Well read child of God

Today’s readings: Click on today’s date at http://www.usccb.org/bible/

Well read child of God

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

John 5:39-40

Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf.  But you do not want to come to me to have life.”

Bible reading is one thing.  Letting God read me as I read the Bible is the main thing.

The last sentence of today’s reading is all single syllables.  Simple words from Jesus, who does not love knowledge but does love his Father.  He wants me to love him too.

At St. Patrick’s Catholic Church centering prayer times, which I attend as often as I can on Monday nights, our leader Mary Lou chooses a short reading from next Sunday’s lectionary.  One of the group (less than 10 people) reads it.  We are quiet.  Then it is read again.  We each share a word or phrase that we notice in the reading.

After a moment another person reads the passage a third time.  Without any crosstalk or discussion we each say a sentence or two about what the word or phrase means to us.

Then the passage is read a fourth time.  We pray aloud about how the words invite us into God’s presence.  Again we are silent.  The passage is read a fifth time.  By this time, it is reading us.

After a short “prayer walk,” as a group we are silent for twenty minutes of centering prayer.

After the twenty minutes, we stand in a circle, holding hands, sharing personal prayers and then the Lord’s Prayer.  We spend a few minutes discussing a devotional thought that Mary Lou brings, often written by Henri Nouwen, and then our group time is complete.  I am always edified.  Quieter than when I came.  Closer to God than when I came.

This is my kind of church.  It is anchored in Scripture reading, but not Scripture “study.”  The process is arranged to allow time for the Scripture to read me.  Although we don’t include it on Monday nights, this in turn prepares me for the Lord’s Supper, for the Eucharist, where I experience Jesus’ willingness to share his body with mine and mingle his blood … with mine.

Reading like this was instituted in St. Benedict’s early monasteries.  That was 1500 years ago.  It was formalized into what was then called lectio divina 800 years ago.  In all my years of church-going and Bible study, this particular way of “working out my salvation” was not emphasized or even described.  I think it must have been a Catholic “baby” thrown out with the bathwater during the Protestant Reformation.

Some reform.  In this case, we Protestants lost a great gift.  I am glad to have found it again.  There are many ways for us to come to know Jesus.  Silence and contemplation of the Scriptures are at the center of them all.

God, perhaps your “first” language really is silence.  Listening is NOT POSSIBLE if I’m talking.  When I practice quiet, I get better at it.  Thank you for teaching me, for whispering in my ear sometimes, for trusting me to slowly learn to trust you.

http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1264