:: TEACHING #7 & 8 Summary — The Third Dimension of Lectio Divina
The third dimension of Lectio Divina is the encounter with God mediated by
the dynamic voice of Scripture, Nature or Experience meeting the moral senses of
the reader. The text has energy and a dynamism that calls forth and beacons the
listener. Stored in the text is a directive that reveals God’s word for us. The
text comes in two categories, such as a mandate that is a necessity and solicits
a response or secondly, a text that when acted upon reveals the meaning later
when we have the experience of doing it.
An example of a directive is the Beatitudes, the Commandments or an event of
life that is a crisis. An example of understanding after the fact would be
reading the book of Wisdom and knowing it from the inside because that’s the way
it is with me, or the psalms echo real and anecdotal commentary to actual events
of my life.
The voice of the text is dynamic and the senses of the reader meet moral
obligations to take actions because of the compelling message in the text. These
moral senses are cultivated through ascetical discipline, prayer and self-less
action.
Prayer, oratio, is the response upon hearing the word. This dynamic voice calls
one to listen with the ear of the heart and prayer happens. O God, come to my
assistance, O God make haste to help me. Ps. 141:1” I call upon you, O Lord;
come quickly to me;
Give ear to my voice when I call to you.”
When the afflictions are muted through asceticism or self-less service purity of
heart springs up. With a pure heart the text can be heard and heeded.
In a very real sense if there is a choice of being a scholar of the word or to
come to the revelatory text with a pure heart the option of being like a child
is preferred.
A way to enter into the moral senses and cleanse one’s ordinary senses is to
make a devout and thorough Sacrament of Reconciliation. Confession of our past
sins irrevocable puts the past behind us as Christ Jesus has acquitted us
through his death on a cross. We begin anew and start over as new-born babes. To
have our sins forgiven is a singular blessing that puts us ever again on the
Spiritual Journey. Baptism in the Catholic Church is not a pre-requisite for
going to Confession.
The next teachings will pick up the fourth dimension, which is the mystical
voice, met with the contemplative or spiritual senses open and receptive. |
