Four Simple Ways to Deepen your Lectio Divina Practice

Did you know that Tuesday’s lectio divina video always corresponds to the next Sunday’s scripture if you’re in a lectionary-based church?  Want to get it slipped into your inbox? Would you like to join our private Facebook group to share with other listeners? Subscribe on the right.

Four ways to deepen your lectio divina practice:

1. Get friendly with the pause button.

   Don’t rush what the Spirit may be doing. Stay present. Listen. Gather up all the manna.

2. Stash a 3 by 5 card.

   Don’t let the seeds slip through your fingers. Write down the phrase the Spirit seems to be highlighting.  Write down the invitation. Put the card in your pocket and take it out throughout the day. Walk that truth out into your day. Look at it like a prism in your hand, turning it around and looking at it from different angles, in different lights.

3. Write in your journal.

   When the lectio is over, continue the conversation. At its simplest, Lectio divina is using the scriptures as a doorway to prayer.

4. Get present with Jesus through the Scripture.

   If Jesus is asking a question, take it to heart. How does that question reverberate in your own soul?

Now let’s try it out. Here’s Jesus’ question to us today:  

Let’s go deeper. What would it look like if you gained success but lost Jesus?

Let’s put skin and bones on that question. Think about it. Imagine your craziest, worthy-of-a-book dream coming true.

Go ahead. Walk around in the heady success for a bit. Who’s there? What are the trappings, the curtains, the toys, the numbers? Touch the grandness of the dream. Smell it.

And now here’s the most important question: Where is Jesus in the midst of this dream? Where are you? Who is at the center? Who is on the outskirts? Whose dream is it?

Along those same lines, what does this scenario truly cost your soul? What did it cost your soul to get there?

Next question: where is your true self in the scenario? No really. Where is that smallish but beloved and barefoot child of God? Is He or She plastered over with a thick mask? Does she get lost in the dream? What does her voice sound like? Is it authentic? Who is putting on her make-up, caking on a false self? Who is his tailor?

So, now you know that this is where I’m parking myself for the next few days. And now your turn, what word/phrase connected with you?