Lectio Divina

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lectio divina, psalm, psalm 119, read, Scripture, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Once a month now at the Sophia Center we have a noon gathering to ponder the lectionary psalm of the day. A few months ago it happened that a section of the longest psalm in the Bible (PS 119) showed up on our meeting day. As I thought about how to present this snippet of a greater whole, I found my answer in a section of commentary that said, “Experiences are often repeated again and again. As we go over the same territory learning in new ways, truth becomes grounded…” The six chosen verses for that day were in the same section but not tightly sequential. Our normal practice is to read what appears just once through, either by one person, antiphonally (alternately by two groups), or all together. I decided to experiment by having each participant read one verse that we then commented upon before going on to the next one. The result was quite profound. There were six of us present that day. Six different voices describing the same sentiment deepened the meaning and solidified it in our hearts. And then the next verse built upon that deepening.

Today we gather again and today we have a similar situation as verses 41,43,44,45,47,48 of Psalm 119 compose the text of our reflection. The sentiments in my favorite translation (Ancient Songs Sung Anew) offer us, I am certain, the potential for as meaningful experience as before if we take the time to listen deeply to each other. Won’t you join us by reading each line aloud several times and hearing it reverberate throughout your being? I guarantee that it will be a worthwhile endeavor.

41: For the sake of the covenant we keep between us, Lord, let your love descend and hold me fast. 43. Allow my mouth to utter words of truth, this Torah of the heart. 44. Which I shall trust and keep forever. 45. And then in freedom I will walk upon your path and know these precepts are yours alone. 47. I’ll bind them to my heart with deepest joy, 48. For I love and worship all you love, my Lord. I meditate upon this inner bread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Dwelling Place

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, dwelling place, God, Holy One, invitation, meditate, Peter, prayer, psalm, temple, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The first lectionary text this morning (1PT 1:10-16) ended with a call to be holy with the simple statement “Be holy for I, the Lord, am holy.” Succinctly put, right? Then, in a commentary on today’s psalm I read a paragraph that seemed to follow and enhance the message of Peter, drawing us into a possible way of entering more deeply into relationship with this “Holy One.” See what you think.

Perhaps one of the things that we learn…is that human beings need to offer an invitation to God and interior space for God to be. Have you ever sensed that you could offer a place inside of your being as a dwelling place for the divine, or that your whole being could be God’s “temple” as it is often put in the tradition?…In a time of prayer, meditate upon this possibility and what it means for you. (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p.248)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Call to Presence

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dawn, gentlest, innocence, Lord, love, present, psalm, The Sign of Jonas, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

I sit this morning in the quiet moment where nothing stirs except the very energetic birds and where the light came as quickly just now as if someone had flipped a switch to begin the day. Everything is still outside while in my head the thoughts and plans that woke me at 4:30 begin to dissipate so I can notice and embrace the silence…

Now even the birds are quieting down, to listen perhaps to Thomas Merton’s psalm for the dawn. I join them and sink into Merton’s call to presence.

The Lord God is present where the new day shines in the moisture on the young grasses. The Lord God is present where the small wildflowers are known to Him alone. The Lord God passes suddenly, in the wind, at the moment when night ebbs into the ground. He Who is infinitely great has given to His children a share in His own innocence. His alone is the gentlest of loves: whose pure flame respects all things… (The Sign of Jonas, p. 346)

 

 

 

 

 

Joy in the Morning

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dancing, joy, Lectionary, lunch with the psalms, mourning, praise, psalm, Psalm 30, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

One of my favorite moments of the week is really a half hour. It happens every Tuesday noon at our weekly “Lunch with the Psalms” offering at the Sophia Center. As it has evolved, nobody brings a lunch. Rather we just “chew on” the psalm of the day from the lectionary for the Eucharist. We look at different translations, reading reflectively and comparing word choices, then considering the meaning and applications – sometimes for our world and sometimes for our personal lives. Sometimes we just bask in the language itself.

