February 13 – Bring Out the Big Guns

A word today about the reading of the Word of God.

The newest postulant is set to work reading and so shall she ever, as long as her sight remains. The contemplative nun reads all day long, in her cell, in the chapel, in chapter, and in the refectory when it is her turn to read aloud during the otherwise silent meals.

The story is told of one young entrant into a Carmelite monastery who was given three voluminous tomes to read, who tackled the job with alacrity, and when at last she finished them, returned them with some happy pride to the door of the Novice Mistress’ cell. Imagine her surprise when they reappeared at the door of her own cell the next day with the admonition to read them once again . . . slowly!

One Sister was delivered of great evil, reading Psalm 27 three times each day for many months. “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear. The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise against me, in this will I be confident.”

We say, in Christendom, we sing, of the powerful Word of Truth, but in Cor Unum, as in monasteries all over the world, it is the ammunition of our worship and prayer. We load mighty big guns with the WORD OF GOD, and we send warheads into the enemy’s camp. That Word does not return void from whence it came. It does not. More tomorrow about the might and power of Lectio Divina, Divine Reading.

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