READING SCRIPTURE FOR TRANSFORMATION PART 2
Last week I wrote about the Spiritual Practice of Lectio Divina or Divine Reading. This week I would like to share the steps or movements that are part of reading Scripture this way.
Believing that Scripture is the living and inspired Word of God we approach Scripture in a way that helps us to listen for the word of God spoken for us in the present. This does not mean that we no longer study our Bible. Using Lectio Divina afterwards, helps us to hear God’s word for us today.
The following instructions are based on Ruth Haley Barton’s book “Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation”, chapter 3 “Scripture”.
Preparation. Take a few deep breathes leaving behind all the days plans or events. With your eyes closed, let your body relax, and allow yourself to become consciously aware of God’s presence with you. Express your willingness to hear from God by saying a brief prayer such as “Come Lord Jesus” or “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”.
Read. Turn to the passage and begin to read slowly, pausing between phrases and sentences. You may read silently or out loud. As you read, listen for a word or phrase that strikes you or catches your attention. Allow a moment of silence, repeating the word or phrase softly to yourself, pondering it and savoring it. This is the word that is meant for you today. Be content to listen simply and openly, without judging or analyzing.
Reflect. Once you have heard the word that is meant for you, read the passage again, and listen for the way this passage connects with your life. Ask, “What in my life right now needs to hear this word?” Allow several moments of silence following this reading, and explore thoughts, perceptions, and sensory impression. If helpful use a journal to write down what comes to your mind.
Respond. Read the passage one more time, listening for your own deepest and truest response. In silence after the reading, allow your prayer to flow spontaneously from your heart as fully and as truly as you can. At this point you are entering into a personal dialogue with God, sharing the feelings aroused by the text. As we pour out our hearts in complete honesty, especially where the text has probed aspects of our being and doing in the midst of all our various issues and relationships. Pay attention to any sense that God is inviting you to act or respond in some way to the word you have heard. Again, it might be helpful to journal or write your prayers.
Rest. In this final reading you are invited to return to a place of rest in God. You have given your response its full expression, so now you can move into a time of waiting and resting in God’s presence. This is a posture of being total yielded and abandoned to the great Lover of your soul.
Resolve. As you emerge from this place of personal encounter with God to life in the company of others, resolve to carry this word with you and to live it out in the context of daily life and activity. As you continue to listen to the word throughout the day, you will be led deeper and deeper into its meaning, until it begins to live in you and you embody this word to the world in which you live.