Saturday, September 20, 2008

Lectio Divina - Five


This story comes from the tradition of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, the third century men and women who went to live in the Egyptian desert as Christian hermits, in Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert, (New York: New Directions, 1960) p. 50.

Abbot Lot came to Abbot Joseph and said: Father, according as I am able, I keep my little rule, and my little fast, my prayer, meditation and contemplative silence; and according as I am able I strive to cleanse my heart of thoughts: now what more should I do? The elder rose up in reply and stretched out his hands to heaven, and his fingers became like ten lamps of fire. He said: Why not be totally changed into fire?


2 comments:

Lindsay Boyer said...

This passage reminds us that the spiritual life does not consist only of discipline. Our spiritual practices ground us and help us to listen to God's voice speaking to us out of contemplative silence. God calls to us, asking us to become everything we are. We must remain open to the mysterious, to the imaginative, to what we can't understand if we are going to burn with the love of God.

Anonymous said...

"...his fingers became like ten lamps of fire. He said: Why not be totally changed into fire?"

WOW!