ex. Morning Prayer or Night Prayer. It is an intentional way that we grow in our faith. The seven steps of The Prayer Process are as follows:

1. Gratitude: Begin by thanking God in a personal dialogue for whatever you are most grateful for today.
2. Awareness: Revisit the times of the past twenty-four hours when you were and were not the-best-version-of-yourself. Talk to God about these situations and what you learned from them.
3. Significant Moments: Identify something you experienced today and explore what God might be trying to say to you through that event (or person).
4. Peace: Ask God to forgive you for any wrong you have committed (against yourself, another person, or Him) and to fill you with a deep and abiding peace.
5. Freedom: Speak with God about how he is inviting you to change your life, so that you can experience the freedom to be the-best-version-of-yourself.
6. Others: Lift up to God anyone you feel called to pray for today, asking God to bless and guide them.
7. Finish by praying the Our Father.

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In the Name of Jesus,
Soli Deo Gloria

The fifth and final step of the examen is Renewal.

You look forward to the following day and, with God, plan concretely how to live it in accord with God’s loving desire for your life.

We have looked back in order to look ahead. We allow the past to illuminate the future. This is actually learning from our life and tangibly moving forward accordingly for spiritual growth. Again, we don’t do this for the exercise’s sake, but to move toward God in the growth He desires for our lives.

We look forward to tomorrow and what keystone habit we may need to institute, what God is asking us to be aware of, or who to encourage. We look at who we will be with and pray for what is needed there, be it patience, wisdom, self-control.

We are constantly learning from our experiences…if we take the time to reflect on them and proceed out of what we learn from that reflection. Someone said it is not our experiences that change us, but rather our reflection upon them. We go through many experiences every day, every week, all our life. We don’t necessarily grow from them automatically. We can just go through stuff and stay stuck where we are unless we are strategic in looking and learning and changing whatever courses necessary for spiritual progression.

The examen, remember, is a tool. A tool to bring us closer into oneness with God and to clear space for the Holy Spirit to fill. It also serves to  s  l  o  w   u   s    d    o    w    n. And in general, it is always good to slow down and smell the roses. Unless you’re being chased by a puma.

I believe this prayer to be a basic foundational practice that is of utmost value to anyone who really takes it on.

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Always, only, for my King

Step four: Forgiveness.Out of step three’s review of our day, in which we search for our consolations and desolations, we will inevitably be drawn to seek God’s forgiveness for our wrongs we have uncovered. 

Timothy Gallagher makes a great point on this step, so let me quote from the first section on his chapter on forgiveness:”This step in which we ask for and receive God’s forgiveness touches deep relational spaces in our hearts. We must approach it with great sensitivity, for much in the practice of examen depends upon how we understand and what our hearts feel in regard to this: asking God’s forgiveness.

“Jean Vanier writes: ‘Forgiveness and celebration are at the heart of community.’ The two pillars that sustain relationships are the joy of togetherness and the readiness, when human limitation emerges, to ask forgiveness. Vanier continues:

‘We can only truly accept others as they are, and forgive them, when we discover that we are truly accepted by God as we are and forgiven by him. It is a deep experience, knowing that we are loved and held by God in all our brokeness and littleness.’

“In its fourth step, the examen is the privileged daily space of this ‘deep experience’ of ‘knowing that we are loved and held by God in all our brokeness and littleness.’ To live the fourth step daily in all its richness strengthens our communion with God and empowers us to be agents of healing forgiveness in our communities, in our families, and in society as a whole.”

So forgiveness has a lot to do with our image of God, how we relate to one another, and of course avoiding cancer–be it emotional or even physical.

If our image of God is based on Jesus, Scripture, and nature, I believe we will then realize God is loving, merciful, and forgiving. That He has already dealt with our sin through Jesus’ sacrifice, so there is nothing to fear in approaching YHWH. The curtain separating us from God has been torn. It is only up to us to approach then. Confessing our failings brings healing via the touch of God. We are human. We are limited. We fail. Admit it. Release it. As God does. It actually feels pretty good to do so.

“The God of Christian revelation is a God who rejoices in the encounter of forgiveness, whose loving forgiveness respects human dignity and heals human hurt. Joy is nowhere so repeatedly mentioned in the Gospels as in Luke 15, the chapter of the parables of forgiveness: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. The profound link in the Scriptures between God’s forgiveness and joy indicates that the more truly we experience step four of the examen, the more this step will become a time of joy.”

