Feasting on the Word

In beginning the search for my little spiritual snack, it didn’t take me very long to hit upon something to tell me I was on the right path!

I opened my volume of The Cloister Walk (Kathleen Norris) the other night and in just a few sentences I was reminded of a term I’d seen recently and meant to pursue, but of course Life gets in the way as it usually does and I’d forgotten all about it.

Or did I?

Ms. Norris wrote of using the monastic ritual of Lectio Divina as one of the disciplines she used. Those words leapt out of the page at me, almost like the aroma of strongly brewed coffee downstairs when you’re first waking up that tells your brain to sit up and take notice. I admit I didn’t get much further in my reading at first – I wanted to savor the scent, the flavor and the quiet moment of clarity that comes with sipping on that first cup of morning java.

It seems, in fact, that I’ve been using a modified version of the lectio divina to write some of these later blogs. What is it, you ask? In its most basic terms someone who practices this form of prayer reads a scriptural passage and reflects on it; but there is a bit more to it.

I checked out several sites to see if the description was consistent, and in form it was – I’ll get to that in a minute. For those who have studied Latin or etymology, the term lectio divina is fairly easy to translate, or at least get a sense of what it means. Divine reading is the easiest translation – which is slightly different from sacred reading, by the way. The whole purpose of this discipline is not to look for deeper meaning in scripture necessarily, but to look for a deeper communion with God – the Divine – and perhaps even that divinity within ourselves.

But the translation I found at Wikipedia (who doesn’t love Wiki, really?) is what really got the wheels turning:

Lectio Divina has been likened to "Feasting on the Word." The four parts are first taking a bite (Lectio), then chewing on it (Meditatio). Next is the opportunity to savor the essence of it (Oratio). Finally, the Word is digested and made a part of the body (Contemplatio).

Seriously, how much harder do I have to be hit on the head to get the drift here? LOL!

I won’t go in to full detail of lectio divina -- if you want to know more, check out the link below. It’s interesting that Pope Benedict has recently said that “this practice will bring to the Church - I am convinced of it - a new spiritual springtime." It seems to me that blogging might be an effective tool for it, whether or not it is meant to be read by other people. I think more people write their thoughts out in their blogs than they would have in a private journal alone in this day and age.

Yet, the goal is to meet with the Divine on a more intimate, personal level, and blogging can be a very public forum. However, as a writer I know that I do my best “thinking” on paper – er… screen. It only makes sense for me to use this as part of the discipline to an extent.

That said… I think I will keep my modified version of the lectio divina for public after all – and by that, I mean reading these spiritual books like The Cloister Walk and use the method of this discipline to pose my questions and general revelations of faith aloud.

“Feasting on the Word” with the Divine I’ll keep to a candlelit dinner between just us two. ;-)

Lectio Divina on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectio_divina

PS: I should also mention that this blog is not solely a blog about spiritual matters. While it’s an important piece of my life – and right now I’m on a bit of a quest – I’m just as likely to write about getting stuck in the elevator or being annoyed about a rude person in the grocery aisle (don’t EVEN get me started! LOL!)

Looking for a Spiritual Snack

Well, it seems like the best way for me to be consistent in blogging is to stick to pondering my bigger questions. Don't mind me, I'm just looking for a little spiritual snack!

We had a really wonderful, dynamic priest celebrate mass for us today while our pastor was out for a little R&R. That is not to say that our pastor and associate pastor are not wonderful, thought-provoking gentlemen... but sometimes it's a good thing to have a new voice come and shake us out of our complacency. I hope Fr. John has the opportunity to fill in again sometime soon!

So what does that have to do with anything? Father's homily this morning got me to thinking about my own needs for spiritual nourishment. I think of myself of a Christ-filled person, someone who tries to reflect the Light in and around her. Yet, I realized this morning that my reserves are a little low. Rather than replenishing my storeroom of sacredness I've been using it up without thought to what might happen if I didn't tend to it properly. "I've got plenty to spare," I tell myself. "God will provide..."

Well, yes... God WILL provide. However, it's really not fair to make Him do all the work in the relationship. I talk to God every day, of course. Several times a day, even. But it's that kind of superficial conversation that you have with a slight acquaintance, not the kind of deep, intimate dialogue that you have with a belovèd in the middle of the night when it's just you two in the moonlight.

So I'm a bit peckish for a soul-full morsel to feed this rumbling in my heart...

I've got a few resources to begin with -- a dear friend sent my the loveliest rosary as a surprise gift. It's made of roses and smells so intoxicating when I pull it out that it may just get me to use it more often, if only to drink in that aroma along with the serenity that praying brings with it!

