S15 E4 - Lectio Divina

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My name is Sister Miriam James Hydland and every week I am joined by two of my very dear friends, Heather Kim and Michelle Benzinger and we speak about what the Lord is doing in our life. We speak about our sorrowful mysteries, our joyful mysteries and how the Lord is leading us in it all and you are most welcome right here, right here. So please grab a cup of coffee, settle in and welcome home. One work quick but important announcement in case you haven't heard, we have chosen our Advent Book Study. It's called encountering a manual and we can't wait to journey with you. We want to encourage you to pick up your copy as soon as you can because all of our previous book studies have sold out very quickly. You can pick up your copy through Avi Maria Press, Amazon, your local Catholic bookstore or if you're in Canada, Sunrise Marion Online. You can do it by yourself or with a group and we have all the info you need on our website. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Biting together podcast and we are going to spend some time with Lexio D'Vina today, a divine reading of Sacred Scripture that can really enrich your life. It's an ancient practice of the church and so we're going to talk about that. We're actually going to model one for you that you can try and spend time with anywhere you are. But before we dive into that, it is fall. Michelle, Heather, how are we doing? Michelle, how's it going? No hand towels I hear in your house. No, I just went to the restroom right before we start recording and I went to go wash my hands and there's no hand towels and I'm really wondering and pondering the deep mystery of why teenage boys decide to take the anthropology hand-emported hand towel out of my guest bathroom. But hey, it's just one of the mysteries of the world. My God. I am good. My heart is a little heavy. We are recording this right after Hurricane Helene and my younger sister, her house was pretty much gutted and destroyed in St. Pete. And then of course, I am in North Carolina now. I am outside of Raleigh. Thank you for all of our listeners. That were so. Yeah, I'm really concerned about you. We are fine, but Western Carolina is not and the stories are just heartbreaking. And so our prayers and our thoughts and our donations and ties are going to Western Carolina. And I'll post in the show notes the Catholic charities there so people want to help. But please just keep that area in your prayers and for all the people that in Western Carolina and Georgia and South Carolina and Florida, I mean, there's so many people that in so many different areas that were tragically affected by the storm. So, so our hearts and prayers are with you. Definitely. But Heather, how are you? Yeah, doing okay. You know, after last week's podcast, everybody knows I think we all shared. Like we all have these parts of our hearts that are like, there's a lot happening here. You know, and then on the other hand, too, like it's it's good to recognize beauty in the midst of all of that. Like the season's starting to change here in Stephenville. That's where I am right now for kind of an extended amount of time. So there's leaves and I got out into the garden. Let me tell you. Okay. Yesterday we celebrated one year. It's our house of her seri of having this little house in Stephen. It's already been a year. One year ago. I know. I know. I was totally shocked. It was a while that we weren't here and I went out into the garden when I arrived and I was like, oh my goodness, like there was so much dead stuff burnt stuff. Like just it was trash from just neglect. So the last few days I've been out there getting my hands in the dirt and ripping out all kinds of stuff. And honestly, it looks like I didn't even make a dent in it right now. But you know, it's like I have like three massive bags of stuff and I'm like, ah, that sometimes feels like my heart. I'm like, you're up for it and go, how much of this like I didn't make a dent yet. But you know, here we are. Anyway, I'm excited about the change in the season and sister. I see your having your little puffy vest on. So it's changed over where you are too. Yes. Yeah. The days are changing and there's just a, just a beauty to that. I was going for a walk yesterday and just kind of noticing that you can feel the Christmas and the air and yeah, there's something about when seasons change. Like we said, there's a time for all things and it's important. And I think there's something into that even tending to like a physical garden or tending to our homes or whatever that is. So there's something just about, I don't know, manual labor that's healing and that just, yeah, you get to work the land or whatever it clean your house or take a bunch of stuff to goodwill or whatever that is for you. It's like, it's just good. It's good to get things out and make room for new things because if we don't do that, how are we going to ever be ready for new things, right? Amen. You got word right there. You know, I'm sure it's on a tee bag somewhere. So we were all hearty. You know those, you had a tee bag, the tee bag tags have sayings on them. We should do like a podcast made out entirely of like team X seriously. It's like, they're like, what's our maybe T towels and people won't steal all of them. You know, I don't know. It's just true. Yeah, it's true. You never know. You might find a whole treasure trove of T towels. T towels and y'all in the old bag and y'all room. Okay. So what we thought we would do is maybe Heather Michelle, we can give like a little outline at this, but we have been having on our heart for a long time. Like how do you, how do we pray? What are the methods of prayer? Like how do we spend time encountering the Lord and one of the great ways of doing that? Obviously, it's spending time with Lexu divina. So maybe Heather Michelle, you want to share a bit about Lexu divina and about how that's been part of your journey. I'm going to read a little quote from John Paul II before we do that from