God’s Will

Listening to the Word of God: Lectio Divina guide

/ Sr. Marie Paul Curley / Leave a comment

IMG_0005A wonderful way of listening to the Lord—and perhaps one of the first that we should practice—is praying with the Bible. For the past fifty years, the Church has encouraged all Catholics to re-discover lectio divina, a particular way of praying with the Bible that has its roots in the third century (with Origen specifically encouraging it as the way to read Scripture), and then later in the early monastic communities (especially the Benedictines). Lectio divina continued to be practiced through the ages by monastic communities, but in his Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, Pope Benedict XVI highly encourages all of us to do lectio divina. Why? Because lectio divina is “capable of opening up to the faithful the treasures of God’s word, but also of bringing about an encounter with Christ, the living word of God.” (Scroll down to #87 for Pope Benedict’s description of how to do lectio.)

Traditionally, lectio divina has four steps, but Pope Benedict recommended adding a fifth without which lectio divina wouldn’t be complete. (There are other methods of lectio divina that have developed over time, too, but here we’ll stay with the traditional structure.) The five-step structure isn’t meant to be rigidly followed; rather, it’s meant to help us to engage with the Word of God with our whole being. It’s important when praying to follow where the Holy Spirit leads us; if we are drawn to stay or “rest” on one step during our prayer, that’s what we should do!

Here is a very short guide to making lectio divina, inspired by Pope Benedict’s short description in Verbum Domini and my own experience of prayer.

*To prepare, set aside some quiet time for prayer, and choose a Scripture passage. If you are new to lectio divina, a passage from the Gospels is a good place to start. Choosing the Gospel reading from Sunday or daily Mass can often be helpful.

Step 1. Lectio (Reading). Read the passage slowly and reflectively, listening attentively. What is the biblical text saying? 

Step 2. Meditatio (Meditation). Re-read the passage a second time, asking the question, What does the biblical text say to me in my circumstances? Listen especially for a particular word or phrase that strikes you more than the others—perhaps a word resonates with you; perhaps a sentence raises a question or even some disquiet. Let that word or phrase enter deep into your awareness and then reflect on it: why does this word appeal to me or disturb me? How is the Lord speaking to me?

Step 3. Oratio (Prayer). Speak to God about what is happening inside of you as you spend time with his Word. Prayer is a dialogue with God, and this is where you can respond to God’s Word. Perhaps the Word of God is comforting you—thank God for his comfort and strength. If the Word is challenging you or raising questions in you, ask God for the grace to understand and live his Word.

Step 4. Contemplatio (Contemplation). Contemplation is a time to take on God’s way of seeing. As you rest under God’s loving gaze, ask the Lord how he is inviting you to convert. What needs to change in your mind, will, life?

Step 5. Actio (Action) Take the Word of God with you back into your daily life. You can live the Word of God in your day by choosing to take on an attitude or particular action in the spirit of the invitation God extended to you as you prayed with the Scripture passage. 

The guided lectios provided on this blot are meant to help those who are just beginning with lectio divina. If  you choose to pray with them, I encourage you to go back later and pray with the Scripture passages on your own, using the above simple guide.

Bumpy Start to Lent

/ Sr. Marie Paul Curley / Leave a comment

This year, I’ve had a bumpy start to Lent. A couple of things came up that completely threw off my schedule and distracted me from the beauty and invitations that are inherent to Ash Wednesday and the first few days of Lent. These distractions also prevented me from blogging here. Today, after I post this, I’ll also put up a post about lectio divina, since praying with the Word of God is one of the best things we can do when we are discerning the Lord’s invitations in our life.

If you’ve also had a bumpy start to your Lent, know that you’ve probably got lots of company. (At the very least, it’s the two of us!) For me, the important thing about Lent–and about the spiritual life–is that God, in his mercy, invites us to convert and to draw close to himself over and over again. We may become impatient with ourselves and with our failures and distractions, but the Lord–who knows us better than we know ourselves–remains faithful. In the Gospel, Jesus is so patient with his often-clueless apostles–he never gives up on them! Every time we decide to do better and we renew our intentions to follow his invitations, we surrender ourselves into his hands. Especially after we have failed, this is a gift we can offer him–the gift of our trust in his love and mercy. I think this gift is precious to him.

