LECTIO DIVINA (Winter 2022)
This winter our spiritual discipline is practicing lectio divina.
The ancient practice of lectio divina is know as “spiritual reading.” Lectio divina is not a new method of Bible Study. Whereas study of the Bible sets its focus on learning, lectio divina is an ancient time-tested method of meeting God in the Scriptures. In doing so, the disciple allows the Scriptures (in cooperation with the Spirit) to lead the reader into further intimacy with God as they are shaped into the image of Jesus in the process. The practice consists of five distinct movements.
After selecting one passage, read and move slowly through each of the five movements of spiritual reading.
1. Preparation
Prepare to meet with God: Turn your phone off and leave it another room. Situate yourself comfortably in a quiet, solitary place. Calm your body and quiet your mind before God as you work to prepare your heart to receive what God has spoken, and to respond accordingly. Finally, invite the Holy Spirit to guide your thinking and feeling as you read.
2. Read (lectio)
Read the passage slowly and carefully. Take your time. As you move through the text, pay close attention to what words and ideas draw your attention in unique ways. When your focus is drawn to a particular word or thought, pause momentarily to reflect on them with specificity.
3. Reflect (mediatio)
Upon completing the passage, return to the beginning and read again. On your second journey through the text, allow the text to connect with you personally. Which words or phrases assume a particular resonance with your heart, your season of life, your person in this moment. Posit the following questions: What do I need to know, or be, or do in light of the text? What does this mean for my life today?
4. Respond (oratio)
Talk to God about your experience.
5. Rest (contemplatio)
Pause to sit in God’s presence before fleeing from the moment. You might express wonder, awe, gratitude, or praise through words, or you might allow yourself to feel and experience these things quietly before God.
February 1 - Psalm 99:1-5
February 2 - Matthew 6:25-34
February 3 - John 20:11-18
February 4 - Acts 2:1-13
February 5 - Matthew 14:13-21
February 6 - Luke 2:41-52
February 7 - Matthew 3:13-17
February 8 - Exodus 3:1-6
February 9 - John 1:1-15
February 10 - Mark 6:7-13
February 11 - Luke 2:16-21
February 12 - Matthew 2:1-12
February 13 - Psalm 67
February 14 - Isaiah 60:1-6
February 15 - Psalm 72
February 16 - 1 John 3:22-4:6
February 17 - Hebrews 5:1-10
February 18 - Psalm 47
February 19 - Mark 16:15-18
February 20 - 2 Timothy 1:1-8
February 21 - Psalm 37
February 22 - 1 Corinthians 7:32-35
February 23 - Malachi 3:1-4
February 24 - Psalm 24
February 25 - Job 7:1-4
February 26 - Genesis 1:20-2:4
February 27 - Psalm 50
February 28 - 1 Peter 5:1-4
March 1 - Jonah 3:1-10
March 2 - Psalm 119
Reading Plan
January 17 - Psalm 23
January 18 - Luke 10:38-42
January 19 - Mark 10:46-52
January 20 - Matthew 8:28-34
January 21 - Psalm 100
January 22 - Genesis 32:22-31
January 23 - Exodus 3:11-14
January 24 - Matthew 5:14-16
January 25 - Psalm 90:1-6
January 26 - Matthew 5:19-21
January 27 - Luke 13:18-19
January 28 - Ezekiel 36:26
January 29 - John 8:2-11
January 30 - Matthew 8:13
January 31 - Jeremiah 1:4-10
SIMPLICITY
This winter we are focusing on the discipline of simplicity as a community. In particular, we are going to look at three areas where we can live simply as followers of Jesus: we are: our time, our money, and our stuff.
Richard Foster says, “Simplicity is freedom. Duplicity is bondage. Simplicity brings joy and balance. Duplicity brings anxiety and fear.”
In a culture that is shaped by FOMO (the fear of missing out) and clamouring for us to be attentive to the next thing, Jesus actually invites us into a simple life. The church is called to be a simple people, unswayed by the empty promises of busyness, hurry and more stuff.
