while the first movement Lectio asks the question
"what does the ancient text say?"
the next movement in Lectio Divina, Meditatio asks the further question
"What does this ancient text say to ME?"
step two of Lectio Divina
Meditatio
Reflecting on the meaning
and message of the ancient Scripture
establish connections between
the ancient Scripture of yesterday to our current lives.
Meditatio aims to bring the text into the sphere of my own life,
seeking to understand what the ancient Scripture passage says to me today.
We must link the Biblical Truth contained in the ancient Scriptures
to the experience of faith in the world we live in.
Read the ancient Scripture and the verse until it becomes like a mirror,
reflecting on our own experiences, challenges, thoughts and questions.
let Scripture take root,
By meditating on the verse we just read,
we begin to breakdown the wall between the sacred Scripture & our lives today.
Meditatio opens the way for the Lord to enter into our heart & soul
and will enflame us with the grace of His love.
God's Word will begin to affect us at increasingly deeper levels,
choose a verse that seems to jump out & speak to you personally,
read it, read it aloud,
ask God for understanding then spend time meditating on it.
The challenge for children of God
who wish to prayerfully reflect on the ancient
Scripture today is to
bridge the gap between the text of the past and our lives today.
we penetrate the wall through listening attentively to the text
and reflecting on our own experience and situation.
In this way, we create a dialogue with God.
God is trying to speak personally to us
and offer us a message through ancient scriptural text.
God is the primary author of Scripture,
He speaks to the present through the scriptural record of the past.
To practice Meditatio
is creating space in our hearts for God's Word to reside,
penetrating the deepest part of our hearts and souls
so that the Scripture becomes part of us.
The more we meditate on God's Word,
the more it grows withing us,
molding our thoughts, our feelings and our lives.
Biblical text has the potential to transform us,
allow the dynamic Word of God to so penetrate our lives
that it truly dwells within us & takes root in our heart & soul
so that we may begin to embody its Truth & Love.
Even though it was written centuries ago,
Scripture has personal message for us.
This personal message is what we seek in Meditatio,
we find it by reflecting on the anciant text,
dialoguing with it & allowing it into the shpere of our own lives.
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Search for the hidden Truth, we must listen for what the Scripture text is saying to us,
what it is offering us & what it is demanding of us,
let Scripture decend to your heart where we can assimilate it more deeply.
Ancient Biblical Scripture, the Word of God
will eventually become the basic food of your spiritual life.
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