Lectio Divina

Help me ponder and release all into your hands!

by Fr Jean Celestine Ngoma

 

Dear Lord,

Let me accept the reality of what is now, transform me from within.

Please help me to ponder like Mary all that is divinely good, true, and beautiful. 

May now my five senses ponder your words of life.

Help me release all into your hands!

 

 

1. Lectio (Read)

 

Now Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.  His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.  After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.  And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.  And when his parents saw him, they were astonished.  And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”  And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?”  And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.  And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man.

(St Luke 2:41-52, ESVUK)

 

Silence

 

I am pleased with this week’s Word of God, which allows us to ponder, accept, and pray with Jesus in this coldest time of the year.

Like Mary, I choose a sacred refrain to help me focus on God’s presence during my meditation. My refrain is: 

Help me ponder and release all into your hands!

 

 

2. Meditatio (Rejoice and Reflect)

 

I creatively try to go back in time.  I meditate upon Jesus, as a teenager in the Temple facing the teachers of the Law.  I creatively ask the question: What was the content of their conversation?

Using my imagination, I can presume that the discussion was about the Jewish laws and their application in real life.  So I infer that Jesus brought in a kind of gap in the discussion, which is His concept of the divine and loving nature of God.  The same topic that would later become a casus belli to assassinate him.

Help me ponder and release all into your hands!

 

How would Jesus confront the Roman authorities?

As an African by birth, I exerienced in silence one of the worst atrocities that the world has ever gone through, being born in a country where rape is used as an instrument of mass destruction by invaders.  I creatively asked myself, how would Jesus relate with those invaders of his homeland during that time, those settlers who plunder His country; who kill their fellow citizens and who do not respect women and show no empathy to suffering women, including his mother?

Will He come with a kind of liberation theology advocating for a political rebellion against the settlers?

 

Pause

 

Jesus was the first one to ponder all this situation in His Heart!  He knew that He was the Messiah of all, both the Romans and the Jews.  He does not fight the secular power but wants inwardly to transform people's hearts and minds.  Repentance is the marker of the Kingdom of God that Jesus ushers in as a response to the oppression of instability.  Jesus does not annihilate the Roman oppressors, but He wants everybody’s heart, the just and the sinners.

Help me ponder and release all into your hands!

Jesus is not asking for perfection from me because he came to be perfect in my place.  What Jesus wants from me is a heart that looks at humanity in general and its frailty with a merciful heart.

 

Pause

 

Teach me Lord to Ponder, Accept and Pray in my heart!

 

 

3. Oratorio (Ask and Respond)

 

Let me not fret because of the instability and boredom around me.

Refresh always the joy of your presence in my life.

Allow me to accept that there are things that I cannot change in life,

and to set aside futile judgments.

Help me accept what you want to show me today.

I don’t know what will happen tomorrow,

but let me just do your will today.

 

…and Help me ponder and release all into your hands!

 

 

 

4. Contemplatio (Yield and pray)

 

I thank God for the gift of mother nature, those cold winter days, and all its splendour which I acknowledge and accept with gratitude because they are your heavenly gifts.

 

Silence

 

And now, as I prepare to take this time of prayer into the coming week, let me listen to your voice in the silence of my heart.

 

Pause

 

"Lord, help me to ponder like Mary, all that is good, true and beautiful,

but also all that is hard, challenging, and frustrating.

Let me accept the reality of what is now, without the answer or solution I believe I need.

Help me ponder and release all into your hands,

knowing you give all that we need, in the manner we need it, in your perfect timing.

May I be a gentle light for you, hand in hand with Mary."

(cf. Suellen Brewster)

 

Help me ponder and release all into your hands!

 

Exit meditation using Psalm 50.

 

 

 

 

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