What if we could live this way in a city where people tend to run to the next thing?
Simplicity can and should be a discipline in the life of every Jesus follower and we believe it is something that needs to be intentional and practiced.
This fall we are leaning into simplicity as our spiritual disciple together. We encourage you to be intentional and shape your life through this discipline. This means being attentive to:
How we spend out time and what we put our energy into. The reality is that many of us are too busy and will need to reshape our lives towards the things that are most important and meaningful.
How we spend our money and resources and how we consume. We are called to live simply with our resources so that we put God’s kingdom first. This means being attentive with our stuff to the poor and powerless and aware of how our day to day practices effect the environment.
How we shape our lives around God’s community. Many leave little to no margin to actively participate in community. The hope is for this to become a season where all of us simplify to participate more actively in the lives of God’s people.
As always, we have a number of resources, including recommended reading and some short videos available on this site.
RICHARD FOSTER ON SIMPLICITY
Though this content is a number years old now, Richard Foster is helpful here in discussing the discipline of simplicity.
SCRIPTURE & STUDY
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the state of emergency issued in Ontario well into the month of May, our spring spiritual practice is another inward spiritual discipline. Normally we talk Eastertide to practice generosity and feasting. This spring we will practicing the discipline of studying scripture.
There is a couple of ways that you can participate in this practice with us.
Starting Sunday, April 26, we will be reading through the gospels together. You can find our gospel reading plan HERE.
For those who are really keen on studying together, Dru will be leading a course taught by Tim Mackie, called Introduction To The Hebrew Bible. This will be an eight-week course (plus one condensed Saturday morning) that will lead and teach you, in depth, what the Old Testament is and how to read it.
This course will run online on Wednesday evenings from 7-8.40pm for eight weeks staring Wednesday, April 29. If you would like to participate in this course, RSVP below!
RECOMMENDED READING
THE FASTING SERIES PODCAST
FASTING
From February 6 to April 9 (the season of Lent leading into Easter) we are practicing the spiritual discipline of fasting as a community. We agree with Phillis Tickle when she declares that “fasting is far and away the most misunderstood, maligned, and misused” spiritual discipline.
WHAT IS FASTING?
It’s pretty simple.
Fasting is simply refraining from food or water for a designated period of time.
Note that there is a difference in abstaining something for Lent and fasting. Fasting always has to do with food and water.
WHY FAST?
It's a great question. Why would we, who have a never ending source of food and water at our disposal, give up food and water?
Here are few reasons:
1. Fasting is an act of whole body worship
2. Fasting is a discipline against sinful desires
3. Fasting responds to a sacred, grievous moment
4. Fasting creates a greater awareness of God
5. Fasting stands in solidarity with the poor
6. Fasting yearns for the kingdom of God
7. Fasting draws you in to participate in the story of God.
HOW ARE WE GOING TO DO THIS?
The way we are going to practice this discipline is by inviting you to enter into a weekly rhythm of fasting from sundown on one evening of the week to sundown the next day. We encourage you to do this during the seven weeks of Lent.
We believe God is going to do a great work within us over these next bunch of weeks. Hope you can join in!
RECOMMENDED READING
SABBATH
We live in a culture that is flat out busy. The demands of work, the over involvement in extra curricular activities, and the constant pursuit of more has left many on a hamster wheel of exhaustion. There is also the tension that, in many ways, this kind of life has become a badge of honour in our cultural moment. When someone asks how we are doing our immediate response tends to be, "busy!"—as if this were a good thing.
What about followers of Jesus? Should our practices reflect something different?
Our spiritual practice this Summer is the ancient discipline of Sabbath. We are encouraging our community to set aside one day a week for rest and worship.
You will find a number of resources here that will help lead you into what Sabbath is and how you can practice this!
SUMMER READING
TEACHING ON THE SABBATH
FEASTING + GENEROSITY
The reality of Easter does something in us! More than just theory, the resurrection calls us into a life that life that follows Jesus with heart, soul, mind and strength.
