Lectio To Go

If I am to live "immersed in lectio" (i.e. in scripture), I must learn to take it with me wherever I go.  This is obviously a process, an "art" that cannot be mastered overnight.   

Years ago, I learned a way of carrying at least a touch of lectio with me... a way to cart chunks of the Bible around as I work and drive and (especially) face into the storms of life.  In recent weeks, I've been re-learning the value of this "portable lectio."  It does not replace time apart with God, for I need time with my Bible open and with my mind as concentrated as possible.  But I am greedy enough to want scripture with me, wherever I go.  I want God's word to shape me.  To mold my attitudes, soothe my worries and calm my fears.  I want scripture to form my thinking.  I want to carry it with me as much as possible.  So, in addition to taking with me parts of scripture that jumped out at me "this morning," I also memorize.  

Someone asked me, years ago, why anyone would bother memorizing verses of scripture when Bibles were so readily available?  Because, I answered, there may come a time when I might not have ready access to one.  I wasn't necessarily referring to anything apocalyptic, but to any times when I might want to "read" the Bible and wouldn't have one right in my hand.  Like once when I spent an hour in an MRI "tube" with nothing to think about but the blangs and clangs swirling around my head.  I was thankful, then, to have memorized a few chapters of scripture.  I practiced lectio right there, holding a mental, silent conversation with God as I lay in my metal enclosure....

But however does one memorize chunks of scripture?  I have done it the way one memorizes anything:  by repetition, repetition, repetition.  I've done it in small manageable chunks of a sentence or less a day, sentence added to sentences until look!... here's a paragraph...

I began with the first chapter of the Gospel of John, because it so greatly appealed to me.  I figured that if I were ever stranded on a desert island or stuck in a massive storm, this was what I'd want lodged in my head.  I managed to memorize the first 14 verses straight through (don't be too impressed:  it took me all of one summer and into the fall).  I would read my "new sentence"  in the morning, go back to it mentally through the day, look it back up if I got stuck, and recite it mentally as my bedtime lullaby.  I'd go to sleep reciting all of what-I'd-memorized-so-far in my head (silently - without my husband even knowing I was doing this!).  A soothing way to go to sleep...

I haven't memorized a great deal of scripture, but do have enough of a storehouse to keep me going in some of the traffic jams and storms and MRIs of life.

And if I'm ever stuck on a desert island, at least I'll have brought my Lectio-to-Go.

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© 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org         

Painting: Charles Sillem Lidderdale, The Fern Gatherer, 1877

Light in the Shadows

Someone spending these "days" of lectio with us recently said the following:

"If we don't spend time with God in prayer, then we go empty-handed into the marketplace." 

I was reminded of times when I've dashed out without taking time to be with God.  Times when I've decided I was "too busy" to spend even a few minutes with Scripture, too busy to let God feed me with His Word.  I've rushed, malnourished and empty, into the marketplace - bringing nothing with me but my own flawed, weak human nature.

If I spend even a bit of time with God, however, I'm giving the fruit of His Spirit an opportunity to grow.  I am allowing God to strengthen me, causing my life to overflow with goodness that will eventually nourish not just me, but also those around.  It takes time for fruit to grow.  It takes patience to sit through those dark silent moments of prayer when it seems nothing is happening.  

"The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness, and chastity."  (Galatians 6:22)  We don't have to look far to see that these very things are in scarce supply in our workplaces and malls and media and schools and towns.  There is a fruit shortage right before us, right here today.  And it's severe.

I can do something about it, about the shortage, but I can't do it alone.  I cannot manufacture fruit.  I can only come to God in prayer, reading His Word and letting it become living and active in me (Hebrews 4:12), causing the fruit to grow.

Then I can go nourished to the marketplace, carrying Light into the shadows, sharing what God has planted in the secret of my prayer. 

© 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org     

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(Painting:  Petrus van Schendel, Market, in US public domain) 

Lectio, Lived

As I go through my day nourished by the "air of scripture," I find that I haven't made practical resolutions (as quoted from Tim Gray in yesterday's post) as much as I've simply noticed lectio threading through the circumstances of my day.

I cooperate with the threading, however.  I respond.  In my lectio of a few days ago, the following leapt right off the page:  "The light shines on in darkness, a darkness that did not overcome it"  (John 1:5).  This word breathed life into me; it was vibrant and active and real.  My part was to accept and embrace it, and to let it change whatever in me needed changing.  In this case, the change has been in attitude and in time given to prayer.  There is a Light, and His Name is Jesus, and He is stronger than the dark.  I had realized this truth, of course, but in the moment when the words "leapt off the page" at me, I had a sudden, sharp sense of absolutely knowing.  An assurance that His Light is seeking out and chasing away darkness in me, and darkness in the world - even though I may not see how that is happening.  I also knew I was called to pray for the Light of Christ to triumph over specific circumstances in the world around.  So - the fruit of that lectio has been deeper confidence and increasing prayer.

As we become more immersed in Scripture, this is what happens.  We are touched, personally, by the word of God... and we change.

Today one of you shared the following:  "I enjoyed your post on the 20th... I prayed with the scripture verse you had there and never got past the first one (Habakkuk 3:17-19). I was struck by this phrase - 'yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.'  Specifically - 'yet I will ...' In other words, no matter what goes on in my life, I will be joyful and rejoice.  Yet I will... I prayed with that all weekend!  And I needed it today.  I had such a terrible day at work.  I cannot say I rejoiced until I came home and remembered the verse.  THEN I thanked God.  AND rejoiced."

Two examples of words that popped out of the readings and "stuck..." examples of seeing and responding to the world through the will of God.  Do things look dark?   I am assured that the Light shines on in darkness.   Did I have a bad day at work?  Yet I will thank God.  I will rejoice.

It is Lectio, Lived.  

© 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org      

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The Very Breath of Home

As we may recall from Tim Gray's summary of the steps of "Guigo's Ladder," Dr. Gray added a fifth step.  This was "Operatio, In which we make operative some practical resolution to bring the wine of God's word to fruitfulness in our life and the world."  (Tim Gray Ph.D, Praying Scripture for a Change, Ascension Press, 2009, p.36) 

Now that we've considered and begun to practice lectio divina, I'd like to take a look at the step of operatio.  It's a tough world, and we know it.  There is much in this world that's in conflict with the will of God, and all we need to do is compare what Scripture tells us with what the world "says" to begin to see this.

In order to face such conflicts day after day, we need to become saturated in God's Word - perhaps as an astronaut is saturated in oxygen.  Like an earthly visitor to the moon, we must carry the atmosphere of our Homeland with us.  We need to have the voice of God breathed constantly upon us, for there are other voices continually exhorting us to live anywhere at all except in the holiness of God's will.    

"Sacred Scripture is the speech of God, and it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit."  (Cathecism of the Catholic Church #81)  

As we go about our day to day lives, we ask the Holy Spirit to breathe His Word upon us.  For, living enclosed within the graces of Scripture, we carry with us the very breath of Home.

© 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org      

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