Lectio Template 196

 "Those who lose their life for my sake...will save it."

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 Mark 8: 31-38

[Jesus] called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

 

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: 

What is the wisdom that is revealed in the cross? It is something that we generally grasp more existentially than intellectually. We know it more in a dark, inchoate way. For example, we know what it means when we say: We all have our crosses to bear. We cannot ever explain that adequately but, at some intuitive level, we sense that our own sufferings connect to the sufferings of Jesus on the cross. Moreover, we do not just sense that our sufferings are somehow connected to the cross; we also sense that, like Jesus’s sufferings, ours, too, are somehow redemptive. At some deep level we sense that suffering is working to mature us, to make us grow up, to make us more compassionate, and is opening us up more to hear the voice of God and the voices of others. In most of what we suffer in life, we sense that, despite the pain and heartbreak, there is meaning inside the suffering.

--Ron Rolheiser, The Passion and the Cross, ix. 

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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]