Lectio Template 267

  "I came to bring fire to the earth."

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...

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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.

LECTIO: from Luke 12: 49-53

“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

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 Divina to Centering/Silent Prayer. 

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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.

                          
The New Zealand Anglican Lord's Prayer

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and for ever.
Amen.

--The New Zealand Book of Prayer  | He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa

Teaching / Reflection: 

[W]hen Jesus says, “Do you think that I have come to establish your idea of peace in this world?” No. On the contrary, I have come to shake up your concept of what happiness and peace is. I have come to shatter the symbols that you think are important to the achievement of your myths of peace.

 

What might [those myths] be? Good reputation, good income, good portfolio, good entertainment, good acceptance by family and friends, good success in business, profession, ministry. These are not sources of peace. . .. [W]hile having a certain value, [these myths] are not the ultimate value by which we can live.

 

[Jesus] perceived at the profoundest level, the true value [of life], which is not a myth, but the love of God trying to free us from the false gods that our myths have created. What happens when we sit with the pain. . . and face our own moral failure at times to deal with the circumstances of life with justice and truth and charity? There comes this unbearable confrontation with the dark side of ourselves at the deepest level, that side that can rush out and destroy other people in order to get away from the pain. It’s at that point in which our myths are frustrated and [we see] darkness that we might do–at that point we understand who Jesus Christ is and what salvation means. It means that God joins us at this point of utter powerlessness in the face of our pain, the pain of loss of all the symbols that we thought would bring us peace. And it’s that gift of God’s presence in which God takes into Godself, so to speak...that anguish, alienation, that self-made hell in which, when we cease projecting it on others, we have to face it in ourselves.

 

And in doing so, we find the peace that surpasses all understanding, the peace which the world cannot give through all its promises of delightful mythology. It’s the world that is. It’s the world of God's infinite mercy. It’s the world in which the power of God is totally at the service of infinite mercy in which God takes upon Godself the anguish, the desolation, the loneliness, the hellishness of which hell itself is the symbol. And that is the peace that the world cannot give.

~Thomas Keating, Aug 2001 homily, published in Contemplative Outreach News, Vo. 39, #2, June 2022.

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We now take some time to share our thoughts and reflections on our own spiritual journey and our prayer practice. This may be 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]