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”?
As is often the case, my heart is hard by the time Lent rolls around. I need help to soften and to turn it, so I can recognize my sin: the ways I've missed the mark or turned good to my own ends or put my own will before God's. Or my needs before those others. Each of these acts ...
If the stores in our area are anything to go by, Thanksgiving is going the way of the pilgrims. We're too busy, it seems, to linger in gratitude when there's so much out there to get. X-mas trees (I can't call them "Christmas") appeared the afternoon of Halloween, and Thanksgiving's treated as a signpost for Black Friday. How can we ...
This weekend at the National Catholic Bible Conference in Houston, I spoke on "The Word of God in the Life of the Disciple." Scripture plays an important role in helping us ENCOUNTER Jesus and grow in RELATIONSHIP with him, and it fosters the TRANSFORMATION that is the hallmark of true disciples. As Catholics, we have a powerful encounter with the ...
"Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish, had recourse to the Lord." (Esther C:12*) Have you ever felt like that? "Seized with mortal anguish"? I've never faced genocide the way Queen Esther did, but I have felt the "mortal anguish" of despair when we faced deep financial trouble ... when our baby's life hung by a thread ... when our son ...
I always think of what to say after the conversation’s over. For an hour I sat and listened to my friend complain. The world is falling apart, she fears. “And can you believe those people who pray about every little problem — do they think God cares about a parking space?!” She was incensed. “God has way too much on his ...
I remember the day it all got to be too much for me. Our house had finally sold after two years sitting empty, but that hardly made a difference. We sold at a loss, and my husband had been without work for months. There was no money in the bank. We had a toddler and a baby to care for, ...
I hated walking home after Daylight Savings ended. I didn't live far from where I babysat, but the road wasn't lit. Not even houses along the way—houses of people I knew, who were friendly—erased the nagging fear that something could happen, I could be hurt, and no one would come to my aid. I'd clutch my bag, walk tall, then ...
"O God, come to my assistance; O LORD, make haste to help me!" Who hasn't prayed this, or something like it, at some time in their life? It comes from Psalm 70, where it is a strong cry for rescue. But those words are far more than a cry for help. The early desert fathers repeated that verse throughout the ...
Have you heard of visio divina? I hadn’t, until I was asked to review Transformed by God’s Word, a wonderful new book by Stephen Binz. Immediately, I was intrigued by the subtitle: Discovering the Power of Lectio and Visio Divina. Lectio divina, I know well. But visio? Visio divina—“sacred seeing”— is an Eastern Orthodox tradition of contemplating sacred images, allowing ...
