Lectio Divina

Hey people...here are my original slides for the workshop on Lectio Divina, which I'm unable to load the powerpoint as the file is too huge..hence here is a words version with plenty of my own personal reflection and some notes that I've learnt during Father Ambrose Vaz's talk on St Paul's Letter to the Philippians...hope you'll enjoy..sorry, that it's pretty lengthy :)

Slide 1: What is Lectio Divina? Prayful reading of scripture

Lectio Divina in Latin means the scared reading. Praying with scripture, the holy word of god. And as you slowly pray to that scripture, you’ll learn how to pray.

Slide 2: Lectio Divina

This is one of the ancient ways, best ways and profound way to mediate on the word of God.

- Devotion to the word of God
With Lectio Divina, it is a devotion to the word of God, and the word of God calls us into relationship, and this relationship that God is seeking to form and nurture and weave, and knead us into his being, comes to us out of the story of scripture.

- Form, nurture, weave, knead
Scripture is the inspired word of God, and when we hear the story, we not only hear of the past of how God has worked in the lives of all humankind, as far as salvation history. It is intended for us to connect with, and to go deeper into that experience of how God is working in our life, in our time and in our world.

- Conversing with God
Conversing with God. To go deeper into scripture in a different way. Lectio Divina is the prayerful reading of scripture; it is the prayerful reading of the word of God, it is the prayerful examination and touching and going into depth of about something that may just be a sentence or a word. It is the awe of being able to stand back and see what the Holy Spirit can do with one word in your heart.

- Pray to the Holy Spirit
This is the most accessible way to learn and embrace scripture in your personal live and it is perhaps the most dramatic way to see scripture change your life and impact your life and share your life with others because it is the work of the holy spirit. Whenever we approach the scripture because it is the word of God, pray to the Holy Spirit first. Pray to the holy spirit first, even if it is something like come holy spirit or making the sign of the cross intentionally that will do it also.

- Opening our hearts to God
It is the process of slowing down with the word, taking time for the word to take root in your heart. This is about, not so much of our head, but opening our hearts to the word, and opening our hearts to the word is opening our hearts to scripture. Opening our hearts to scripture is opening our hearts to God. Opening our hearts to God, opens our heart to the power of the Holy Spirit to transform us and to change us. To give us the meaning that we just won’t get by zipping through it.

- St Augustine said “When you pray you speak to god, when you read scripture, god speaks to you.”

- St Theresa said “You should never enter the chapel without a holy book like scripture.”
So that you can have that dialogue in your prayer time.
Lectio Divina goes back to the 12th century.

Slide 3: 4 Steps to Lectio Divina

1) LECTIO
- read

2) MEDITATIO
- Meditate or Rumianio (to chew)
Here is 2 key elements to prayer like any dialogue or conversation. First is expressing yourself, sharing your thoughts, feelings and ideas. Secondly, is god speaks to you, so there is a dialogue that takes place. Prayer at its heart is a dialogue.
Now, The challenge to prayer, the reason why so many of us find prayer a arduous task, is that our prayer can be dull or boring and we want to push it off. Any any excuse not to pray is welcome for us all the time, often times. Simply put, prayer is boring, dull, arduous. Why? It’s because we have made prayer into a monologue. Dr. Tim Gray of St Augustine institute once said that he has a friend of his who talks so much, that is why there is a joking acting penance, given by a teacher that says help me, i can’t shut up. Have you ever talk to somebody in a new conversation with someone who just talks on and on, and you cant get a word at all. That’s not a conversation, not a dialogue, that’s a monologue. And that there is nothing more than monotonous athan a monologue. They are boring and dull. Just as we avoid people who are simply ignorant to monologues , we want to avoid our prayer time, because too often the truth is our prayer time is monologue , that wea re always talking to god and don’t allow god to speak back. But here’s the thing, you don’t have to be a mystic to close your eyes to enter into this deep silence, to listen and wait that mystic voice to whisper into your ear. Because god gave his word to you and that word is in scripture,. So you don’t have to be a mystic to hear god speak to you. That was the secret of the early christians. In fact St Augustine said when you pray you speak to god, when you read scripture, god speaks to you. That is the secret formula. We express ourselves in our pray, but the other half of the pray, we have to hear god speaks to us, and that is the beauty of god’s word. In scripture, we allow that divine dialogue to come alive.

