One of my friends from the Lectio Divina group has been asked by our Rector to take over a Sunday morning bible study, which means he will no longer be praying with us on Sunday mornings. I have to admit, I am feeling a great sense of loss.
We are a small group. On a given Sunday, there are usually just 4 or 5 of us who gather to pray the scriptures together. It is a time of such joy and spiritual nourishment. We are bathed in the love of the Holy Spirit, constantly awed and surprised by His presence, week after week.
The group has been meeting for a couple of years now, but only in the last year has it gelled with a core of dedicated members. We, all of us, have come to love our Sunday mornings together. So, although I understand that people have to move on, I am feeling very sad indeed. I take solace in the fact that my friend will be bringing our spirit (and the Holy Spirit) with him to his new group. I know they will be very blessed by his presence.
3 comments:
I'm so intrigued by this...wish I could join you. I am struggling to imagine lectio diivna in/as a group.
Hey Singing Owl,
The Disciples Prayerbook by the Native American Ministries of the Episcopal Church is the liturgy that we use for Lectio, but if you google 'group Lectio Divina' there are lots of suggestions out there.
The bottom line is that the group reads the scripture 3 times. First time through, you are looking for a word or phrase that pops out. Second time you explore WHY that word or phrase is relevant to you and the third time you consider what action God is asking you to take as a result. For us, the most powerful part of the process is at the end when we pray for each other. Generally we just go around the circle and pray for the person next to us. This requires that we have been listening closely to what that person has said. We also listen closely to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The prayers are very powerful.
Our group has been meeting for 2 years now and has grown into a very tightknit bunch. We truly love one another and are always excited when new people join us.
Singing Owl, I would say that you can just try it sometime with some friends. When you invite the Holy Spirit to join you, He always seems to be happy to! When I first started facilitating Lectio, I had never done it or experienced before... so we just dove in an gave it a try. God sort of takes care of the rest!
Blessings,
Rachel
I should add that every time we read the scripture, we go around the circle and one at a time share our word or phrase, or the reasons we think it came up... etc. So each of us shares, one at a time. In our group, we gently discourage 'cross talk' or comments because it is meant to be prayer, not conversation or bible study. We also want people to feel safe to share deeply without worrying about having to explain themselves. We promise confidentiality, but are free to have the conversations with each other later.
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