Humility Matters by Mary Margaret Funk, OSB

Encounter is a technical term referring to mutuality and personal interaction that changes those involved irrevocably. We are sustained through an on-going relationship of reciprocity. An encounter transforms us and goes from light to light of wisdom and heart to heart of compassion.

1.1

The three revelatory texts are:

Scripture
Nature
Experience

1.2

There are four voices of the revelatory text:

Historical/Literal
Symbolic/Allegorical
Dynamic/Moral
Mystical/Sacramental

1.3

There are four senses of the reader:

Logical/ordinary
Mythological/intuitive
Ascetical/behavioral
Contemplative/spiritual

II.

The Method is the way ordinary Christians and monastics live their lives in their hearts and alone in the silence of their hidden thoughts.

2.1	Above the river is what people see us doing, where we live, our lifestyle.
2.2	Below the river is our inner lives.
2.3	We listen for an in-breaking event sent from God, an invitation.
2.4	We move through the four voices using our four senses.
2.5	We stay with that Word-for-us as long as it takes unless there is a further invitation from the Holy Spirit to shift to another topic.

III.

Voices

3.1	Historical: hermeneutics of interpretation, translations, commentaries, what does the text say? What is the objective, universal point that this text is saying?
3.2	Symbolic: what does this text mean? What is the hidden meaning that this event or these words convey?
3.3	Dynamic: What needs to be done? What action is the directive? How is this text leading toward God? Homily? Prescriptive? Selfless service. Liturgical Proclamation or Confession. Moral imperative? Compassionate love mandate? How to replace afflictions with prayer.
3.4	Mystical: What is the Word of God mediated through this text? “as if” taste, sound, touch, smell sight felt, known. Invocation of union with the Lord Prayers, liturgical rituals participation Miracles, healings, wondrous deeds

IV.

The senses of the reader that corresponds with the voices of the text:

4.1	Literal voice needs logical mind, intelligence, and study.
4.2	Symbolic: we need intuition sharp and intuitive: intuitive listening, the ascetical quotient of art, dance, sculpture, music, chant, architecture, textiles, poetry. We need to trust that thinking is a low form of knowing. A quantum leap in understanding is to observe our thoughts and live in the spaciousness of essence and watch the epiphanies that are graciously in abundance for those who know how to see.
4.3	Dynamic: This moral sense is awakened when afflictions are reduced and ceaseless prayer and experience of the Presence saturate our consciousness. These senses are awakened and sustained through the big three dynamics: Good works, shifting from self-to sacrifice, ceaseless prayer.
4.4	Mystical voice needs listen with the ear of the heart, able to tastes silence, be intoxicated with the Beloved, and be sober with wisdom and in solidarity with the poor. Sitting meditation and practices of un-thinking brings us to dazzling darkness that opens the mystical senses.

Lectio Divina is sustained by practice. These practices are stabilized in forms, such as the cell, liturgy of hours, common meals, manual labor, chapter of faults, simplicity and good order of things, etc.

Summary: Lectio Divina is an encounter with God through the voices of the revelatory texts of Scripture, Nature and Experience mediated through the senses.

:: SCHOOL OF LECTIO DIVINA: