Lectio Template 162

   "Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."

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 20 - 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 [See Chopping Wood (or Carrots) Under the Gaze of God for a discussion of Lectio Divina]. 

First reading & silent reflection:  Reflect in silence.

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LECTIO: from Romans 6: 3-4, 9-11 

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. . . . We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

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 or another contemplative guide.

Teaching: 

Julian of Norwich, my favorite mystic, uses the word “sin” to mean a state of separateness or disunion. She writes that you become aware of your state of resistance or separateness, and when you try to sink into the experience of oneing, you realize you can’t get there by yourself. You can’t make it happen. You can’t make yourself one.

     Julian writes in Revelation of Divine Love, “Only in the falling apart of your own foundations can you experience God as your total foundation and your real foundation.” Otherwise you keep creating your own foundation by your own intelligence and holy thoughts. . . . 

     What we’re doing in prayer is letting our self-made foundation (or False Self) crumble so that God’s foundation can be our reality. Prayer is a practice in failure that overcomes our resistance to union with Love. Let’s fall into and rest in that Love one more time.

  --Richard Rohr, A Spring Within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations, 118.

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We now take some time to share our thoughts and reflections on our own spiritual journey and our prayer practice.  Followed by brief prayers of intercession. Share or pass.

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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]