3) ORATIO
- Speak/ Pray

4) CONTEMPLATIO
- Contemplate
- Higher state of being with God
- Tasting the sweetness of prayer
- Looking at God face-to-face

Slide 4: 6 Steps to meditating the word by Father Ambrose Vaz

1) Read with your head, then your heart
Read with your head, then your heart and reflect
2) What is it saying to me?
What is it saying to me? Picture and visualize it
3) React
then i will react
4) Recognise the reaction
Recognise the reaction. Why am I feeling happy or embarrassed?
5) Response
Reaffirm yourself in continuing doing good for others, or should I repent by being not arrogant and proud?
6) Resolution
resolve to make the change, forgiveness, don’t hold grudges, how will you reconcile?

Slide 5 : The true righteousness (Philippians 3)

1) In conclusion, my friends be joyful in your union with the Lord. I don’t mind repeating what I have written before, and you will be safer if I do so.
- St Paul is an intangible element of joy. I f we have found the source of life, the way we live should be different and we should allow it to affect us. Sometimes, it may just be our ignorance/ reluctance to use our gifts and talents.
- Have we ever praised and thank God repeatedly like Paul and give thanks to everything we own each time we benefit from it or do we just take things for granted, or worse still regard it as our own deserving glory and praise?

2) Watch out for those who do evil things, those dogs, those who insist on cutting the body.
- Dogs refer to the Gentiles (Jews named them). Jews in general means chosen people by Abraham, who is the father of Jesus, representing faith. Jews believe in the Son of God, Jesus.

3) It is we, not they, who have received the true circumcision, for we worship God by means of his Spirit and rejoice in our life in union with Christ Jesus. We do not put any trust in external ceremonies.
- For Paul, circumcision is not necessary, it is equivalent to mutilate the flesh. By accepting Jesus in our life, we are the circumcision.
- Have we also at times, seek for miracles? Hoping to see something miraculous before we believe in something? Do we seek to go to places where miracles have happened before to experience Jesus? Father JP once mentioned that some people go to those places and look in the sun and they said they saw the sun dancing, maybe they’re just suffering from heatstroke. And one lady once mentioned to him that her rosary turned into gold, and when Father JP asks her ok, then donate to the church then. Then, she changed her mind.
- Have we at times become the people who mocked at Jesus, when he was hung on the cross, telling him to save himself on the cross by getting down by himself since he is God. If only they have waited for 3 days and see that Jesus is resurrected from the dead. If only they have the patience. We too have to be patient and never give up in our prayers and petitions to God. It is always too soon to give up in prayer.

Slide 6
4) I could, of course, put my trust in such things. If any of you think you can trust in external ceremonies, I have even more reason to feel that way.

5) I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an Israelite by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, a pure-blooded Hebrew. As far as keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee,

6) And I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault.
- Have we ever been put down constantly by our baggage of past sins, constantly clinking onto them, never letting go?
- Paul is a perfect example who persecuted the church before his conversion, yet he is still able to let go of all his emotional baggage and look forward in building the Church back.
- We have to trust in God and never look back.
- Like in Gen 19 : The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. “The Lord, however, had pity on him; so the men took him, his wife, and his two daughters by the hand and led them out of the city. Then one of the angels said,: Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop in the valley. Run to the hills, so that you won’t be killed.”…..”But Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt”
- Have we ever placed our whole trust in God, knowing he will save us from all danger?
- Another event is when Jesus walks on the water. Jesus asks Peter to move forward and walk on the water towards him. But Peter was distracted by the huge currents and loses his gaze on Jesus, standing ahead of him. Have we set our fixed gaze on Jesus who upholds us at all times? Or are we distracted by other things, like secular attractions, material goods and instant gratifications?
- So Paul calls on us to imitate him just as he imitates Christ.

