Lectio Divina - Eight

from Psalm 13, adapted by Stephen Mitchell. A Book of Psalms: Selected and Adapted from the Hebrew. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.

How long will this pain go on, Lord,

this grief I can hardly bear?

How long will anguish grip me

and agony wring my mind?

Light up my eyes with your presence;

let me feel your love in my bones.

Keep me from losing myself

in ignorance and despair.

Teach me to be patient, Lord;

teach me to be endlessly patient.

Let me trust that your love enfolds me

when my heart feels desolate and dry.

I will sing to the Lord at all times,

even from the depths of pain.

Lectio Divina - Seven

Paul Tillich, "You Are Accepted" in The Essential Paul Tillich: An Anthology of the Writings of Paul Tillich, ed. F. Forrester Church, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987, p. 201.

You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted! If that happens to us, we experience grace.

Lectio Divina - Six

Exodus 3:13-15, from the NRSV version of the Bible.

But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.

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?

Lectio Divina - Four

John 8:2-11, from the NRSV version of the Bible

At dawn Jesus appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered round him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no-one condemned you?” “No-one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Lectio Divina - Three

This passage is from the great Sufi poet Rumi, pages 155-6 of The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks:

Love Dogs

One night a man was cryiing,

Allah! Allah!

His lips grew sweet with the praising,

until a cynic said,

“So! I have heard you

calling out, but have you ever

gotten any response?”

The man had no answer to that.

He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.

He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,

in a thick, green foliage.

“Why did you stop praising?”

“Because I’ve never heard anything back.”

“This longing

you express is the return message.”

The grief you cry out from

draws you toward union.

Your pure sadness

that wants help

is the secret cup.

Listen to the moaning of a dog for its master.

That whining is the connection.

There are love dogs

no one knows the names of.

Give your life

to be one of them.

Lectio Divina - Two

Psalm 88:1-9, from the NRSV version of the Bible

O LORD, God of my salvation, when, at night, I cry out in your presence,

let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry.

For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.

I am counted among those who go down to the Pit; I am like those who have no help,

like those forsaken among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.

You have put me in the depths of the Pit, in the regions dark and deep.

Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah

You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a thing of horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape;

my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call on you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you.