Yesterday there were only two of us present for this weekly feast but, as we often remember that “where two or three are gathered,” Christ says, “there I am in the midst of them,” it was delightful. Our consideration was Psalm 30 and in one of the alternate translations we chuckled at the part that sounded like a teenager addressing God but were caught in a different way with the vivid lines that expressed a more mature relationship. I decided it would be worth sharing the entire text here today, followed by the most evocative lines of commentary, in hopes that you might share our experience of God’s faithful servant,  the psalmist, in the vicissitudes of life and know again the constancy of God’s care.

It is you I praise, my God. You took me by the hand to lift me high up off the ground. You did not let my adversaries trample over me. O God, when I called out to you, you heard my cry for help and nursed me back to health again. I was dying and you revived me. It is you who saved my life when I was spiraling down. Let everyone who serves you praise the sacred name we know and now confess. If indeed you are ever angry, God, it flashes out for one brief moment and then is gone, but your kindness never fades even for an instant. It is life itself. Tears may wash me through the night, but when the morning breaks your joy awaits.

Once in great prosperity, with grace abounding, foolishly I said, “I will never be disturbed. I am as strong and sure as any mountain.” But suddenly, it was as if you were not there. It was as though your face had turned away. I found myself in deep despair. I called, I cried, I begged for pity, Lord. I argued with you. “God,” I said, “What good would it do you if I vanished into death? And would the dust that’s left when I am gone keep promise or speak your praise? Lord, listen, hear and help me now,” I pled and prayed.

Then suddenly, you turned my mourning into dancing, you stripped the rags of grief away and wrapped me round with your astounding joy. Now from my heart there pours unceasing song, a voice with music and with praise, that will sing on to you forever. (Psalm 30)

Question: The contrast between depression and despair and joy are great in this psalm. What is the experience of joy? Is it simply that the problems of life are resolved in your favor, or is there something more and deeper than this?

Sunshine

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dawn, heart, inward movement of spirit, Jesus, light, Luke, Peace, psalm, sunshine, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wake up call

Soon after I responded to the wake-up call on my alarm this morning, the sun appeared on the eastern horizon. It seemed early to me but since I am sleeping on the 4th floor at our Motherhouse in Latham, New York I was not really surprised as the higher you go, the earlier it appears. Within fifteen minutes it was fairly blazing. Not so with the internet. Access is often not available that high up in this house. As I descended the stairs to the ground floor I found myself conscious (unusual at 6:15AM!) of the act of downward motion and opened myself to an analogous inward movement of spirit. I arrived at the computer room and accessed the Sunday readings with a ready heart, sunshine blazing to my right. I smiled as I read the psalm refrain, so perfect in the moment: Lord, let your face shine on us! I will take that line as a sunny reminder into our meeting today, accompanied in my heart by the benediction in today’s gospel (LK 24), given to the disciples by Jesus for all time: Peace be with you.

What’s My Line?

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aging, Antony of Egypt, centenarians, Don't judge a book by it's cover, family, Hebrews, Jesus, Levi, long life, Lord, loved ones, Mark, monastic life, obituaries, psalm, spirit, Spirit and life, tax collector, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Having lived and ministered in the same area for 43 years I have come to know many individuals and families so I have made it a practice to read the obituaries each morning as a practice of remembrance and prayer. It seems lately that there are more long-lived people – centenarians even – who appear along with others tragically taken “before their time.” Often, when I read the entire entry of someone I recognize, I learn many things about lives that only touched mine as students or parishioners – interesting things about their occupations or other activities. The most common theme, regardless of age, is their love for their families and how their presence will be missed.

