Lectio Divina Reading
July 30, 2004
The call of Jeremiah renewed 15:10,16-21
A disaster for me, mother, that you bore me to be a man of strife and dissension for the whole country. I neither lend nor borrow, yet all of them curse me.
When your words came, I devoured them: your word was my delight and the joy of my heart; for I was called by your Name, Yahweh, God Sabaoth. I never sat in the company of scoffers amusing myself; with your hands on me I held myself aloof, since you had filled me with indignation. Why is my suffering continual, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Truly, for me you are a deceptive stream with uncertain waters!
To which Yahweh replied, if you repent, I shall restore you to plead before me. If you distinguish between the precious and the base, you shall be as my own mouth. They will come back to you, but you must not go back to them. As far as these people are concerned, I shall make you a fortified wall of bronze. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, because I am with you to save you and rescue you, Yahweh declares. I shall rescue you from the clutches of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the violent.
Reflection
Who am I before God at this point in my life? At the start of this time I present myself before God with empty hands. I recognize my own nothingness and my complete dependence on Him; ….And yet at the same time I acknowledge the fullness and the riches that I am bringing so that simultaneously I rejoice in own humanity. I stop and I look at my self. These hands of mine that I hold out before Him, so worn and used, are hands made by God to do His work in the world. The whole of myself make to be part of His world,…I am overawed to think of the person that I am, that unique person, so lovingly created by God in all the fullness and riches of my own individuality, a person make to be Hid daughter, His son.
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All Together O Lord you search me, and you know me, you know my resting and my rising, you discern my purpose from afar. You mark when I walk or lie down, all my ways lie open to you. Before ever a word is on my tongue you know it, O lord, through and through Behind and before you besiege me, your hand ever laid upon me. For it was you who created my being and knit me together in my mother’s womb. I thank you for the wonder of my being, for the wonders of all your creation. Psalm 138 (139), verses 11-5, 13, 14 |
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A Seven-Day Journey with Thomas Merton
, pg. 38.Lectio Divina
for CP Groups
Contemplative Outreach of Dallas