So, whatever bumps in the road you have already joggled over these first few days of Lent, entrust them to Jesus and start anew today. If you’ve already decided what you’re doing for Lent, renew your intention and continue on. If you’ve kind of “missed” the first few days of Lent, that’s okay. Jesus is holding out his hand to you today, inviting you to draw closer to him.

Below is a beautiful prayer with which to begin your Lent:

Listening to Our “Silent” Co-Author

/ Sr. Marie Paul Curley / 1 Comment

02E choice 2How do we listen to God’s voice when for most of us most of the time, God seems silent? How do we partner with a silent Co-Author?

We may experience God as silent, but God does communicate with us. We may need to learn to listen better, but we also may need to learn to understand how God speaks to us, and recognize when God is speaking. Each of us has a unique relationship with God, but there are also common ways in which God communicates with us.

If we look at the Bible, how does God communicate to his People?

  • Directly to the heart—sometimes in prayer, sometimes through intuition, sometimes in words
  • Through Divine Revelation: through his Word and the teaching of the Church
  • Through silence
  • Through other people (God sends prophets or other people to communicate his love, his warnings, and his invitations)
  • Through the beauty and power of nature (for one example, see Psalm 8)
  • Through the community, most especially through the community of the Church (the Acts of the Apostles is full of examples)
  • Through wise mentors
  • Through the needs of others
  • Through the ordinary circumstances of our lives
  • And sometimes through the extraordinary: visions/appearances/dreams/miracles (Sometimes we may experience a miracle but not recognize it as miraculous.)

God speaks to us today, in our own lives. How am I listening?

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To Journal About

  • How does God communicate with me?
  • When have I heard God “speaking” to me?

The Co-Author Relationship: God and I

/ Sr. Marie Paul Curley / 3 Comments

Sunset at AssosDiscernment doesn’t happen in a vacuum, but in the context of our relationship with God. Discerning God’s will only makes sense if we have or seek a vibrant relationship with God. Whether we are trying to discern a major life choice, or live in greater conformity to God’s will, the best way to grow in that relationship and to become attuned to God’s voice is to spend time in prayer.

The title of this blog pushes this foundational principle a bit further: that we believe that God co-authors our life with us! If we believe that the Holy Spirit is directing our life, that God and I are “writing” our life story together, then it becomes even more important to spend time with God. Any time spent in prayer is important, but a quieter, more contemplative approach to  prayer will help us to learn how to listen to God in the light of God’s saving love. (More about listening in prayer later.)

One of the challenges of the Christian life is a temptation to try to earn God’s love, rather than trusting in God’s love. We don’t want to allow our discernment to be colored by this temptation. A true partnership, being a true “co-author” is a relationship of trust. Doing God’s will is not about proving ourselves, nor about trying to control our life and relationships. Instead, truly seeking to do God’s will is being like Mary, whose “yes” to God came from her ongoing relationship with God. At the Annunciation, Mary recognized God’s Lordship in her life, but she also recognized that her consent and her love were essential in collaborating with God’s salvific plan. She could only say “yes” the way she did precisely because of her relationship with God. Mary trusted God completely: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.”

When we truly seek to live God’s will, we recognize that this includes growing in our relationship with God. A true attitude of discernment allows God to take the lead, to set the parameters to our story, and to invite us deeper into the great adventure of our life.

Pen_UncappedTo Journal About:

  • How would I describe my relationship with God?

Trust Our Co-Author

/ Sr. Marie Paul Curley / Leave a comment

In the last post, I talked about how important it is to choose our creative partner well. The second key to collaborating creatively? Trusting our creative partner.