his writings on the new millennium. He says, it is especially necessary that listening to the word of God should become a lifegiving encounter in the ancient and ever valid tradition of Lexu divina, which draws on the biblical text, the living word, which questions, directs and shapes our lives. And I like even the words he uses, questions, directs and shapes our lives. So Heather, you want to start us off? How has your experience of Scripture and also especially Lexu divina been powerful for you in your life? It is. It, I'm like, how do you put it into words? I'm like, it is absolutely essential for the life of any Christian to be in the word of God. This is Jesus. Jesus is the word. You know, so it's not just like, oh, that's a good reference place or that's a place where I can find some inspiration or maybe a little bit of comfort. This is God himself and the power of that, I think that we often underestimate the power of God's word. And I love this in the catechism. It says, it's 131 is the reference, but it says, and such is the force and power of the word of God that it can serve the churches or support and vigor and the children of the church as strength for their faith, food for the soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life. And I think that's what it has been for me as I've gotten more into God's word and I'm still trying to find ways to both engage in it like in a personal level at home, like liturgy of the hours, that little book that we're mentioning before that word on fire does a good job with, but also going to daily mass and just sitting with Scripture, having Scripture around the house or in certain places on my phone, reference points where I can just get into God's word. And so there's various ways that I've been really moved by it. One is to study, you know, different Scripture texts, but other is to just take certain parts of it and meditate on those specific scriptures. Like these are anchoring places for us. They are a source of life and it is a life. God's word is a life. And that's what I love about Lexiodevina and sitting with that and saying Holy Spirit, what do you want to say to me right now? And though this text was written, you know, thousands of years ago, like, what do you want to say to me now? So it's absolutely essential, yeah, in my life. And I think for every Christian it is, Michelle, how about you? Yeah, I can tell in my spiritual walk, when the seasons that I am really rooted in the word, there's a significant change in I feel like my trust in the Lord and just my rootedness where I don't feel like I waver. When I, my spiritual rhythms are on game, when I am in the word before I go to the world, like before I open social media or emails in the morning, if I am deep into the word, it's like it is living in active. Like it says in scriptures, like my whole outlook changes. And when I do Lexiodevina, I feel like what it says in the book of John, you know, like the word wells among us. When I sit and meditate it on an in Lexiodevina, it is almost like I can embody the word. Like it becomes part of me. And then it becomes like I, it's wells in me. And even like I've started to do when I'm reading scripture, like whatever phrase I pick out when I'm doing Lexiodevina. or a few words, I actually end up transforming it into some kind of breath prayer. You know, like, I am the vine. Inhale, you're the branches exhale. Like, and so like, it's like literally the word is breathing new life back into me are breathing, like, resuscitating me, bring me back to life. That's good. So I kind of literally like, I want to embody it. I want to, the kind of it is, mana. You know, I want to eat it. I want to embody it. I want to experience it. And I think that's the opportunity that like CEO does for us. It's a beautiful, beautiful practice. What about you sister? Mm hmm. Oh, definitely. I agree with both of you. And it is a living word of God. And I love that John Paul II says it questions, directs and shapes our life. Because how many times have we had a thought? And when we realize that actually that's not what God, that's not the way God thinks. Or I have a question in my life or just even a purification like the exhortations of St. Paul saying, you know, whatever's good, whatever's true, it is beautiful. Think about these things where I'm thinking often about I'm dwelling on something else or harboring a resentment or a critical judgment or something like that. And like that is not the mind of God. And just lately, I've been convicted of some of my own self-defense mechanisms. Of Lord saying, I love you. And this is not how I live. And so I'm going to call you to the deeper places of vulnerability where this self-defense mechanism has been a crutch for you. And it's time. It's time to surrender that and to depend entirely on me. And so, oh my gosh, what would we do without that? Obviously, my religious community would do a lot of lexio divina. And in the liturgy of the hours, in the liturgy of the hours, and going to daily mass, it's being immersed in the word. And yeah, amen. I'm just grateful. I'm grateful for God's word that is not just a nice saying like on the T-Bag. But it's actually true. It literally does bring us to life. It brings us to life. It cuts away dead things. It brings new growth. And it protects it. It monishes. It heals. It encourages. And this is our call as Christians to be immersed in that reality, the ultimate reality. So. So what you're touching on their sister about how it reveals God's character to us. It shows us what God believes, what God who God is, like who Jesus is. It's revealing the person of Christ to us. And Jesus is the definitive word. He is the final word. You know, everything that the Father wants to say to us is in Jesus. And so I think for many people when they go, I don't know how to hear God's voice, it's like get into Scripture. That is his voice. That is exactly in there some of the things he said, it came right out of him. So if we're wondering or even we're like, I don't know what to do, go to God's word. What