Come and read the text with the "ear of your heart" using Lectio Divina ...
1. Read the text slowly. Breathe and listen deeply to the words. Focus your attention on the sense of the passage. What word or phrase is most full of meaning for you? Repeat your word or phrase several times, don’t project meaning now. Chew on it and let it sink into your soul. Take a deep breath and move on when you are ready ... Movement 1 (Read)
John 1:1-14 The Message (MSG)
The Life-Light
The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word.
The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one.
Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing! — came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.
There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.
The Life-Light was the real thing:
Every person entering Life he brings into Light.
He was in the world, the world was there through him,
and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people, but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten,
not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten.
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.
After your first reading ... What word or phrase is most full of meaning for you?
2. Read the text slowly again ... Reflect on your word or phrase as you pay attention to the still small voice of the text whispering to you, “Here I am, where are you?” How does this “meaning-full” word touch your life today? Take a deep breath and move on when you are ready ...
Movement 2 (Reflect) How does this “meaning-ful” word touch your life today?
3. Read the text slowly again. How do you offer your prayers and your life to God today? Respond to God with prayers of ... praise, confession, gratitude, discernment, commitment ... whatever emerges from within you as you consider your desires and your needs. Take a deep breath and move on when you are ready …
Movement 3 (Respond) How do you offer your prayers and your life to God today?
4. Rest in the gentle silence of God's presence. Breathe in the love of God. As you move on, breathe out the love of God upon the world!
Movement 4 (Rest) Breathe … Breathe … Breathe … Amen
If music is a pathway to God for you, listen to this song called Light in the Darkness (A Christmas Song) written and performed by David Harsh. In this original Christmas song, David sings about the various forms of light found throughout the Christmas story and beyond.
If sacred art is a pathway to God for you, contemplate this stained glass window art and consider what we mean when let the warmth and the light of the sun shine upon us as we sing and pray Christ be our Light ...
 |
| “Christ be our light” The east window of Teampall Mholuaidh. The stained glass window panel showing the Grass of Parnassus (St Moluag's flower) was designed by Gail Steele of Half-a-Moon Glass and installed in 2005. Photo taken by James Yardley [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], shared via Wikimedia Commons. |
May the Light of Christ fill you with peace, joy, and love! Cindy
No comments:
Post a Comment