Chopping Wood (or Carrots) Under the Gaze of God

As we physically isolate ourselves in order to protect our loved ones, others, and ourselves, we may find that we have to rethink how we live our days.  We will be living a different life for a while, one which necessitates a change in daily routine, schedule, and structure.  Most of us have a practice of Centering Prayer embedded in our daily lives.  My morning and late afternoon Centering Prayer periods are anchors that have been in place in my life for a long time, so I now ask myself:  What will help me draw closer to God during this time?

I would like to suggest one possibility: add a form of Lectio Divina to our lives.

Father Richard Rohr describes Lectio Divina in the following way:

“In the monastic tradition, this practice of lingering and going to the depths of a text is called `Lectio Divina’.  It is a contemplative way of reading that goes deeper than the mental comprehension of words, or using words to give answers, or solve immediate problems or concerns.  Contemplation is waiting patiently for the gaps to be filled in, and it does not insist on quick closure or easy answers.  It never rushes to judgement, and in fact avoids making quick judgements, because judgements have more to do with egoic, personal control than with a loving search for truth.” (The Universal Christ, page 8).

 Here are some thoughts about Lectio Divina from Sister Mary Margaret Funk in an article about Lectio Divina in the book The Gethsemani Encounter:  A Dialogue on the Spiritual Life by Buddhist and Christian Monastics, edited by Q. Mitchell and James Wiseman OSB. PP.60-67.

According to Sister Mary Margaret, the nuns at the Benedictine monastery where she lives practice Lectio Divina daily. They first do a practice Centering Prayer to “calm the mind, still the body, and awaken the interior spiritual senses.” Then they meditate on the Lectio Divina passage (the Word) because it is thought that “Centering Prayer helps to reduce the level of interior noise and prepares the mind to be clear for meditating on the Word.”

Sister Mary Margaret states, “While Lectio is reading, Lectio Divina as spiritual reading is listening in that reading with the ear of the heart.  It is using our spiritual senses and … the spiritual meaning of scripture is grasped only by the spiritual senses.” She believes that a practice of meditation along with Lectio Divina helps to develop refinement of our spiritual senses. We move more easily into a heart consciousness whereby we help ourselves and we help others.

 Another person who has written about Lectio Divina is Father Thomas Merton, who says on Page 44 of The Climate of Monastic Prayer: “We rarely pray with the ‘mind’ alone.  Monastic meditation, prayer, oratio, contemplation and reading involve the whole man, and proceed from the ‘center’ of man’s being, his ‘heart’ renewed in the Holy Spirit, totally submissive to the grace of Christ.  Monastic prayer begins not so much with ‘considerations’ as with a ‘return to the heart,’ finding one’s deepest center, awakening the profound depths of our being in the presence of God who is the source of our being and our life.”

Sister Mary Margaret cites a passage in a letter from Fr. Merton to the Sufi scholar Abdul Ch. Aziz, where he shares his daily schedule.  Like us, Father Merton had necessary manual labor to do every day while living in his hermitage at Gethsemani Monastery.  His manual labor included “sweeping, cleaning, cutting wood,” cooking, and cleaning dishes. Along with his manual labor, his days were filled with reading and meditating on Scripture. “He speaks of praying without ceasing, being aware of God, as he makes his tea, builds a fire, walks in the woods”.  Sister Mary Margaret states: “There is a pattern of Lectio Divina in Merton’s daily life.  He writes of reading scripture, meditating, praying the psalms, and sitting before the gaze of God, ‘being with God as if you saw Him.’ The reciting of the scriptures plants them ever deeper in the heart.”

I am certainly not a monastic like Sister Mary Margaret and Father Merton.  Most of the time I have to create “to do” lists or else I forget what I am supposed to be doing.  But I do know that creating a bit of a structure—structure focused on the Spirit in my life right now—will help in calming and focusing me and perhaps bring me closer to the “gaze of God”.  I know that adding the spiritual discipline of Lectio Divina to my daily life helps me, which then enables me to help and be present to others.

We will be sharing a weekly biblical passage with a Lectio Divina format, along with a commentary on the passage by Father Keating.  This handout is offered as a resource and a template for your group to help you to pray together while maintaining social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. We know that many of you have been doing Lectio Divina in your groups and hope that you will continue to use your own format if that is best for you. We will be adapting this handout which comes from the CO coordinator in Washington DC, Martha Johnston.  The biblical passage is the one used in the liturgy in the Roman Catholic and Episcopalian churches for the upcoming Sunday. This handout can be emailed to your group members or can be used as a guide in an online Zoom group.*

A biblical passage does not have to be the only type of content used for a Lectio.  A second approach is to modify the handout to use a passage in a book that your group is reading or a passage from a book of your own choosing. For example, Mary Williams created this adaptation of the above template for her group. Another source of readings is Father Keating’s book The Daily Reader for Contemplative Living or Father Rohr’s online daily meditation. Today I used Father Keating’s daily text as a Lectio throughout the day and followed Father Rohr’s guidelines. 

Finally, as an alternative to the formal Lectio method, here is Father Rohr’s suggestion on how to read a text in a Lectio Divina manner (The Universal Christ page 8):

“I intend.... for you to linger with an idea, to focus on it until it engages your body, your heart, your awareness of the physical world around you, and most especially your core connection with a larger field ... and, if need be, read it again until you feel its impact, until you can imagine its larger implications for the world and for history and for you.  In other words, until ‘the word becomes flesh’ for you!”  I would add: Keep it with you as you move throughout the day.

Or, as he puts it more simply in his online daily meditation:

“What word or phrase resonates with or challenges me?  What sensations do I notice in my body?  What is mine to do?”

~Kathy Agnew

*For more information on using Zoom for Centering Prayer groups, please contact Linda Dollins at dollinslinda@hotmail.com. You can register for a free or upgraded Zoom account here.