Prayer of the word

Madame Guyon spent 25 years of her life in the Bastille (prison) in Paris. This was to provide a base for her to learn and experience much of the her spiritual life. She worked with a couple of techniques but we shall only look at the the first; "praying the scripture."

In essence her technique seems to be very similar to "Lectio Divina" or "Divine Reading." I have mixed the techniques to produce this list.

This involves four distinct phases:

1. Read: Do not read quickly, read very slowly.
2. Meditate: Do not move on till you have received the heart of what you read. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you.
3. Pray: Use that understanding to pray into what the scripture has shown you. Sometimes this can mean literally praying the scripture.
4. Contemplate: What might that mean to you today and tomorrow. Lectio Divina word term it resting in God.
   
   

I have decided to change my practice. I had made a decision to bulk read a chapter a day of the Gospels to immerse my self in the teachings of Jesus. This is fine, but I have noticed that my familiarity tends to mean I gloss over things and miss things out.

So  I am going to practice "praying the scripture" or "Lectio Divina" in the gospels for the rest of the year. I will start with John, because I am near the end of Luke in my bulk reading. I also chose John because it is so different to the other gospels.

Looking forward to starting tomorrow.