“Transform Your Life with Lectio Divina” “From Surviving to Thriving with Lectio Divina”
“Keystone Habit of My Life”
Hook: 3 priests, 1 brother, and ProSanctity. Fr. Hunke’s question in confessional and Fr. Jeff’s question from pulpit, Sam’s example, ProSanctity’s exhortation to pray 30 min a day
Introduce self (I’m like them)
Learned Lectio Divina from a pamphlet in college and a talk by Tim Gray (Link it)
Read Teresa of Avila- without meditative prayer there is no salvation? Check references from GabiAfterHours video “The Urgency of Mental Prayer”
So I began.
I’ll be blunt and admit that it took my brother dying for me to commit to daily quiet time with God. Thank you, Sam. How I wish you were still here. But I have a feeling that if God gave you a choice, and showed you all the good that would happen if you gave up your life, I know you would have chosen to give it up for our sake. So many people were changed by you in the wake of your death.
How sad but true that losing someone we love brings us to our knees. It shoves us face to face with our own mortality, and awakes in us a longing for that place where we will never more be parted from those we love, and will nevermore suffer or behold our loved ones suffering. For me, it created a sense of urgency: Life is short, and my time here is passing away. I NEED to get my relationship with God in order before it’s too late. I NEED to get to Heaven, because I HAVE to see Sam again. And I don’t mind if it is soon. But I will take all the time I am given, because I am slow to grow in virtue and I love life fiercely!
Thus, very shortly after Sam passed on, I committed to spending time with God in prayer each day. I would use the bible like he did, and a journal. I would go away into nature if I could. I would give God 15-30 minutes every day.
And I have, for the most part. Yes, I have failed some days, and skipped a few, but rarely. Some days or seasons my prayer time has been lousy, distracted and dry. Sometimes it has been squeezed in at the end of the day. But overall, I have made a quiet time most days for the last 10 years. It has made the world of difference for me. I’ll share more about that later, but for now I must point out that I can look back and see the difference in my life before and after Lectio Divina.
Before Lectio Divina, I was on the suburban mom road to mediocrity. I had a baby and a toddler, mild postpartum depression, and I was struggling. I wasn’t reading, I wasn’t creating, I was in a slump. My goals were material, my activities weren’t life-giving, my marriage was so-so, my family relationships were distant, and I had few friends. My business was all-consuming and stressful, and there were moments of emotional upheaval, binge consumerism, and escapism. I was surviving my vocation, not thriving.
After hearing my confession one day, a kind priest asked: “Do you pray?” The question took me by surprise. Of course I prayed! I’ve been a Catholic all my life, prayed the Rosary on Sundays with my family, during college I did a Holy Hour every week, attended daily mass and prayed the Rosary every night. I read spiritual works and books by saints. I had a well-worn prayer book. Just then it occurred to me that all the spiritual practices I had done were in the past. I wasn’t doing any of them now. I wasn’t praying. Before meals and perhaps a quick offering in the morning and at night was all I could claim.
There is an interesting parallel, if you look back on your life, between seasons when you were praying well and living life well. The times when you were not praying or not praying very well correlate strongly to times in your life that suck, to put it frankly.
The mystery was solved. My life was going in a bad direction and heading toward mediocrity because my relationship with God had dissolved. I had forgotten about Him. I was worshipping other Gods and I had forgotten my first love.
What’s a girl to do when she realizes she’s been unfaithful? When she’s forgotten the one who gave His life for her? When she has replaced Him with other idols? I didn’t love Him anymore because I didn’t know Him. I didn’t know Him because I wasn’t spending time with Him.
All of this happened unfortunately but understandably. I was up to my neck in learning motherhood, and my old ways of devotion had gone by the wayside as I now learned to get up in the night with my baby instead of getting up in the night to visit the adoration chapel. Cooking and cleaning up dinner had replaced my evening Rosary walk after a carefree meal at the cafeteria.
I needed to learn how to cultivate my relationship with God in my new role as wife and mother. My place was in the world, not in the church, but I needed new routines of devotion for this season of life. Lectio Divina was the answer. Why? It is relational prayer, and relationship is the key.
Why do you pray? Or, if you already do, why do you want to deepen your prayer life?
All your supporting arguments must be communicated with simplicity and charm. And in such a way that the reader will read on. (After all, that’s a reader’s job: to read, isn’t it?) And by the time your readers have reached this point in the finished copy, you will have convinced them that you not only respect their intelligence, but you also understand their needs as consumers.
This is some dummy copy. You’re not really supposed to read this dummy copy, it is just a place holder for people who need some type to visualize what the actual copy might look like if it were real content.
In today’s competitive market environment, the body copy of your entry must lead the reader through a series of disarmingly simple thoughts.
If you want to read, I might suggest a good book, perhaps Hemingway or Melville. That’s why they call it, the dummy copy.