But I feel I need to do a little reading too. I've had a booklet I've been meaning to read and blog about (like the Rolheiser booklets from previous posts) for awhile now, and I may get to that soon. However, I've had Kathleen Norris' The Cloister Walk on my bookshelf for some time and have yet to crack it open even the teeniest bit. So, I think I will begin with that. I'm hoping it will inspire a desire to write about it as I go along, or even as a review at the end. We'll see...

In the meantime, praying and reading is good food regardless of their potential for tasty blog posts!

You Lift Me Up... not so much...!

I've now been stuck here 25 minutes...

Where, do you ask? The airport? In traffic? A pit of quicksand, perhaps? Nothing so dramatic, I'm afraid.

I'm sitting on the floor of the elevator at work waiting for the technicians to get the doors unstuck. Yes, I'm languishing in the elevator.

I'm not even perilously stuck between two floors! This morning at 9:30am I walked into the House Left Elevator, laden with laptop bag, purse, mail and other sundries, and hit the button for the third floor. Yet, there was no reassuring whir of the conveyance waiting to take me above... just the awful-sounding grate of a mechanical failure keeping the inner doors from shutting completely. The blank, unlit buttons only mocked my frustration as I attempted to get the outer doors to reopen. They are well and truly stuck.

After trying everything within my power to get them open or the elevator moving, I decided it was time to get someone to come to my aid. I knew there were at least two co-workers in the lobby. Do I try to get their attention with the alarm button? Or just use the Emergency button to call campus security? It's not really an emergency. I'm not injured. And while I'm annoyed, I'm not particularly in distress. I try the alarm button first, which sounds LOUD in the elevator. It has the piercing jangle of an old-fashioned school bell, and I think surely someone would rush over and let me know they're out there... nothing. I try again... still nothing. I try a fancy tat-too of sorts... nothing... nada. So, I pull out my cell phone. Still no need to bother security. NO SERVICE! The stupid contraption (ie: the elevator) is encased in concrete and the signal cannot penetrate the thick slab!

Defeated at my attempts to keep the problem in-house, I press the button that opens the phone line to the security office and someone responds at last! And then I also finally hear the custodial staff outside the elevator asking what happened. I first tell my tale to the officer who dispatches someone to the building, meanwhile word had finally gotten out around the office that I am stuck and Facilities and the elevator repair company are also called.

So, I stand for awhile longer, thinking that since it's just the doors they should be able to reset them pretty easily -- and for a moment that would seem to be so. They start to move, but then disappointingly stick at the same place. I decide I might be here for more than a few moments and sit -- and eventually pull out my notebook to start recording my thoughts.

For a few moments I ponder the meaning of life... is life like an elevator and am I stuck in between the floors of Heaven and Hell? Is the elevator some sort of Purgatory?

I briefly wonder if I can use these thoughts as fodder for a novel, but decide it's trite and quickly abandon all further pondering of the subject.

I see the bagel I bought for breakfast across the elevator. Should I eat it now? Keep it for later in case I'm imprisoned in this stupid steel cage all day? And then I realize I left my juice in the car! Rats! Now I'm thirsty and if I'm in here all day that juice is going to be nasty by five o'clock -- or whenever it is that I'm sprung from this thing!

Gradually other coworkers stop by to see if I'm okay. I assure them I'm fine, just bored. Patti manages to get a gossip magazine through the door cracks for me to read.

I start planning out my day in my new cubicle. Finish this blog post on paper to wow everyone later. Read the US Weekly. Perhaps eat a few bites of bagel. Then I wonder if getting my laptop out is worth it. I decide to hold judgement a bit to see if anyone outside gives me a time-table of my incarceration.

The doors shudder a few times and I get my hopes up, but they sound just as awful as before so I go back to writing.

I start thinking worse-case-scenario... I'm on the lobby floor, but there is a floor below me. Is there any chance it will plummet once it resets? Are there any sharp pointy things to pierce the cage at the bottom? Where's the best place to be if I find myself hurtling to the lower bowels of the building?

The door shudders again... this time the doors miraculously open and my saviours (in the form of a campus facility worker and campus security officer) step through to release me from my prison! And the angels sang!

Well, not really... but I'm really trying to salvage some drama from the situation. The only thing that was truly worrisome was that it was getting hot and stuffy in there... was I imaging feeling faint??

Probably. So I'm out. Everyone laughs and we get back to work. Meanwhile I have to schlep my laptop bag, purse mail and other sundries up the backstairs four flights to my office because they're checking on the House Right Elevator too. Panting and hot I finally collapse at my desk to post this. Whew!

Did I mention it was hot and stuffy and I felt faint?