During the season of Lent—a season of preparation for Easter—we fasted. Now that we have experienced Easter and resurrection we move to feasting (eating meals together) and being generous.
Our spiritual practices this spring (April 21-June 23) are feasting and generosity.
Here is how we are going to practice this. We encourage everyone to commit to:
Have a meal twice a month, in the name of Jesus, with other people in our church community. One of the anchors of Praxis Communities is eating together. You may want to jump in a Praxis Community that eats regularly or you may want to find some people to eat with regularly. (Beware that this may just turn into a Praxis mid-week Community. Just wanted to warn you!)
Have a meal once a month with people who do not follow Jesus. Open your home, apartment or condo or spend time eating out with people in your world who are not apart of the church.
Give money or stuff away every week. This may mean contributing regularly throughout this season to charity, those in need, or to the ongoing work of our church community. It may mean giving away stuff that would bless someone else. Whatever it is—be strategic, plan and commit yourself to be generous on a weekly basis.
Here is what we commit to as a church. During the month of May we commit to:
Give $600 out of our monthly budget to our spring outreach—Meals From The Heart. We commit to live simply in the month of May so that we can give to this project. This will help provide brunch, baking goods and other supplies for the Ronald McDonald House.
Give anything that comes in over our $7,000 May budget to a local outreach in our city. This means anything that comes in over our $7,000 general budget for May will go out to bless other. Whether this $50, $500, or $5000, we commit to sending these funds out!
Many of you know we have a really simple vision as a community with a simple budget. We do this because we want to set ourselves up to be generous.
Let’s live in light of resurrection.
RECOMMENDED READING FOR FEASTING + GENEROSITY
FIXED-HOUR PRAYER [THE DAILY OFFICE ]
WHAT IS FIXED-HOUR PRAYER?
Fixed-Hour Prayer is simply spending time in prayer and reflection three times a day (morning, mid-day, and evening) for ten minutes each time.
AN INTRODUCTION TO FIXED HOUR PRAYER BY PHYLLIS TICKLE
Fixed-hour prayer is the oldest form of Christian spiritual discipline and has its roots in the Judaism out of which Christianity came. When the Psalmist says, “Seven times a day do I praise You,” he is referring to fixed-hour prayer as it existed in ancient Judaism. We do not know the hours that were appointed in the Psalmist’s time for those prayers. By the turn of the era, however, the devout had come to punctuate their work day with prayers on a regimen that followed the flow of Roman commercial life. Forum bells began the work day at six in the morning (prime, or first hour), sounded mid-morning break at nine (terce, or third hour), the noon meal and siesta or break at twelve (sext, or sixth hour), the re-commencing of trade at three (none, or ninth hour), and the close of business at six (vespers). With the addition of evening prayers and early prayers upon arising, the structure of fixed-hour prayer was established in a form that is very close to that which Christians still use today.
Fixed-hour prayer is also commonly referred to as “the divine offices” or “the liturgy of the hours,” and from the time of the Reformation until very recently was held almost exclusively as a part of Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Anglican Christian practice. With the re-configurations and re-alignments within Christianity during the last years of the twentieth century, however, there came an increasing push on the part of many Christians from within every sectarian division of the faith to return to the liturgy, or work, of being Church on earth. As the service which was most completely the people’s service in first-century Christianity, the observance of fixed-hour prayer began to emerge once more as the desired discipline for more and more Christians.
Because of its long and elaborate history, Christian fixed-hour prayer has developed over the centuries a number of conceits. For example, within Orthodox and Roman Christianity, the hours until very recently have been more often observed by monastics and clergy than by laity, a direct violation of their origin as an office of the people, just as they have been as often chanted as spoken, a rich custom that is none the less not a liturgical necessity. In addition, over the centuries the keeping of the hours has also developed a now cumbersome number of tools and assists. For one not reared within the Orthodox, Roman, or Anglican traditions, these “books of hours” or breviary volumes can prove daunting. THE DIVINE HOURS offers a solution to all these problems by making the liturgy of the divine offices accessible immediately to anyone of any station or ability who wishes to assume its discipline.
