Originally posted on Spiritual Formation Center

This Week’s Lenten Practice: Lectio Divina

Daily Act: Practice Lectio Divina

Weekly Prayer Phrase: Repeat this phrase slowly as you breathe deeply. You may choose to memorize this phrase and repeat it throughout your day.

“LIVING WORD, LIVE THROUGH ME.”

Living Words

By Katie Harmon-McLaughlin

What does it mean

That words are alive?

Do they continue to speak

Long after the moment

They are written

Or uttered aloud?

Is their message the same

Even as they say different things

At different times

To different people?

Are living words literally words

On a page

In our mouths

In our hearts?

Or are they also what is being spoken

That is wordless?

Streams of sunlight through branch’s porous patterns

The tall grass trembling in the unseen wind

Season’s cycles of death and renewal

Breathless awe atop mountain expanse

Love’s embrace

Fresh bread

Birdsong

Birth

What is all this beauty saying?

And what of

Desecrated mountain tops mined and abandoned

Rubble and burnt bodies disfigured from bombs

Not enough rice in the bowl of the hungry

The calloused hands of the homeless

Pushing their carts down the sidewalk

Of the busy street where I

Sit comfortable in my car

What words are alive in

The warzone

The hospital

The famine?

Do we really want to hear?

What do these words on page

Have to say to these words enfleshed?

How do these words on page

Yearn to be words enfleshed?

Feed my sheep

Love your enemy

Welcome the stranger

Let the oppressed go free

The kingdom of God

Has come near

Am I a living word?

What is the source of all words

Laboring inside me to say?

Am I living what is being

Spoken within?

Speak us into being

O Holy Speaker

Open our ears to hear

Your word that breathes life

In all things

Living Word

Live through me

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people… And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” –John 1

The Practice of Lectio Divina (From the Community of Christ Guide for Lent)

Select a passage of text that you feel led to dwell in. Relax your body and breathing and offer a prayer for guidance as you interact with the text. Read the text four times, allowing time for meditation and prayer between each reading.

Lectio —read the text to get a sense of the story or setting. Imagine the scene, senses, emotions, and tensions involved in the text.

Meditatio —read the text again to focus on meaning and understanding. What are the surface and underlying meanings? What does the text tell you about God? How do you relate to the text?

Oratio —read the text again to focus on your emotional response. Do you feel joy, sorrow, fear, anger, or guilt? Share your feelings with God in prayer. Ask for help in listening deeply to these emotions and meanings.

Contemplatio —continue in a time of receptive prayer. Breathe deeply and calmly, entering a deep silent state of listening. Wait for whatever God may bring to you in the quietness.

Record in a journal any impressions or insights that come to you and return to receptive listening. If no particular awareness comes, let your mind return to the text. When you feel your prayer and meditation has ended, offer a word of thanks to God to close your time with this practice.

Recommended Lenten Text: Isaiah 58:6–9

Pay attention to the questions that come to you as you engage in this practice. Live in the questions and see how they begin to shape your journey of repentance and renewal.