Seven Days of Lectio Divina

A weeklong walk through Julian of Norwich's The Showings

This week’s post comes from my work in The Living School’s Essentials of Engaged Contemplation cohort. Recently, we were asked to engage with the practice of Lectio Divina.

Lectio Divina—quite literally, Divine Reading—is the contemplative practice of reading and engaging with sacred texts. While it is often concerned with reading the Christian Bible, it can be used well with any religious, mystical, metaphysical, magickal, or similar text. I could even imagine using this practice with certain philosophical texts, particularly those that deal with a great deal of symbology.

Lectio Divina completes four cycles of mindfully reading through a text, each combined with a different contemplative stance:

1. Listen: First, we read the text, simply allowing it to speak, noticing when particular words or phrases resonate.

2. Reflect: Next, we begin to ponder these words, turning them over in our minds, rotating their facets through the light, and waiting for their meaning in this time and place to appear. I like to journal these meanings as they flow through my mind.

3. Respond: On our third reading, we respond with our equivalent of prayer. You might speak aloud or only to your mind’s ear. You might focus on an intention. You might visualize a scene. Whatever response means to you.

4. Rest: Finally, we simply rest in meditation. We do nothing, we seek nothing, we simply are.

I recently practiced seven days of Lectio Divina. Before sharing, I want to detour to a Deep Reflection question from the same week’s material: How do I feel about the Bible?

The answer is quite complicated.

A picture of my answer was my decision to use Julian of Norwich's The Showings (translated by Mirabai Starr) as my text for Lectio Divina rather than the Bible. 

My evangelical heritage has saddled the Bible with so much baggage. And I feel the weight of that baggage every time I try to read it. I feel the violence—past, present, and future—done in its name. I feel the power structure of patriarchy admonishing me to understand the Bible's singular objective true meaning that props the patriarchy up and pushes the Other down. 

And yet, I also feel great memories of time spent digging into the text, trying to understand it for myself. I can recall emotionally joyful times when I felt like I was meeting God in those pages. I can't come to the Bible without BOTH of these experiences.

And so, for now, it is a book I'm comfortable hearing progressive and/or contemplative teachers discuss, but it's not a book I'm spending much time with personally. Perhaps later, I will be able to return to it with fresh eyes and a fresh heart.

And so, I dove into The Showings.

After seven fruitful days of Lectio Divina, I nearly completed two full pages of text.

On Day One, I read the first paragraph of Mirabai Starr's translator’s introduction (which I had completed some weeks ago), which is just as amazing as Julian's words. On Day Two, I decided to skip to the translated text. The reflections below allow you to journey with me through the first fourteen Showings in Chapter One.

Day One:

You have gone riding wild horses with the Holy One along a rocky seashore under the full moon. - Mirabai Starr

It is this—the moving of God from the mind to the body. From the theoretical to the experiential—that defines my new path.

Day Two:

Everything is connected.
Everything is rooted.
This is a revelation of love.
The essential unity of the human soul and the Divine.

Day Three:

God—THE ALL—is all-powerful in that they ARE power: energy. This energy is reflected as love's very essence - the integration and unity of all things. The knowledge carried by this essence is the very embodiment of wisdom. Embodied through us, as we access the Divine essence within. This is what it means to say God created all things because They are all things and are present at the heart of all things. They cause all that happens because they are energy. They are power. Without Them, there is no-thing. No matter. No embodiment. No energy. No action.

Day Four:

The Seventh Showing reveals the polarity and rhythm of the Universe. Joy is a pole. Suffering is a pole. And we resonate between these poles because Resonance is. And yet, we can also know the infinite, universal Divine essence of THE ALL is holding us and expressing US in Divine perfect infinite love, which is the very fabric of reality.

Day Five:

The journey from the 8th to the 12th Showings is the journey of Birth → Death → Rebirth, Order → Disorder → Reorder—the circle of resonance that is our very existence. Christ's final sufferings and cruel death are transformed into the source of all life. His heart was rended—broken in two—so that he might hold all of creation together in love. This is the pure delight that infuses the tripartite Divine.

Day Six:

God wants us to enjoy and care for their creation because, in so doing, we are enjoying and caring for Them—because they are one with that creation. When they promise to use that same power to make all things well, they promise to make THEMSELVES well because they are ALL in all. THE ALL is constantly evolving toward better, stronger, and truer expressions of their fullness. And we are called to participate and wonder.

They alchemized our blame into everlasting honor. They transmuted and integrated our shadows.

Day Seven:

To see God is to become God. If God is the ground of all our seeking—if our prayer becomes their joy—then prayer transforms our innermost being into the Divine Essence. If our faith becomes their goodness, then there must be a Divine Substitution that alchemizes our very soul into Divinity. Because there is no one good but God alone. So then, Divinity is our birthright. They have instilled us with the desire that prompts our seeking, and so they have instilled themselves as our destiny.

Coda:

I’d love to hear about your experiences with Lectio Divina. If you’re comfortable, leave a comment with your reflections. You can also feel free to reply directly to this email, and I’ll be the only one to receive your words.

Until next time, Blessed Be.