he has said is alive forever and it's relevant to us right now in our situations. Amen. So. Michelle, anything else you want to add there? No. I think we, I think the best thing that we can do is just model it and how we do it. And so let's jump in. Okay. So in the show notes, we have some notes for you that could be helpful. There are many ways of doing like Siodovina. So the most important thing is encountering the word of God and asking the Holy Spirit to speak to us. That's the most important thing. So there's many ways you can do it. You can. And we have a step by step. I found some stuff on the USC CB website that is helpful. So there's a step by step way of doing that. So you don't have to reinvent the wheel. There's different ways of doing it. You can read it out loud. You can read the word of God out loud to a group. And I would highly recommend even reading it out loud in general. It's just something about the auditory spoken word that's helpful. You can have varying times of silence for reflection. So there's just just to let you know if you're in a group and somebody's like, Oh, we do it this way. There's many, there's many ways of doing it. I think finding a common way that would allow everybody to encounter the word of God is most important. And there's also a little sample kind of flyer that I also found in the USC CB that talks about the history of Lixiodovina really going back to the villages. And so this is not something that's kind of a new thing. Or even though maybe we're talking about it now, but it's been part of the church for many, many, many years. So it means divine reading, like a divine lexio, divine reading and allowing that meditation on the divine reading to bring us to deeper encounter with the living Lord Jesus. So what we thought we would do is we are just going to walk through a abbreviated lexiodovina and kind of show you how that's done. And this is like we said, one way of doing it. Also, if you want to add more time to it, you can follow along with us. And you can press pause and you can just spend more time in silence and kind of see what that works for you. So what we'll do is we each have this scripture. So we're going to spend time with the gospel of John, chapter 15, verses five to eight. So the gospel of John, chapter 15, verses five to eight. And it's really good when you do this to have like a more recondensed time of scripture. Sometimes it's too much. You can also do the mass readings for the next year, the mass readings for Sunday. That's a great way to prepare for mass as well. But so we're just going to choose a small portion of that. And even when we were looking at it, we're like, it's hard to choose. But for this, our all intents and purposes, we're going to work with John, chapter 15, verses five to eight. So just so what we'll do is so I'm going to read it three times. And we're just going to have some moments of silence. And then after the third time of reading it, we'll have some silence. And then Heather and Michelle and I will share some reflections that we've had. And that's kind of just to kind of model that anything else, ladies, that you'd want to add to that before we start. No, beautiful. I would just like to reiterate what Michelle said, just breathe. Like realize that as God's word has been spoken, He's present in His word. And so allow yourself to breathe and receive His peace so that He can open up your heart in your mind, your ears to hear what He wants to speak to you. So let's just go ahead and do that. So we're going to begin. So in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And we just want to invite you wherever you are. If you can, just take a deep breath all the way in. Let's just breathe all the way out. And let's take a deep breath all the way in. Just breathe all the way out. And let's just do that one more time. Let's take a deep breath all the way in. And just breathe all the way out. And Holy Spirit, we come to you today. We ask that you would open our hearts, that you would fill us, that you would enlighten us. We surrender to you. We ask that you would fill us with inspiration, with truth, that you would open our hearts to receive whatever you have for each one of us today. We ask you, Jesus, that you would cover us in your precious blood, that you would defend us against any and all attacks of the enemy, that you would bring our hearts into union with you. And we ask Mother Mary that you would intercede for us during this time. So I will begin our first round of reading the Gospel of John chapter 15 verses 5 to 8. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I and them bear much fruit. Because apart from me, you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch in withers. Such branches are gathered thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. And just notice what's stirring in your heart and will us have some moments of silence and just see what the Lord brings. And I'll read it a second time. And once again, just notice what's stirring in your heart. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be done. for whatever you wish and it will be done for you. We'll just take some time for silence here and once again you're welcome to press pause and maybe do a five or ten minute recollection. But just for our time here, I'll ask just Heather and Michelle whenever they're ready that they can just begin sharing whatever whatever sturs and them during this time as they spend time with the Lord. There were two different parts that the Lord would just sort of like left out to me and the first one was in me and in you. So those two phrases and I was like Lord, I just said Lord, what do you want me to know about those two things that you're springing to my attention? And he said it's intimate. He said I don't just want you to be close. I don't just want you to be near me and I don't want to just be near you. I want you to be in me and I want to be in you. And there was just this like, you know, deep sense of love that the Lord was just in his voice. Like it's not like I audibly heard