I have visited some Catholic schools recently, and one of the major themes that I have been talking about with the children is the importance of “Lectio Divina,” or “Divine Reading.” It is a an ancient, and yet still very valuable, form of Christian meditation. At its essence, Lectio is a slow, prayerful reading of the divinely inspired Word of God that leads us into a loving conversation with our Loving Father in heaven and our Lord Jesus Christ.
One mistake that many of us make is that we try to read the Bible much too quickly — we try to power through it in one year, or some other short time period, and we miss much of the richness that is present in Holy Scripture. It is better for us to take Scripture in smaller “bites,” and to really chew on them, to mull them over, to be SILENT and allow the Lord to speak to our hearts, and then to let that lead us into a loving conversation with “Him who my heart loves.”
I encourage each of you to try to spend 15 minutes each day in Lectio Divina. As members of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mercy, we commit ourselves to a real effort to either pray the rosary or do Lectio, but it is even better to expand our spiritual horizons, if we can, and to do both of them on a daily basis. If you are wanting to start a daily Lectio, I would recommend starting with either the Gospel of St. Matthew, or the Gospel of St. Luke — St. Matthew has the largest selection of the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, and St. Luke has the largest selections of the parables of Mercy and of interactions of Our Blessed Lord with those who were considered “sinners” (as if some people were not sinners). Anyway, that is where I would start — and I hope that you find daily Lectio Divina to be a new dimension to your life of prayer and union with our Lord Jesus!
Love always,
Fr. Ben
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