The term Lectio Divina means divine or holy reading; it is a practice that comes to us from Benedictine spirituality. St. Benedict and St. Gregory recommended the practice to the monks. Lectio Divina offers us something more specific, more personal in prayer. Lectio Divina is not Bible study, it is the intentional focusing on a short section on Scripture. The focus can be on one passage, one verse, or even just one word. You may select the passage or randomly open Sacred Scripture and focus on the passage where your eyes fall. Lectio Divina is reading, reflecting, responding, and resting in the Word of God. It aids in the growth of our relationship with God.
The method of Lectio Divina is not complicated. It is comprised of the following steps:
Lectio (Reading) - Acquaintanceship:
Select a passage from Sacred Scripture.
Read it slowly, carefully, and deliberately.
Gather the facts of the reading.
“Listen” to God’s word.
Ask yourself: What word or phrase is speaking to you?
Allow 2 to 3 minutes of quiet time.
Meditatio (Meditate) - Friendliness:
Read the passage from Sacred Scripture again.
Allow Jesus to speak to you.
Reflect on the message.
Ask yourself: What is God saying to me?
Allow 3 to 5 minutes of quiet time.
Oratio (Prayer) - Friendship:
Read the passage from Sacred Scripture again.
Let your heart respond to God.
Trust God enough to become emotionally involved.
Ask yourself: What do you want to say to God?
Allow 4 to 5 minutes of quiet time.
Contemplatio (Contemplation) – Union of Life:
Read the passage from Sacred Scripture a final time.
Surrender to God’s presence.
Rest in God beyond concepts, feelings, and particular acts.
Allow 5 to 10 minutes of quiet time.
Conclude with the Lord’s Prayer.
Through Lectio Divina, you allow yourself to be absorbed in the Word of God as the Holy Spirit draws you into God’s presence through Sacred Scripture. You may use spiritual reading, other than Sacred Scripture, for Lectio Divina.
The word intercession has its root in the Latin word intercedere, which means “to stand between” or “to stand in the midst.” Intercessory prayers are not necessarily prayers of petition.
Suppose people were to ask you to pray for them, what does that mean? Or what if they ask you to pray for them because they are sick? Does that change what they are asking for? Should it change the meaning of the request? We’ll address those questions later.
What are people requesting when they ask us to intercede for them, not in prayer but in a social setting? Sometimes, they are asking for an introduction to someone; sometimes, they are asking us to stand with them in a situation they don’t want to face alone. They may be asking us to speak on their behalf to someone to plead their case. If we anticipate that someone is going to give us unwelcome news, we may ask someone to “intercede,” that is, to stand with us for support. That may be getting closer to the nature of intercessory prayer.
Those of us who grew up in the Catholic Church know that we don’t worship the saints; we only worship God. We can and do pray to the saints to intercede for us: we ask them to be our intercessors. We ask the saints to stand with us before God, to introduce us, to speak for us, because we may feel helpless in acting on our own. We ask the saints to stand with us in times of need. We will often choose a patron saint to stand with us, a saint with whom we feel an affinity, a saint whom we understand and who understands us. We can ask these “patron” saints to stand for us or stand with us in a particular need.
Intercessory prayers are prayers of empathy and sympathy. In intercessory prayer, we unite ourselves with those for whom we pray and with those saints we ask to intercede for us. We pray together.
In his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius of Loyola suggests that we use our imagination in prayer. Imagination is a vital tool in all our personal prayer and particularly important in intercessory prayer. In his exercises, St. Ignatius encourages us to use our imagination in meditative prayer. We can use our imagination by placing ourselves in a scene from Sacred Scripture to reach a deeper level of scriptural understanding and to understand its personal meaning. In intercessory prayer, we can use our imaginations. When you pray to or rather with your patron saint, use your imagination to see that saint standing next to you and truly with you. This will require some preparation; you should know something about your patron saint. There was a series of books published by Saint Mary’s Press called Praying With [the name of a saint]. These books all start the same way: with a biography of the saint and his or her approach to life and prayer.
When you pray for someone who has asked for your prayers, use your imagination to place that person next to you in prayer in the presence of God. Use your imagination to feel what they feel, to see what they see, and to hear what they hear. Be their advocate before God.
Intercessory prayer is possible because we, by our baptism, are incorporated into the Mystical Body, we are members of the Communion of Saints. By our baptism and incorporation into the Mystical Body of Christ, we are all members of the same family. Those saints in heaven, canonized or not, are truly our brothers and sisters. Those who are here alive with us on earth are truly our brothers and sisters. Those who prepare for Heaven in Purgatory are truly our brothers and sisters. We are united with all as a family in faith, one family of faith united in Christ.
I said earlier that intercessory prayer is not necessarily a prayer of petition. Some of us may have the misplaced notion that, when we pray for someone, we are seeking to change the course of nature. I tell you without hesitation, we cannot change the course of nature, only God can do that. God only does that when it is His will. We may ask for miracles; we do not bring them about, only God does. To think otherwise is something other than Christian prayer. What can we do then? We can stand with those for whom we pray. We can hold them up to God in our prayer. Intercessory prayer is a loving embrace wherein we enfold those for whom and with whom we pray in the gentle arms of prayer as we stand together before God and ask Him for the strength and courage to accept His will. Our prayer is always the prayer taught to us by Our Savior, fiat voluntas tua: Thy will be done.
In January 1908, Father Paul Wattson and Mother Lurana White, co-founders of the Episcopalian Franciscan Society of the Atonement at Graymoor in Garrison, New York, came together to pray in the tiny convent chapel of St. John in the Wilderness to begin what they first called the Chair of Unity Octave, eight days of prayer for the reuniting of the denominations of the Christian faith. Their first aim was to unite the Episcopalian (Anglican) and Roman Catholic churches. Some 116 years later, the Church continues to observe what we now call the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Note that in 1910, two years after the start of the Chair of Unity Octave, Father Paul, Mother Lurana, and the entire Society of the Atonement, friars and sisters, were accepted into the Roman Catholic Church. This was the first time an entire religious community was brought into the Catholic Church. When the Society became Catholic, Pope St. Pius X gave his blessing to the Chair of Unity Octave, and, in 1916, Pope Benedict XV extended its observance to the universal Church.
Today, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is observed worldwide and by many Christian denominations. The Week of Prayer is still a mission of the Society of the Atonement from its Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute, headquartered in the Interchurch Center in Manhattan. This year, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins on Thursday, January 18, once the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, and ends on Thursday, January 25, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle.
This year’s prayer for Christian unity is:
We pray, O gracious Trinity
— Father, Son, and Holy Spirit —
that we all may be one as you are one.
In your community of complete unity,
we have our beginning and our end.
To you we pray,
asking for the gift of visible unity
among all who believe in your Christ.
As we commemorate this
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity,
we are reminded by your Word
that all human beings are our neighbors
and that we are to love them like ourselves
and in the same way we love you.
Help us to overcome the barriers and divisions
we have nurtured against your will.
Grant to us, O Lord,
a new Spirit of love and solidarity,
that we may proclaim your good news to all of creation.
We ask this through your Son, Jesus Christ,
who with you and the Holy Spirit are one God,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
For more information about the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, go to: geii.org.