Prayer & Lectio Divina
Very often my prayer begins in Scripture or is nourished by it. As St. Ambrose observed, we speak to the Lord when we pray, and we listen to him when we read his word. Here you’ll find posts about lectio divina (the practice of pondering Scripture until it becomes prayer) and other forms of prayer, both how and why to use them. Explore the posts below (pictured with the most recent first) or start with one of the ones listed here:
- Read the Bible Like a Disciple
- Flourishing in Drought (a 4-part series on lectio divina)
- God Hears Our Prayers
- Why Pray, if it Doesn’t Always “Work”?
I’ve heard it said that the shofar (ram’s horn trumpet), with its curving shape, represents the way a repentant heart “bends” before the Lord in supplication. When it’s blown, it has a unique sound that can trumpet victory or a mournful wail. In the liturgy of Rosh Hashanah, today’s Jewish “Feast of Trumpets,” three types of blasts make up the ...
“Pray without ceasing,” St. Paul urged his fellow Christians in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Today we honor a woman who did just that: St. Monica, who prayed through years of tears and against all odds for her pagan husband and wayward son. That son, who became Saint Augustine, later wrote gratefully of his mother: "She said little, preached not at all, ...
All over the world this week, Scripture is being specially celebrated by Catholics in the first-ever “Sunday of the Word of God.” Parishes will mark the day in various ways. Many will enthrone the Bible in their churches. They will honor and pray for people who teach and translate and study and proclaim God’s word. And they will look for ...
Have you ever been so buried with worry or sadness that you couldn’t move? I guess some people go running, or chop wood, or get busy doing anything to take their mind off their trouble, but I tend to freeze. My mind shuts down except the part that circles around the problem, and around, and around, and around…. The cycle ...
Let’s “come into the Word” today by doing a little visio divina — reflecting on a painting of the Word-made-flesh. It’s getting close to Christmas, and I don’t know about you, but my brain is too full to read another thing. There is something about a quiet gaze that speaks to my heart right now. I’d like to share a ...
Near the end of Little Big Man, the 1970 film with Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, and Chief Dan George, the aged medicine man—who has survived the massacre at Wounded Knee and seen victory at the Battle of Little Big Horn—prepares to die. On a high, lonely mountain he sings and dances before the god he calls “Grandfather” and he cries ...
“Put your hand in the hand of the man who stills the waters . . .” It’s been decades since I heard that song by Ocean, but the snatch I caught took me right back to seventh grade. I was riding the after-school bus, sitting not with the cool kids in the back; not with the nerds and little ones ...
Sometimes I think my cell phone is possessed. Little burps and chirps and whistles come from it at the oddest times, for no apparent reason. There’s no new text, no new email. Someone is trying to reach me, I think. But who? If only I was better at figuring out technology. The Bible is like a cell phone, in that ...
What do we do when God does not answer our prayer? I know they say he always answers – just not necessarily as we would like. So what do we do when God answers “no”? This week I’ve been meditating on Psalm 38, the third of seven “penitential psalms.” It’s a psalm of David, who infamously committed adultery with Bathsheba ...
