De Mello: Expanding Lectio Divina

De Mello: Lectio Divina and More

“The meditatio [meditation part in Lectio Divina] is done not with one’s mind, but with one’s mouth. When the psalmist tells us how he loves to meditate and finds it sweeter to his palate than honey from the honeycomb, is he talking about meditation merely as an intellectual exercise? I like to think that he is also talking about the constant recitation of God’s law—so he meditates as much with his mouth as with his head.”—Anthony de Mello in Sadhana: A Way to God (Liguori, 1998).

De Mello also offers a unique method to practice the Benedictine Lectio Divina. He suggests we read Scripture (lectio) until the word or phrase resonates with us, and then stop (meditatio) and constantly repeat the word with pauses. In this way, we pray not only with our minds, but also with our bodies. Then, when we feel saturated with the word, we stop and enter into prayer (oratio). He also suggests expanding the exercise to chanting, perhaps with others, along with large segments of silence.

De Mello adds an extra dimension to the Jesus Prayer by imagining Jesus with each word, saying his name with each breath, and finally hearing Jesus call us by name.

De Mello tells the story of the significant guilt of a man who barely misses his father’s death. My experience is that this is often an impetus that brings many people to spiritual direction. I am constantly amazed at how God works. God calls us back even—and maybe even especially—by those who have died. God calls us through the good and challenging times of our lives to connect to those who can lead us into spiritual practices that can lead us back to God.

De Mello calls us to live intimately and fully in the present moment, to become part of the grand mystery of God’s love for us and all creation. The present is where we meet God; the present is where spiritual exercises such as Lectio Divina and praying the Jesus prayer take us.

How is your heart?

“How is your heart?”

“In many Muslim cultures, when you want to ask others how they’re doing, you ask in Arabic, ‘How is your haal?’ In reality, we ask, ‘How is your heart doing at this very moment, at this breath?’ Tell me you’re more than just a machine checking off items from your to-do list. Put your hand on my arm, look me in the eye, and connect with me for one second. Tell me something about your heart, and awaken my heart.”—Omid Safi in On Being with Krista Tippett (9/16/2017).

Omid Safi, Director of Duke University Islamic Studies Center, once wrote a Thursday column for On Being. He is teaching us to be more intentional about relationships, rather than simply making lists and completing tasks and assignments. For example, my usual greeting when starting a conversation is, “How are you doing?” The word doing implies that I am interested in what you are doing, while I actually want to know how you are being—how we can stay connected in this relationship and learn to live together as humans being rather than humans doing.

Now, I try to say, “How is your heart?” That introduction always draws us more quickly into the relationship we are seeking. Being implies that we live in the present moment, and it is in the present moment where we connect to each other and God. My experience of keeping eye contact also grounds us to the present. If I visit someone who is ill, I also ask permission to hold their hand. Making physical contact can also bring us to the present moment.

We can also transfer this understanding of our relationship with each other to our connection to God. Instead of starting our prayers with our to-do list for God and expecting God to give us a to-do list, can we open prayers with “God, how is your heart? Show me your heart and open up my heart to you.”

July 16 The Righteous Gentiles of World War II

The Righteous Gentiles of World War II, July 16

“Lord of the Exodus, who delivers your people with a strong hand and a mighty arm: Strengthen your Church with the examples of the righteous Gentiles of World War II to defy oppression for the rescue of the innocent through Jesus Christ.”—Collect of the day: The Righteous Gentiles, July 16, in Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints (Church Publishing, 2019).

Lutz in bomombed garden of British legation

Holy Women, Holy Men was a trial expanded calendar of commemorations of saints authorized by the 2009 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, which included many modern people of faith and apostolic action. It was revised to become A Great Cloud of Witnesses (2016). The people remembered on July 16 are the thousands of Christians and people of faith who saved Jews from the Holocaust. One of them was Carl Lutz, an Evangelical Christian Swiss Vice-Counsel in Budapest. Lutz negotiated with the Nazis for the deportation of over 60,000 Jews to Palestine, probably saving more lives than any other person.

Lutz had gained permission to issue emigration papers for 8,000 Jews to Palestine. He interpreted it as applicable for 8,000 families, saving thousands more. A 2014 American film, Walking with the Enemy, tells of Lutz’s work with Pinchas Rosenbaum in Budapest during the German occupation of Hungary. Lutz also established seventy-six safe houses to hide Jews in Budapest, including the now famous Glass House, all of which the diplomat declared as Swiss territory.

There is another documentary about Lutz called The Forgotten Hero. I honestly believe each of us is given many moments to make a difference in the lives of others. The challenges may not be as dangerous or risky as Lutz’s on the international scene, but in our own environment, they may still demand courage. It is essential to see how creative people who came before us made changes and found loopholes in systems awful beyond words when there seemed to be no way out. I can only believe this was the work of the Holy Spirit in the worst of times. May we pray for that same Holy Spirit to work in us today.

[See Carl Lutz, International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, www.raoulwallenberg.net.]

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/