Christ Alone is Enough by John Bartunek

Author:John Bartunek [Bartunek, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781793808677
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2019-01-17T05:00:00+00:00

CONFERENCE Lectio Divina: Letting the Word of Christ Dwell in Us Richly

INTRODUCTION After warning the Colossians about spiritual worldliness and encouraging them to “walk in Christ,” St. Paul changes gears a little bit. When warning about worldly vices, he used the verbs like “put to death” and “put away”. When encouraging Christian virtues he used verbs like “put on” and “do”. As he continues sketching a portrait of what it means to be “rooted in Christ” and “built upon him”, he changes his verbs. He writes:

A And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

—Colossians 3:15–16 Notice how in each of those verses St. Paul admonishes us to “let” something happen: “let the peace of Christ control your hearts,” he writes, and “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”.

When people knock on our door, we have the option of keeping them out or letting them in. Keeping them out means doing nothing. It means continuing business as usual in the house. Letting them in means deciding to open the door, giving them permission to enter our personal space. This is what St. Paul is getting at here. We need to give Jesus permission to “control our hearts” with his peace, and to “dwell in us richly” through his word. In this conference, we will look at a spiritual discipline used by Christians for centuries to open the doors of our hearts and minds to Christ’s life-giving peace and redeeming word. It’s called Lectio Divina, which is Latin for “divine” or “sacred reading.”

ANCIENT ORIGINS The term has a long history. It first appears in written form in St. Benedict’s Rule for monks, written in the early sixth century. Rule #48 begins like this:

A Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore, the brothers should have specified periods for manual labor as well as for prayerful reading [lectione divina].

In this way, prayerful reading of the Bible and of trustworthy commentaries on the Bible became a regular practice among monks and those who were educated by monks.

At first, this Lectio Divina didn’t have any particular method. It simply consisted in a slow, prayerful reading of the Sacred Scriptures. It could involve a certain amount of study, but the core of the devotion consisted in a reverential listening in the heart to the inspired Word of God. This form of reading was meant to be a prayer in which the follower of Christ could encounter the person of Christ through the sacred words of the Bible.

In the earliest centuries of Christianity, the Bible was already considered a unique book, a book written by human authors but inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Letter to the Hebrews describes this point of view with a memorable image:

A Indeed,

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