Monday, May 17, 2010

May 18 – Drinking Deeply at a Well of Sweet Water




Yesterday we took another look at Lectio Divina and highlighted a passage of Scripture that would, undoubtedly, be read many times over by cloistered monastics.

John 13:17 . . . “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them . . .” an admonition, a stepping stone, a word of blessing.

In the Abbey, the concentration is ever upon the goodness and nearness and might and condescension and love of God, but what does the Abbess do about that concept the Scripture refers to as “the FEAR of the Lord”, for instance, and the many other passages that reveal more than tender Father love? Some Scripture speaks of God's wrath and some of His vengeance!

Her "daughters" must steep themselves in the Word of God. Lectio Divina is to become a daily practice. How do the Sisters learn to drink deeply of the Word of God and "rightly divide" it, without constant supervision?


"Lectio" is her faithful assistant.


There is nothing to fear when the Sisters have learned to read in the crook of the arm of God. This is the joy and the responsibility of Lectio. The community reads to discover the love of God while understanding the great need of mankind. Every day, woven into all they do, the nuns rejoice in a righteousness not their own. They read knowing that Jesus was "made a curse" for us all. They learn to apply the finished work of Jesus, the saving, redeeming life and death of Jesus to everything . . . to their own lives and their reading and their relationships and their thinking and their hope for eternity.


So shall we in Cor Unum. We will let the Word of God establish in us the truth of the love of God, putting doubt and fear to flight while making course corrections day by day. We are not appointed to wrath. We read in the Presence of the One Who Loved us and gave His life for us.



"Not Yet"
photo by Kerry

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