And remember what Tozer said: “Whatever comes into your heart and mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.”

Relating to others. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. (Col.3:13) There’s a few places in the Bible mentioning that we will be forgiven the same measure we forgive. If we believe this, and our image of God is good, we will pretty darn quick to forgive. (We could start an organization named “PDQ Forgiveness”!) There is no healthy relationship without forgiveness. A while back we described forgiveness as:

Actively relieving others of payment for their wrongs against you. Our punishment of others, which is their payment, often comes in the form of our silence, but may also be our disgusted stare, slander, defamation, or simply our inner resentment.

Forgiveness refuses to punish with silence.

Forgiveness does not punish with a disgusted stare.

Forgiveness does not punish with slander.

Forgiveness does not punish with defamation.

Forgiveness does not nurture inner resentment.

Forgiveness is not easy.

There is no healthy relationship without forgiveness. Which leads us to avoiding cancer. So my mom, trying desperately to get me to eat green beans-which I hated, would tell me at dinner, “Rob, eat at least three green beans or you might get cancer.” Now I may be misquoting her slightly, but it was something like that, something mildly traumatizing. But we could definitely utter in truth a similar phrase related to forgiveness. “Relieve people of payment for their wrongs against you or else get cancer.” Maybe not physically (though I think that’s a possibility because of one story of someone I know), but at least emotionally or spiritually. Unforgiveness will tear you up inside. Don’t try it. It will eat away at you until not much is left of who you once were.

So forgiveness is huge. Receiving, as well as giving. It is healing. Even more than green beans.

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Tomorrow, the fifth and final step: Renewal.

Step three of the examen is review. This is that valuable habit of reflection. You simply walk back through your day, from waking up, looking for where God was at work, when you were paying attention to Him, and when you were not. 

The bigger words Ignatius used for this are consolations and desolations. In short, consolations are those things you recognize as bringing you closer to God, and desolations are those things that take you away from God. These “things” we review could very well be activities, but much of the time they will be our thoughts. We ask ourselves which thoughts were God-inspired, and which ones seemed to be inspired by the enemy in order to draw us away from God.

Never wanting to overwhelm ourselves, you may begin by reviewing just one part of your day and your thoughts that arose within it. Here are some questions you may ask:

• Where was God in my activity today?
• Toward what was the Lord calling me today?
• How did I respond to this call?
• Were there inclinations and thoughts this day that were not of God? If there were, was I able to discern and resist them?
• Was the use of my freedom in accord with God’s loving desire for me today?
• What brought me peace today?
• What brought me anxiety this day?

I’ve been practicing the examen regularly since last fall, and I cannot tell you how valuable it has been for my spiritual growth. This habit of reflection is so very vital.

Someone said that “the unexamined life isn’t worth living.” For we just move through our days not noticing them, not taking the time to reflect and be thankful. God is with us at all times, speaking to us even, yet we may live our lives not paying attention to Him or His voice, which often is a gentle whisper. Thus the need to pay focused attention.

Many of us tend to live our days at the surface. But there is so much meaning to be mined at the depths of day-to-day life. The examen helps us do this very rewarding excavation. To just look back over your day with specific gratitude is enough to change your life. It’s been shown that writing down three things you are thankful for every day for 21 days actually rewires your brain toward greater happiness.

As you can see from the info graphic above, the Ignatian way of the examen has five steps. Many times I don’t make it past step two before falling asleep in heavenly peace. That’s ok. Remember the point of it all from yesterday: to be united to God. It is not about the practice itself. That’s why it is so important to experiment and actually do these things for a period of time–to see how it best draws you personally to the personal God. For instance, you don’t have to practice this only at bedtime. A short examen in the afternoon I have found to be a great break in my day for the purpose re-centering.

So the first step is simply asking God for insight and strength to make this examen a work of grace, fruitful beyond my human capacity alone. This is real. Believe that God will actually help you to do this. He wants to and will give you greater insight than your normal capacity. I believe God wants to bless you in this way. Perhaps after this request (or even before) you may just sit in His presence until you have some sort of sense of God being with you. Do not rush. Take three to five minutes to simply be still. Trust that God is with you. Immanuel.