his voice, but it just I just sense this deep love of like he's like it's intimate. What I want with you don't just stay near me. That's that's not what this is about. That's not the relationship I'm inviting you into. And then the second thing as you read it through the second time, the other word that stood out was remain and just pairing that with that is like Lord, what do you want me to know about that? And he's like, this is how I want it to stay. Not just in moments, not just when you're at Mass or praying like I want you to remain here always even when you're just about your daily tasks that there's this intimate place where we don't leave each other. He's so sweet. He's so sweet. How about you, Michelle? Yeah, when we first did it, what stood up to me is just the line apart from me, you can do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not one thing, Michelle, like nothing apart from me. And just realizing how I like to pull up my root system, you know, and then put it back down. But if you pull up a root system and then try to replay in it, it doesn't go deep again. Like it has to like it, that takes time for the roots to go down further and deeper into the ground, you know, but that's what I do is I pull it up and then I go back down and I pull it up and I go back down and just really realizing apart from me, you can do nothing. Then I was just praying through that like the second time. And because he says, and really asking the Lord where he says, the branches that are not rooted with her. So I was asking Lord, these are the areas of my life, I'm withering. Like where is there not growth? Like the where and where do I feel like weary? And I'm withering in the air. And as I prayed through it even more, he's like, what is my heart for you? And it's he said to bear much fruit, not just some fruit much. So just the opposite is a much and withering. Much fruit are withering. And that all depends on my root system. So just resting in his heart, resting in his providence, resting in his arms. And once again, oftentimes I think we make it so much harder than it really is. It's just just surrendering again, again, again, every day surrendering, begin again, allowing our roots to go deep in his love, begin again, putting myself in his gaze and have him look at me and me look at him, not all around me, but in his eyes that that's where much fruit is found in his heart. So yeah, sister, what about you? I love this. I love this is real time because we this is not scripted. So I just I love hearing the real time uttering of the Holy Spirit in both of your hearts. And there is something about meditating on it three times where first time you read it, you're kind of like, okay, and then the second time, but then the third time, and then when you when you do sit with it, you for as long as you wish, it's there is a power to it. And I what stuck out to me this time was actually verse eight where Jesus says, my father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. And I was thinking of how often we have a kind of a default measure of God of like, oh, it's just a bunch of rules and I have to fall these rules, I've to jump through these hoops. And it's actually backwards. The Lord's just the Lord's saying, I want you to live. And my desire is that you bear much from become my disciples. And so into the deepest desires of our heart is to bear fruit and to live forever and to have a love that never ends and our hearts to be humble and open. And if if I want that outcome, the Lord's saying, here's how we go about that. And we go about that by you remaining in me and you listening to my voice and you coming into my vineyard and you, I'm going to provide for you everything that you need. You don't have to try to do it on your own. And and so just was really struck by that like the Lord is for us that he's not holding on us that he's not trying to get us to quote unquote do something we don't want to do, but actually his heart is for the entire truth and reality of who we are. And he gains great glory and great joy when you and I bear much fruit and become his disciples. That's you know, he's not a father who's in competition with his with his children. He's a father who loves to see his children thrive and loves to see them living in the truth and goodness and beauty. And when we don't live like that, his heart aches for us, it hurts for us. And so just thinking of the really the magnumity of the Lord and his desire that he's for us. He is for us and he's providing the way he's not making us figured out on our own or play a guessing game. But here's the path. If you want to live that life, I want that for you to and here's here's how to do that. So that's what stuck out for me today. Amen. That's beautiful. And so simple. I hope people are hearing that. In this, you know, that it's so simple and you can hear God, you know, and he wants to speak to us all the time. And you can do this anytime. And maybe you might feel like, I don't know, I don't know what's God saying. How do I know if it's just me? That's usually the question that I hear from people I'm sure you do too. I'm my thoughts and my voice and my head. And I think sister, the scripture that you mentioned, whatever is good, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely. That's a good place to start is what you're hearing. Good, pure, lovely. Is it true? Then you can trust that that's coming from the Lord. There's further discernment that can be done about bigger things, but I think that's just a good place to start. Amen. Yeah. And there are many families to do this together as well. You can make it very simple for even little kids. It's amazing how little kids hear the Lord and just to ask your children, what is when you hear this? What is Jesus say to you? And it's just a great exercise that you can make as is complex or like not as a difficult way, but as deep or as simple as you want. And everybody can benefit from from that. Because Michelle, haven't you done that as a family? Have you guys done that? We do it as a