Slide 7

7) But all those things that I might count as profit I now reckon as loss for Christ’s sake.

8) Not only those things; I reckon everything as complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have thrown everything away: I consider it all as mere garbage, so that I may gain Christ
- Because of Christ, our works become good and it is Christ who did it and whatever we did takes value.
- How much do we know and experience God at such a high level like Paul that he considers all other things that are not related to Christ as rubbish? In our secular world, we are taught values that glorifies power, money, status and success. In our school, we are taught to have the highest possible grades. And when we are working, we are trained to think that the more we earn the more, successful and better we are. The bigger the car, the bigger the house, the more the merrier equates to status, recognition and power.
- Is Jesus my everything? How much do I value my relationship with him?
- The knowledge of Jesus Christ is the only knowledge that we should seek to desire.

Slide 8

- (Matthew 5:38-42) Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have heard how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I say this to you: offer no resistance to the wicked.

On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if someone wishes to go to law with you to get your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone requires you to go one mile, go two miles with him.

‘Give to anyone who asks you, and if anyone wants to borrow, do not turn away.’
- When Jesus spoke about God’s law, He did something no one had done before. He gave a new standard based not just on righteousness i.e. giving each his due, but on the law of grace and love.
- Only the Cross of Jesus Christ can free you from the tyranny of malice, hatred, revenge, and resentment and give you the courage to return evil with good. Such grace can heal you and save you from destruction. Have you experienced Christ’s redeeming love and mercy?
- Pray for the grace of patience and self-control: when tempted to retaliate, be humble; when provoked, be gentle and respond with loving-kindness .
- My mum used to say that in the past when she argued with my dad, it’s like my dad started a fire, she not only fanned the fire, but added in charcoal as well. And the flame keeps burning. And they would quarrel non-stop. But now, she has learnt plenty of self-control. Now, when my dad starts a quarrel, like starting a fire, she would pour water over the fire to dose it. How amazed I was, when I heard my mum said that. She truly has learnt not only to love my father more but exercised self-control and resistance towards sin by not quarrelling even more, bringing in past hurts. How true is that of us, to exercise self-control and the temptation to mention past hurts during quarrels.

Slide 9

9) And be completely united with him. I no longer have a righteousness of my own, the kind is gained by obeying the Law. I now have the righteousness that is given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith.

Slide 10 (Galatians 3:1-5)

"You foolish Galatians! Who put a spell on you? Before your very eyes you had a clear description of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross! Tell me this one thing: did you receive God's Spirit by doing what the Law requires or by hearing the gospel and believing it? How can you be so foolish! You began by God's Spirit; do you now want to finish by your own power? Did you all your experience mean nothing at all? Surely it meant something! Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because you do what the Law requires or because you hear the gospel and believe it?"

The law is a guide or our tutor, but the Law can never save our lives. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Faith is what makes us righteous, not by just merely abidding by the law. In Abraham's time, there is no Law or the ten commandments by Moses yet. Yet, Abraham, who is the leader of our faith, is righteous even when there isn't any 10 commandments during his time. This shows that we are called to be faithful disciples of Jesus and not merely be law-abidders.

Slide 11

10) All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death,
- To know is to have an intimate relationship with Christ, to experience him in our daily lives
- Jesus’ death on the cross was the high point of his love for us. It was the ultimate and the most he could do for us. God so love the world, showing extreme measures of love that Jesus died.
- The hour of Jesus’ glory is when he died on the cross.
- To what extent is my life patterned upon the sacrificial love of Christ? What must I do to be more detached from sin?
- Death is pointing to something positive, there will be resurrection. Death is not the end, it leads to eternity.
- How focused am I on the goal of answering God’s call? What are the distractions I must forget or cast aside?

11) In the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life.
- Jesus is the saviour of the world. Jesus is Lord.