Lectio Template 188

  "The light shines in the darkness...."

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 John 1: 1-18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

      The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. . . . And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

 

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: 

Christianity is intensely a religion of incarnation. Millions of people caught up in mass hysteria during the Christmas season can’t all be wrong! But even the sentimental excesses of the season only go to reinforce the point. There is a deeper truth at work here that stirs us in spite of ourselves. Who among us has not awakened in the wee hours of Christmas morning to catch the live broadcast of the Ceremony of Lessons and Carols from King’s College and thrilled to the sonorous reading of those immortal words from the prologue to the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us”? There is a deep soul-truth here that both contains and redeems our frantic efforts to penetrate its meaning at a more superficial level.

       If you were to imagine the great world religions like the colors of a rainbow, each one witnessing in a particular way to some essential aspect of the divine fullness, Christianity would unquestionably hold down the corner of incarnation—by which I mean the vision of God in full solidarity with the created world, fully at home within the conditions of finitude, so that form itself poses no impediment to divinity. . . . At its mystical best, Christianity reverberates with the warmth of this assurance: with the conviction that creation is good, that God is for us, and that what ultimately gets worked out in the sacred mystery of Jesus’s passage through the human realm is a profound testament to love.

--Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus, pp 93-94.  

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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 Richard and Linda Hall, Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington, DC]