Lectio Divina Template 1

"Mary Magdala came to the tomb..."

We invite you to a few minutes of silence before we begin our prayer time together.

Take a deep breath and breathe in the breath of God, knowing by faith that God breathes into us the breath of life.

CONTEMPLATIVE / SILENT PRAYER

Our Centering Prayer sit is 30 minutes sounded by the chime/chant.  At the end of the Prayer sit, we will linger in silence a few minutes then follow by praying together the Our Father.

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LECTIO DIVINA: Listening to the Word of God with the ears of our heart

First reading & silent reflection:  Reflect  in silence.

LECTIO: John 20:1-9. On the first day of the week, Mary Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put Him." So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb....and saw the burial cloths there...and the cloth that had covered His head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. He saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that He had to rise from the dead.

Second reading & reflection: What word or phrase catches your attention? Share or pass.

Third reading & reflection:  How does this word or phrase touch your life? Share or pass.

Fourth and last reading & silent reflection:  How is God inviting you to grow?  We will reflect in silence for a few moments before we move from Lectio Prayer to the teaching by Father Keating.

Teaching: "He has risen; he is not here." Mark 16:6. His holy soul, bearing our sins, descended into the destructive waters of the Great Abyss in order that our sinfulness might be utterly destroyed....As Christ's soul emerged from the waters made life-giving by the touch of His sacred humanity and re-entered His body, the sacrifice He had offered released within the bosom of the Father an incredible outpouring of Divine Light, Life and Love. The fire of the Holy Spirit, bursting with the fullness of divine energy, rushed upon His sacred remains. The perfumed oil of immense and weight and value, symbolizing the Spirit, suggests the immense power that the Spirit exerted when the soul of Christ re-entered His body. In this reunion, the Father poured into the risen Jesus the whole of the Divine Essence -- the utter riches, glory, and prerogatives of the divine nature -- in a way that is utterly inconceivable to us. Mystery of Christ, Father Thomas Keating.

Go in the name of Christ Jesus to love and serve the Lord.  Thanks be to God!

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[This is an adapted format courtesy of Martha Johnston, Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington, DC]