Lectio Divina

As I meditate upon Your word, O Lord,

I ask you to shine in me now so that I may make full use of my five senses:

My sight (pause), touch (pause), hearing (pause), smell (pause), and taste (pause)

Bless my current surroundings so that they may be tuned with my contemplation of Your presence using Your sacred reading...

 

1. Lectio (Read)

 

One Sabbath, when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy.  And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things. Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honour, saying to them “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honour, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

(Luke 14:1-11, ESVUK)

 

Silence

 

I choose to use Jeremiah's prayer for Deliverance as a Sacred refrain for my meditation.

 

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise. (Jeremiah 17:14)

 

2. Meditatio (Rejoice and Reflect)

 

I contemplate the sickness of the man: his fears, alienation, and anxieties.

The man had dropsy, oedema, also known as fluid retention.

This stagnant retention of “water” was not supposed to be there. The man was not born with oedema.

Besides experiencing the shame of having swollen legs, the man was also an object of mockery, criticism, rumours, and religious bashing as well as being a subject of religious studies and experiments “a religious guinea pig”.

The law acted as a kind of oedema for him… it was not supposed to be there. It made him a slave of his own body and mind.

The law to restrain me is not needed when I experience God’s love inwardly in my daily life.

I contemplate the man developing fears, anxiety, and alienation. God’s love meant nothing to him because he didn't experience it as tapping into his life situation.

I am sure that the man started a lengthy process of healing that no doctors were able to provide at that time.

Only Jesus was able to give such comprehensive healing and rest: spiritual, mental, physical, social, etc.

 

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.

 

3. Oratorio (Ask and Respond)

I choose to meditate upon the divine nature of humility and God’s grace that allows me to perform other Christian virtues.

 

Pause

 

Do not sit down in a place of honour! This pinpoints that one of the symptoms of pride is hunger for attention.

Do not sit down in a place of honour!  O Lord, are you talking about my hunger for respect? My obsessive thirst for the right electric car, the right house, honours, etc...

Reflecting on how sometimes my heart and mind are full of all those burdens created by pride, I reply to myself: all those symptoms of pride were not supposed to be there. Transform them of Lord so that they may serve your greater glory (Ad majorem Dei Gloria)

 

I then say the divine words of calmness:

“Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

(St Matthew 11:28)

 

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.

 

Pause

 

Thinking about my unchecked symptoms of pride: such as putting down others, my hunger for attention, defensiveness, and blaming others, all those sins that were not supposed to be there because I am created in the image of God: blameless and spotless before him. 

 

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise. (Jeremiah 17:14)

 

4. Contemplatio (Yield and pray)

 

Reflecting on the week that has just started: Am I aware of the hidden symptoms of pride in my life? In what ways do I practice your divine humility and healing and when do I hear you speak?

 

Using a creative prayer, I yield before your presence, O God:

 

I come before you with a humble heart.

May my life this week be directed by your divine humility. If possible remove in my body and mind the many things that do not please you and were not supposed to be there so that all my words and deeds may be a living hymn of your praise.

Teach me to embrace my sufferings as well as my strengths with grace, knowing that true humility means a deep understanding of Your true essence and saving grace in my life today.

   

Thanks for your unwavering support of my family and for Ascension Anglican Church in Hilversum, for all your divine gifts to me:

I humbly lift up my heart to heaven to revere your holy name!

 

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.