More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
January 13 - February 3, 2025
After we read Scripture, silence helps us be attentive to God when he does speak
Lectio involves a slower, more reflective reading of Scripture that helps us to be open to God’s initiative rather than being subject to human agendas—
It also allows for at least two different kinds of prayer that are not heavy-laden with human effort. One is a prayer of response. This is prayer that most naturally flows out of what we’ve heard or sensed is God’s invitation to us.
It also incorporates the prayer of rest—prayer beyond words in which we rest in God’s love and sovereignty in our life.
Lectio divina is experienced in four movements.
To prepare for the lectio process, we first choose a passage of Scripture no more than six to eight verses in length. We begin with a time of silent preparation (silencio) in which we become quiet in God’s presence and touch our desire to hear from God.
Then we read the chosen passage four consecutive times, each time asking a different question that invites us into the dynamic of that move. Each reading is followed by a brief period of silence.
The first move is to read (lectio). In this move, we read the passage once or even twice, listening for the word or the phrase that strikes us.
The second move is to reflect (meditatio). We read the passage a second time, and this time we reflect on the way our life is touched by this word.
The third move is to respond (oratio). Is there an invitation or a challenge for us to respond to? What is our response to God’s invitation?
we read the passage one last time, and this time the invitation is contemplatio—to rest in God.
We resolve to carry this word with us and live it out (incarnatio) in our daily life. We continue to listen to it throughout the day as we are led deeper and deeper into its meaning and it begins to live in us.
Simply put, prayer is all the ways in which we communicate and commune with God. The fundamental purpose of prayer is to deepen our intimacy with God.
there comes a time when prayer just doesn’t work as it used to.
For a while we may try to work harder at prayer the way we have always known it, or we may try to find a better method, but no matter how much effort we put into it or how faithful we are, nothing happens. While we have surely experienced times of dryness before, they always seemed to pass, and experiences of intimacy with God would return. But this time is different.
This is very traumatic for the tender soul and may send us spiraling into doubt about our spirituality, wondering if we have completely lost our way. As time goes by, we may even become angry at God for not making himself known to us
The experience of having our prayers go cold, as distressing as it is, signals a major transition in the life of prayer and thus in our relationship with God. It signals an invitation to deeper levels of intimacy that will move us beyond communication, which primarily involves words and concepts, into communion, which is primarily beyond words.
prayer means listening with attentive, undivided hearts to the inner movement of the Spirit of Jesus, even when that Spirit leads us to places we would rather not go.
relinquishing control can be difficult or even impossible. If we have a high need to be in control in our human relationships (and most of us do), intimacy with God will be very challenging for us. If we are afraid of intimacy or hold ourselves back in human relationships, that will be our pattern with God as well.
The reason this kind of prayer is so satisfying is that it is about knowing God experientially rather than just knowing a lot about God. The Greek word epiginōskō implies an intimate knowledge involving the whole person, not just the mind.
Be still before the Lord and wait. Be still and know that I am God. In silence my soul waits for you and you alone, oh God. This is a prayer of self-emptying that enables us to receive whatever it is that God wants to give. We come to him with empty hands and empty heart, having no agenda. Half the time we don’t even know what we need; we just come with a sense of our own spiritual poverty. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Emptiness is the prerequisite for receiving.
when we stop the flow of our own words, another gift comes to us, quietly and imperceptibly at first: we find ourselves resting in prayer. Rather than working so hard to put everything into words, we rest from the noise and stimulation that are so characteristic of life in our culture. We rest our overactive, hardworking mind from the need to put everything into words. We rest from clinging, grasping and trying to figure everything out. The soul returns to its most natural state in God. In returning and rest you will be saved.
a “gut prayer,” because it comes from a deep gut level. This prayer is so simple that it requires no thought to remember it once we really know it is ours. It is so short (usually only six to eight syllables) that we can pray it rhythmically with the inhalation and exhalation of our breathing. Breath prayer is powerful because it is an expression of our heart’s deepest yearning coupled with the name for God that is most meaningful and intimate for us at this time.
Even though over the years I had been intent on paying attention to the condition of my spiritual life, no one else had ever called any serious attention to the connection between my physical well-being and my life in Christ. During that time I was reflecting on the story of Elijah’s journey into God’s presence in 1 Kings 19, and I was struck by the attention God gave to Elijah’s physical condition, going so far as to send an angel to guide him in caring for his body.
he had let himself become so run down that God had to send an angel to strengthen his body before they could deal with anything else. The angel helped him pay attention to the condition of his body as the vehicle that would enable him to take the journey that lay ahead. The angel even pointed out that if he did not care for his body, the journey into the presence of God would be too much for him (1 Kings 19:7).
needed specific guidance for how to care for my body as a part of my spiritual practice and as preparation for the rigors of the spiritual journey into which I was being invited.
God inhabits our bodies, making them a place where we can meet and know him. Beyond that, the Scriptures indicate that it is possible to glorify God in our bodies rather than merely glorifying the body,
Learning to honor the body as a place where God makes his presence known becomes, then, an important discipline for the spiritual pilgrim.
My first forays into learning to honor my body had to do with simply learning how to care for it more intentionally.
I learned that one of God’s gifts to us in the body is that exercise releases endorphins that are soothing to our emotions, ease pain and elevate our mood.
even secular research indicates that exercise and spirituality go hand in hand.
William C. Bushell, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology research scientist specializing in medicine and anthropology.
Exercise brings mental and physiological changes, including the flood of body-made opiates that induce what’s called the “runner’s high.”
runner feels more integrated with his or her surroundings and the Creator himself.
The point here is that spiritual disciplines do not all have to be practiced while one sits quiet and still. There are many creative ways to forge a life-giving connection between our spiritual life and life in our body;
Our bodies have much to tell us if we could only figure out how to listen. In fact, oftentimes God speaks to us through our body. Most times, our body is the first to know if we are overcommitted, stressed, uneasy or joyful, and when we need to attend to something that is causing us pain or disease.
Paying attention to what we are experiencing in our body can open up windows of insight that might not otherwise be opened.
A flow of energy into us, or its draining away from us, can be felt in our body if we are in touch with it.
“No, the word [of God] is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe” (Deuteronomy 30:14). In other words, what you need to know to be well is already known in your body if you will just pay attention.
Intimacy happens as we bring more and more of ourselves into God’s presence.
when we pray with body and soul, or love with body and soul, or belong with body and soul, we are believing, responding, surrendering with all of who we are.”
Kneeling or even lying prostrate on the floor can give physical expression to the posture of our heart or lead us into a more prayerful, humble stance before God. Praying with our hands open can be a way of expressing our openness to God and our willingness to receive whatever he wants to give.
As I care for my body more wisely, I am conscious of a life-giving energy that is always being renewed as a gift from my amazing Creator God.
our sense of worth is so fragile or our perfectionism so pronounced that we are not sure we could bear facing the truth of our own darkness without becoming completely unraveled. And yet one of the deepest longings of the human heart is to be known and loved unconditionally. We long to know that someone in this world knows everything about us and loves us anyway. Beyond
most of us aren’t willing to take the risk of being seen so completely. There is always something we’re hiding for fear that we will be rejected in the end.
All of us would prefer to have the experience of unconditional love without having to take the risk of letting someone know us that well!
We realize that our responses to wounds we’ve received have caused us to become hard and self-protective.
Self-examination is a practice that facilitates spiritual awakening—an awakening to the presence of God
Psalm 139:23-24 is perhaps the most familiar passage articulating the soul’s invitation to God to guide the self-examination process: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
the real issue in self-examination is not that I am inviting God to know me (since he already does) but that I am inviting God to help me know me.