family. And so oftentimes, how do you guys do it? Could you just share with our listeners real quick? We do it the first time we read it. Everyone uses one word, just one word that popped out to them. And the second time we read it, then a phrase that pops out in the third, what we feel like God's saying in their heart. And actually, the younger kids are the ones that have the most profound answers, honestly. But I think it's also a good, like, like you said, the three times, just the one word. So they don't have to pick out one word and then a phrase and then they can say, so it's almost like the word has time to marinate in them and they almost have time to get comfortable in the word to hear the Lord. And then they realize, oh my gosh, I do hear the Lord. So yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. So we help friends of that. Blesses you not only this week, but for the rest of your life. It's such a great, a great way of encountering God's word. So that is a small taste of that. So Michelle, anything you want to offer for your one thing for the week for listeners? My one thing is what I said at the beginning, I'm just really praying for all the people affected by Hurricane Ali and just the relief efforts. And I will post a couple sources there to help people that's going to be a long build for many communities. Yeah. A long recovery. And when it, I just know from personal experience, when it faces out of the news cycle, there's still people that will suffer like greatly. And there's many, many communities. So and can I just say like, I mean, you would never wish these tragedies on anyone living through it twice now, myself personally. But also, it is also you see the beauty of people and human resilience and the beauty of neighbors and the beauty of people coming together. Like I knew my neighbors. That was one of the hardest thing to leave Pensacola. I knew my neighbors so well because we went through Hurricane Sally together. You know, and like people say, hey, you helped me clean my yard after this. Hey, you came out and you know, offered me food after this. Like it gets people outside of their homes. And it actually lets us love our neighbors in ways that we really usually don't do in an isolated society now and in our own little silos. So that part, I just love I love in communities come together. I love how resourceful people are. I just love the just beauty of the human spirit because I really do believe in our or we are good and got created us and we are good. And I love how people's goodness shines forth like that. And so yeah, yeah, so Heather, what about you? Yeah, I have two one things. One is Michelle and I both have sons who are in Austria this semester. So Francis Keene University has an Austria program and you can go for a semester and study in Austria. And I'm just so grateful that they offer that. They live like at the foothills of the Alps in Austria in this beautiful cartesian monastery. I mean, it is really just a stunning setting and our boys are about to leave on a 10-day trip. You know, the different places they get to travel everywhere. And I'm just so grateful for that experience because it matures a young person in a different kind of way. You know, there's just different things. And I think traveling is a really important part if people are able to. I know even students who've gone there and didn't travel away from there, they just explored all around Austria and they've just absolutely loved it. And then just in line with Franciscan, what's going on, Father Dave Paboncan, I are going on a pilgrimage to Guadalupe in January. And so I would love to just extend an invitation to our listeners to join us on that pilgrimage. It's just a beautiful opportunity to experience a holy site to come into deeper relationship with our lady and to do it in a community context. So links in the show notes. Sister, how about you? What's your one thing? Those are both wonderful. Yeah, very important things. My one thing is focus ministries has recently produced a film called Radiating Joy, which is the Michelle Dupong story. And it's yeah, really, really, really, really beautiful. So it is going to come out in theaters for one night only on Tuesday, November 12th. And tickets just went on sale. So we're going to put up the link where you can get a ticket and you can also watch the trailer. But Michelle Dupong is a beautiful, a beautiful American young woman who was the director of adult faith formation, the diocese of Bismarck when she was diagnosed with cancer. And it's really the heroic story of her life of a woman who continued to give and to love in the midst of great suffering and just her radiant joy. And she's a servant of God now, so her cause for canonization has been opened. And just beautiful, just a beautiful story of a woman close to all of her hearts. And in this day and age, who said yes to Jesus and ended up bringing a lot of people to Christ out of her suffering and out of her love. So that's going to be in theaters one night only on November 12th. And you want to get your tickets and all of that information will be in the show notes for you. So that's awesome. That's awesome. One more quick announcement before we split here. We had mentioned that there's new merch coming in the shop. It is beautiful abiding together t-shirts made by our very own team Camille. We're so grateful for your design and for your creativity. And so you'll see all that on social media. If you want to follow us, you can sign up for our newsletter or you can head over to Instagram to catch all the latest sounds wonderful. We wish I'll do an episode wearing a Biden together t-shirt all over it over my habit. I agree. Tie on your head. Whatever, whatever I'm doing. They're super cute. Thank you for joining us dear friends. And until next week, we'll be a Biden together. God bless you. Have a great week. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode. If you liked it, would you please share it with a friend and leave us a review? 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