REFLECTIONS ON LECTIO DIVINA (part 3)

By Nancy Moran

In the next 3 sessions of the Contemplative Outreach e-course “Lectio Divina: Heart to Heart – Listening and Living with God”  we continue learning about the 4 Senses of Scripture.  The previous sessions covered the first  Sense of Scripture – the Literal sense and the second sense of Scripture – the Allegorical sense.

SESSION 7

The focus of session 7 is the Behavioral/Moral Sense – Oratio – Responding to the Word of God.

This 3rd sense of Scripture corresponds to the level of friendship in a relationship.  As we connect with the Christ-energy in Scripture we begin to experience new realizations and begin to live the Scripture message more and more in our lives.  Our hearts are touched and Oratio is our response to the promptings of the Spirit.  Our response could be positive and/or negative feelings.  Our response could be a question or a decision.  Our response could be an act – as in forgiving another.  During periods of dryness our response could be simply patient waiting.  Whatever our response is, Oratio is a heart-to-heart exchange with Christ.

SESSIONS 8 and 9

The focus of the next sessions is the 4th sense of Scripture – the Unitive Sense – Contemplatio – Resting in the Word of God.

This Sense of Scripture corresponds to the level of intimacy in a relationship.  Union is an experience of oneness where opposites are reconciled.  We are listening with our whole being, totally present to the text.  We are brought to a place of rest that allows us to experience the text at deeper levels of faith.  We are simply with God, in interior quiet and peace – falling into God’s embrace.

While resting or perhaps if we become distracted we may be drawn to one of the other moments of Lectio Divina – reading or reflecting or responding.  We are in a dance.  We are opening ourselves to being led by the Spirit. Our efforts are of no matter, but only an obstacle to the interior peace and work of God.

In “The Classic Monastic Practice of Lectio Divina,” Father Thomas Keating gives us a theological description of union with God:

“In the Trinity, the Eternal Word is always emerging from the infinite silence of the Father and always returning.  The persons in the Trinity live in each other rather than in themselves.  The Father knows himself only in the Son, the Son only in the Father, and the Spirit expresses their unity, bringing together into One relationships that are infinitely distinct.  The Trinity is the basis for the oneness and diversity that we see expressed throughout creation.  In this way of doing Lectio, one is recognizing the presence of the Word of God in all creation and in every occurrence, experiencing what the author of John’s gospel wrote in the prologue, ‘Without Him was made nothing that has been made.’  In contemplative prayer, we are in touch with the source of all creation; hence, we transcend ourselves and our limited world views.  As a result, we feel at one with other people and enjoy a sense of belonging to the universe.  The fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Jesus, according to Paul.  The Divinity begins to dwell in us bodily in proportion to our capacity to receive it as we grow in union with the Eternal Word.  This process needs to be nourished both by the interior silence of contemplative prayer and cultivated by Lectio Divina (in the sense of listening).  The awareness of the divine presence will also begin to overflow into ordinary activity.”