Gratitude. This is such a rich and jugular practice in life. Note the gifts God’s love has given you this day, and thank God for them. Start from the beginning of your day noting the specific gifts bestowed upon you that you are not responsible for. This reminds us that God is the first reality, not us. God is, therefore, we are. Ignatius, who is given credit for this version of the prayer in the 16th century, only knew God as giving–One who bestows gifts of grace upon us freely and constantly, revealing through these gifts the infinite love with which we are loved.

It is very good to physically write these gifts down as it will better synthesize into our being. Over time, our attunement and awareness of God’s plentiful gifts will grow. We will notice them more and more in real time, and thus start to live at that higher consciousness I believe we were meant for. We will be in the moment, and full of gratitude within it.

“For Ignatius, recognizing God’s loving gifts and God’s loving presence through them–summarized in the word ‘gratitude’–lies at the very heart of our relationship with God.”

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That last quote taken from The Examen Prayer by Timothy Gallagher, a beautiful book on this practice. In it, he has gratitude as step one and petition as step two FYI. Whatever works best for you.

In his book, it looks like this:

1. Gratitude
2. Petition
3. Review
4. Forgiveness
5. Renewal

Always, only, for my King

So I’m here with my fam at Saint Meinrad Archabbey this morning. We were loving our time here so much, we decided to stay an extra nite. Ana, not known for her spontaneity, checked her work calendar and said, “We can stay!” This place does funny things to a person.

It’s amazing being at a place that is so bathed in prayer. You feel it. I mean you can actually feel a palpable difference in peace, tranquility, quiet, and clarity. Something actually happens with your neurons, but that’s for a different day.

Lately. God has shown me so affirmitively that He is at work where I don’t always look or expect, and sometimes He is silent where I am looking. And in my looking, many times it is more my effort and conjuring in trying to get Him to do something than mere “looking.”. On my worst day, I treat God like what my daughters called me yesterday–a “trained monkey.” “Entertain us, trained monkey!” Zayra uttered from the backseat.

This is one of the many things I receive from coming to this wonderfulhaven of worship. I am set back in my proper place before my Creator who I can never control, but only surrender to. Two nites ago, I walked out to the car to get a bag and looked up. The stars. Beautiful. Awestruck was I. And for some reason I began thinking of the sun setting and rising. I began to contemplate the rhythmic rotation of earth. The greatness of it. I can’t really explain it, but it has given me a trembling awe before YHWH. More respect. More love. More surrender.

He is ineffable, incomprehensible. And yet He has reached out to us, revealed Himself in different ways–nature, Scripture, and ultimately in Jesus of Nazareth. He is too much. Of course, He is God. Here at Meinrad, you are in constant remindation of the greatness of our loving Creator and Sustainer. I can do no justice with words describing the rich times in nature we’ve had with Gaby & Zayra here.

Walking hand in hand with them noticing every beautiful thing God made–flowers, trees, water, turtles, fish, Chloe the monastery cat, the clouds, sky…

Just noticing and paying attention and giving thanks. I’m overwhelmed by the blessings of YHWH. And the, as if that’s not enough, every twenty feet or so Zayra would just burst out, “I love my daddy so much!” Taking time to notice, you never exhaust the list of gifts He has bestowed upon us every single day. My agendas go out the window as forgotten ridiculosity. So much that does not even enter my mind as there is a focus here of all that is actually important.

So thinking of foundational keystone habits that simply place us before God in love and gratitude and surrender. And allow Him to work as He will and maybe it will even be through us. I am so nothing without Jesus. I am understanding this just a bit more deeply. That it really is all Him. Yet at the same time, He is crazy about me because of all He has done for me. You and I are of infinite worth.

So we’ll take April to look at foundational keystone habits that have been game-changers for me, and that I believe will be for anyone who truly from the heart practices them. Because of their opening of your heart to be filled with God’s love.

• The Examen
• Lectio Divina
• Spiritual Partnership
• Memorization
• Practicing the Presence of God
• And much much more! (I don’t know if there’s any more, I just thought it’d be fun to say that)

I know this is a jumbled mess today, but it goes along with the fact that I am a jumbled mess today. A wonderful jumbled mess before the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who was, and is, and is to come.

In the Name of Jesus,
Soli Deo Gloria