Lectio Divina - Sixty-six

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. Novato, CA: New World Library, 1999, pp126-7.

When listening to another person, don’t just listen with your mind, listen with your whole body. Feel the energy field of your inner body as you listen. That takes attention away from thinking and creates a still space that enables you to truly listen without the mind interfering. You are giving the other person space -- space to be. It is the most precious gift you can give. Most people don’t know how to listen because the major part of their attention is taken up by thinking. They pay more attention to that than to what the other person is saying, and none at all to what really matters: the Being of the other person underneath the words and the mind.

Lectio Divina - Sixty-five

From The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks. New York: HarperCollins, 1995, p. 260.

Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands,

or your own genuine solitude?

Freedom, or power over an entire nation?

A little while alone in your room

will prove more valuable than anything else

that could ever be given you.

From Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert, (New York: New Directions, 1960) p. 30.

A certain brother went to Abbot Moses in Scete and asked him for a good word. And the elder said to him: Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.

Lectio Divina - Sixty-four

Meister Eckhart, quoted in Ann Belford Ulanov. The Unshuttered Heart: Opening Aliveness/Deadness in the Self. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007 p. 107

The more deeply we are our true selves, the less self is in us.

Lectio Divina - Sixty-three

John Henry Newman, quoted in Christian Teachings on the Practice of Prayer From the Early Church to the Present, ed. Lorraine Kisly. Boston: New Seeds, 2006, p.130.

Thus self-knowledge is at the root of all real religious knowledge; and it is in vain -- worse than vain -- it is a deceit and a mischief, to think to understand the Christian doctrines as a matter of course, merely by being taught by books, or by attending sermons, or by any outward means, however excellent, taken by themselves. For it is in proportion as we search our hearts and understand our own nature, that we understand what is meant by an Infinite Governor and Judge; in proportion as we comprehend the nature of disobedience and our actual sinfulness, that we feel what is the blessing of the removal of sin, redemption, pardon, sanctification, which otherwise are mere words. God speaks to us primarily in our hearts. Self-knowledge is the key to the precepts and doctrines of Scripture. The very utmost any outward notices of religion can do, is to startle us and make us turn inward and search our hearts; and then, when we have experienced what it is to read ourselves, we shall profit by the doctrines of the Church and the Bible.

Lectio Divina - Sixty-two

The Book of Common Prayer. New York: Seabury Press, 1979, p. 355.

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lectio Divina - Sixty-one

Ann & Barry Ulanov. Primary Speech: A Psychology of Prayer. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982. p.92.

Intercessory prayer pulls us into the tow of God’s connectedness to everything. We are pulled into a current that shows us nothing is separated from anything else, no one from everyone else. We are in an ocean that flows under everything and through everyone. Not only do we discover the hungry parts of ourselves that we need to feed when we pray for the hungry persons of the world, but we discover the neglected parts of the world through praying for the neglected parts of ourselves. When we deal with the hating parts of ourselves, we see with sudden clarity how much hate exists in the people around us. When we pray for the suffering parts of ourselves, we are increasingly wounded by the suffering of those around us.

Lectio Divina - Sixty

The New Zealand Prayer Book (San Francisco: HarperSan Francisco, 1989), 184.

Lord,

it is night.

The night is for stillness.

Let us be in the presence of God.

It is night after a long day.

What has been done has been done

what has not been done has not been done;

let it be.

The night is dark.

Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives

rest in you.

The night is quiet.

Let the quietness of your peace enfold us.

all dear to us,

and all who have no peace.

The night heralds the dawn.

Let us look expectantly to a new day,

new joys,

new possibilities.

In your name we pray.

Amen.