Lectio Divina – Scripture Prayer
God is having me expand my horizons in prayer these past several months. It's not about the ministry, it's about the minister. God would rather see a crystal cathedral built in your soul than a man made crystal cathedral built to seat thousands.
In my adventures of seeking the Father deeper I have been attending different churches and learning how different denominations pray. I have been researching the writings of Catholic church saints from the 1500's, and wow, the stuff you come across. History wants to paint the Catholic church as not having God in it at all during these times. This was the era of the Spanish Inquisition. Despite the horrors of this period, there were those who were deeply seeking God and trying to change the church around from the evil ways of man. Some even risked being called heretics and their writings and theology was directly in the face of the inquisitors. Yet, these people were spared because of the miracles, signs, and wonders that God backed them up with. And their writings have survived to this day without being destroyed or harm coming to the authors.
All I can say is that these Saints knew how to pray and they were teaching others how to pray. The church leaders couldn't deny the results they were seeing in these forms of praying. One such form of prayer is the Lectio Divina. Pronounced Lex-io Da-veena. Also referred to as Teresan prayer, after Saint Teresa of Avila. This form of prayer is still practiced in the Catholic church. Not all churches though, seems as we got more modern in the 20th century, the church started to lose track of its own heritage. Fortunately, for me, the Dominican Sisters, at Mission San Jose still hold a Lectio Divina prayer meeting.
What is the Lectio Divina form of prayer? It is the reading of scripture and meditating on it. Saint Teresa was a fan of reading scripture and slowly letting it permeate the soul. In her teachings, she would read the scripture and reflect on her day or week and would see what the scripture would reveal to her.
In the Lectio Divina I participated in, it was the 3rd Sunday of Lent. Sister Beth, who also led my contemplative prayer session, led this session as well. We had about 8 chairs arranged in a circle, the chapel, and lit a candle in the middle of the circle. All the lights in the chapel are off with the exception of this candle.
Sister Beth started quieting prayer, “Be still and know that I am God.”
We rested in the peace for about 2 minutes and let ourselves feel the peace and the presence of God in the chapel.
Then Sister Beth, proceeded to read the scripture for this week, she mentioned it was a cycle A reading for Lent. I am not sure what that means since I don't attend a Catholic church. She read from:
John 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42
5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony,
40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.
42They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."
Sister Beth reads the scripture 4 times. The prayer session lasts about an hour.
The first reading. -let go of your thoughts for the day and just feel the peace.
The second reading. - meditate on what phrase in the scripture stands out.
The third reading – reflect (St. Teresa) on your day and how does the scripture standout
The fourth reading – what is this scripture calling you to do? Is it calling you to something personal?
The Teresan form of praying is very relaxing and the reflection part adds a whole new dimension to your prayer time. Sometimes when I go to sleep now I pray the Our Father, Mathew 6:9-15, in this manner and reflect on each line of prayer. Sometimes I fall asleep not finishing the prayer. If you have taken the John Paul Jackson, Art of Hearing God course, in the work book, they recommend going to a Lectio Divina prayer session.
In my adventures of seeking the Father deeper I have been attending different churches and learning how different denominations pray. I have been researching the writings of Catholic church saints from the 1500's, and wow, the stuff you come across. History wants to paint the Catholic church as not having God in it at all during these times. This was the era of the Spanish Inquisition. Despite the horrors of this period, there were those who were deeply seeking God and trying to change the church around from the evil ways of man. Some even risked being called heretics and their writings and theology was directly in the face of the inquisitors. Yet, these people were spared because of the miracles, signs, and wonders that God backed them up with. And their writings have survived to this day without being destroyed or harm coming to the authors.
All I can say is that these Saints knew how to pray and they were teaching others how to pray. The church leaders couldn't deny the results they were seeing in these forms of praying. One such form of prayer is the Lectio Divina. Pronounced Lex-io Da-veena. Also referred to as Teresan prayer, after Saint Teresa of Avila. This form of prayer is still practiced in the Catholic church. Not all churches though, seems as we got more modern in the 20th century, the church started to lose track of its own heritage. Fortunately, for me, the Dominican Sisters, at Mission San Jose still hold a Lectio Divina prayer meeting.
What is the Lectio Divina form of prayer? It is the reading of scripture and meditating on it. Saint Teresa was a fan of reading scripture and slowly letting it permeate the soul. In her teachings, she would read the scripture and reflect on her day or week and would see what the scripture would reveal to her.
In the Lectio Divina I participated in, it was the 3rd Sunday of Lent. Sister Beth, who also led my contemplative prayer session, led this session as well. We had about 8 chairs arranged in a circle, the chapel, and lit a candle in the middle of the circle. All the lights in the chapel are off with the exception of this candle.
Sister Beth started quieting prayer, “Be still and know that I am God.”
We rested in the peace for about 2 minutes and let ourselves feel the peace and the presence of God in the chapel.
Then Sister Beth, proceeded to read the scripture for this week, she mentioned it was a cycle A reading for Lent. I am not sure what that means since I don't attend a Catholic church. She read from:
John 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42
5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony,
40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.
42They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."
Sister Beth reads the scripture 4 times. The prayer session lasts about an hour.
The first reading. -let go of your thoughts for the day and just feel the peace.
The second reading. - meditate on what phrase in the scripture stands out.
The third reading – reflect (St. Teresa) on your day and how does the scripture standout
The fourth reading – what is this scripture calling you to do? Is it calling you to something personal?
The Teresan form of praying is very relaxing and the reflection part adds a whole new dimension to your prayer time. Sometimes when I go to sleep now I pray the Our Father, Mathew 6:9-15, in this manner and reflect on each line of prayer. Sometimes I fall asleep not finishing the prayer. If you have taken the John Paul Jackson, Art of Hearing God course, in the work book, they recommend going to a Lectio Divina prayer session.
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