This morning the gospel of Mark continues the recitation of the call of the disciples but this time Jesus is not tapping fishermen for his followers but rather someone of unseemly credentials: the tax collector, Levi. It seems Jesus wants to prove a point, i.e. “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” As if that were not enough to ponder, the saint of the day is Antony of Egypt, a man who lived from the year 251 to 356! Yes, you read it correctly. He was 105 years old when he died in the 4th century! That’s certainly a good advertisement for the solitary life since Antony left the noisy, busy city life of Egypt for the desert around age 20 and is credited with much of early eremitic monastic development; many men (and women!) gathered in cells around Antony’s cave, influenced by his holiness.

Perhaps I’m stretching a point to think there is a connection in all this – long life or not, different occupations…but for me, it makes sense as I read this morning’s psalm refrain: Your words, O Lord, are Spirit and life!”  We all hear God’s word in a particular way and, if listening deeply, find it to be “living and active” (HEB 4:12). Whether it leads to a busy life or the silence of a cave, and whether we are given long life or just a few short years, the call is ours. It may grow in us slowly or take us by surprise but, once heard, it must be followed all the way home.

The Secret Name

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blessing, God, name, one, praise, pray, psalm, Psalm 113, Star, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, universe

Psalm 113 is a psalm of praise that sang to me in a new way this morning from an alternate translation. Listen and see if any of the images “sing” to you:

Hallelujah! There is a name of One that only servants know, the name of God they carry deep inside and pray as source of blessing throughout life and time. It is a name they lift in honor and in praise from dawn till dusk. It flies above the nations like a flag and in the sky at night it hangs, a star of beauty. It is the name of One who sits enthroned and gazes out upon the blanket of the universe, but comes from underneath the weak like dust, and through the ashes to the poor, and lifts them up and sets them high as kings and queens of earth, and takes the barren, bitter, childless women and turns them into mothers of all the children.

The Forerunner

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Jesus, John the Baptist, Luke, miracle of life, psalm, psalm 139, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today the readings celebrate John the Baptist, the one born to “prepare the way of the Lord” before Jesus. There are great stories of John in the Scriptures, not the least of which precedes his birth (see Luke, chapter 1). This morning, however, I am drawn to the psalm (139 – my favorite) where the psalmist speaks to each of us of the wonder of our own coming into this world and God’s care from before we were born continuing throughout our lives. There is nowhere, he says, that God is not. There is no time when we are without the presence of God. We need only look or call to God to recognize the great love that holds us. Whether in happy times or sad, in the throes of doubt or the certainties of faith, our God is not absent. It is we sometimes who fail to notice. Our most secret thoughts are known to God who accepts all of them – and everything about us. We have such reason for gratitude!

And there’s one more thing that I find a constant miracle, also mentioned this morning by the psalmist who says, “You knit me in my mother’s womb…I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your works.” Looking at a baby I always marvel at the amazing process that brings us to this world. A miracle indeed!

So the questions I ask myself this morning are: How am I called – like John the Baptist – to prepare the way of the Lord in my life and in the places that I dwell and work and visit? How will people know and trust the presence of God more because I have been among them? What does my life say about the miracle that is life?

Morning Song

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Christ, God, heart, prayer, psalm, psalms, shade, sun, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust

It is the psalm that calls to me again this morning – the alternate translation oozing devotion. I reproduce it here in paragraph form as a prayer for the day.

O how I love you, God, your presence is my home, my high abode. I go to be with you, my longing draws me there…Anyone who lives near you is filled with higher purpose, and fuller joy. What else is there to do but go on praising you?… Lord God of everything that is, God of my heart, listen to this humble prayer. Defend me now by simply looking at my face. Your look will be for me a healing oil that covers all…O God, you are for us the shining sun, the shielding shade, and both become the fullness of your grace and glory. And as we seek you on this pathway, we are found by good and nothing lasting is withheld from all who walk with deep integrity of life, for they shall come to trust and find in you eternal rest. And there, O God, all life is drenched with happiness and joy.   (Ps. 84:1,3,7,10-11)

May we seek and come to trust this God, our sun and shade, and thereby find our peace and joy.