Page 19 - LOTN Spring Issue 49 2022

EDUCATION AND FORMATION
The Joy of Lectio Divina

A group of people from the Weave with Bishop Hugh Gilbert in St Michael's Centre, Tomintoul, in the summer of 2018
BY THE WEAVE OF MANQUEHUE PRAYER
listened, died and rose again. Just as the disciples were
n this article from the Weave of Manquehue Prayer, with Jesus; walking, talking, hugging, smiling, questioning,
we hope to share a bit of the joy of Lectio Divina (the getting angry with, admiring, following, loving - in the
prayerful reading of Holy Scripture) and why it is so same way, we too can come face-to-face with this living
Iimportant to us. The Weave is a network of friends God in Lectio.
that seek to help one another to pray, cultivate spiritual When we open our Bibles with the Holy Spirit as our
friendship, and share with many the Good News of the guide, we enter into God’s presence and open up our
Risen Christ. Our roots are in the Manquehue Movement conversation with him. God has a word for each of us, he
which is a Lay Benedictine Community that was wants to speak to us, and Lectio gives us the opportunity
founded in Chile in 1977. The Manquehue Movement to listen to him. God knows each of us completely and as
is comprised of lay people who seek individuals; ‘every hair on your head has
to help one another to live out their been counted’ (Lk 12:7), ‘I have called
Baptism to the utmost. Lectio Divina God has a word for each of you by your name’ (Is 43:1) ‘before I
is the life breath for its members and us which he may whisper formed you in the womb, I knew you’
Lectio Divina Groups are its building in our ear as he lifts like an (Jr1:5). He knows our strengths and our
blocks. The Weave of Manquehue infant to his cheek weaknesses, our sadness and our joy,
Prayer draws on the charism of the (Ho 11:4) ... our hopes and our fears. He sees into the
Manquehue movement to accompany depths of our hearts and minds and even
Lectio Groups and enrich other knowing everything about us, he sees
initiatives of evangelisation and us as perfect, as his beloved children
service in universities and cities ‘because you are precious in my eyes,
around the UK. because you are honoured and I love you’ (Is 43: 4), because
St John opens his Gospel with the proclamation: ‘The he loved us ‘before the foundation of the world’ (Jn 14:3).
Word became flesh and lived among us’ (Jn 1:14). When we God has a word for each of us which he may whisper in our
do Lectio, we prayerfully read the Word of God. The Word of ear as he lifts, like an infant to his cheek (Ho 11:4) or he may
God is not just words we read on a page, but someone who shout in our faces over the racket of cattle and sheep being
we can enter into a relationship with. When Jesus came into sold in his Father’s house (Jn 2:16). Whatever way, we can
the world, God in human form, God’s Word became flesh be sure that God’s word that ‘cuts more incisively than any
and lived among us. Jesus lived and breathed, he touched two-edged sword’ and can ‘seek out the place where soul is
and smelt, ate and drank, laughed and cried, taught and divided from spirit’ (Heb 4: 12), this Word will surely pierce
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