Trusting our Co-Author might be a bit harder than choosing God as our Co-Author. This is especially true when things are difficult or seem to go wrong. We might even feel worried that God will use his almighty power and “take over” our lives, and that we will be left without any real choices to make.

It’s true that our all-powerful God has ultimate control of the universe: God gave us the world and ourselves, and put us in a certain time and place. It’s also true that throughout our lives, wonderful and terrible things happen. We cannot control many of the circumstance of our lives, and the illusion that we can is a destructive lie that makes us focus our energies in the wrong direction and lose our serenity. The nature of life is gift: God creates us, provides what we need, and then works through everything—even the evil choices of others—to bring about a greater good for us and for the world.

But God doesn’t control us, and doesn’t want to! The mind-boggling truth is that God leaves us free to respond to our circumstances, including trying to change them. God values our free will tremendously, and never forces us. He might invite us, nudge us, woo us, seek to persuade us…but ultimately, which path we choose to follow, and what we choose to think, say, and do, is up to us.

God asks us to trust him, but he trusts us first, just as he loves us first.

An important motive for trust is remembering God’s premise for the story of our lives:

Our all-good God loves us and always wants what is good and best for us.

According to God’s storyview, the story of our lives will reveal the victory of God’s love over all obstacles. In upcoming posts, we’ll start to look at how God’s love is at work in the story of our lives, and how we can trust in God’s love for us, no matter how the plot of our lives is developing.

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To Journal About:

  • How have I experienced God as trustworthy in my life?

Discernment: a Matter of Trust & Retreat with #MediaNuns

/ Sr. Marie Paul Curley / Leave a comment

 

Discernment quote 4

One of my favorite quotes about discernment from Father Rupnik’s book, Discernment: Acquiring the Heart of God, reminding us that discernment is all about trust: discovering that God first trusts us, and then entrusting ourselves to God to lead us.

 

And for young women looking for an opportunity to discern with my wonderful community, the Daughters of Saint Paul, known on Twitter as #MediaNuns, this is a shout-out for our  Holy Week Retreat that will be held at our large convent in Boston, MA:
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Partnering with God

/ Sr. Marie Paul Curley / Leave a comment

kaleidoscopes-201644_1280I was recently asked to take on a project that I didn’t feel prepared for. I knew I had some skills to bring to it—namely, writing and editing. But the visual, artistic sense of design that the project required was completely beyond me. In addition, the project had technical requirements that I knew nothing about. So, I had to gather a team of people for the project.

My first days of working on this project felt like trying to pick up chunks of jello. I could never grasp anything concrete about it—although the chunks of jello were gradually being formed and then put together, the project felt completely out of my grasp. Everyone had a different vision of it, and we were all learning how to do something for the first time. Though I was working on a deadline, no one else had planned for this project and had to squeeze it into their own timetables. I had no assurance that we were going to finish it, never mind make the deadline.

Due to the remarkable people I worked with, the project not only came together, but came out beautifully and just on time. In the end, the project was not something I could point to and own, saying, “I did this!” Actually, I felt that I’d done very little; the beautiful result really came from the shared collaboration that we developed as a group.

Through this experience, I rediscovered two keys to collaborating on a creative project: 1) choose my creative partner(s) well and then 2) trust them.

These insights are even more true when I reflect on co-creating the “masterpiece” of my life.

1) Choose our Co-Author well.

We could try to “write” our lives by ourselves. But choosing to go solo is not only a lonely thing to do, it is also impossible for us to truly shape our lives on our own because so many things in life are beyond our control. Besides that, we’ve all run headfirst into our weaknesses; we know we need help. For the most important work of our lives, we want to have the best partner possible.

We may seek other collaborators as well, but it seems pretty obvious that choosing the All-Loving, All-Powerful, All-Good God—who loves us and always wants what is best for us—is the best choice we could make.

(Next post we’ll look at trusting our Creative Partner!)

Practical Steps for a Daily Discernment

/ Sr. Marie Paul Curley / Leave a comment

02G choice 2

When we feel the need to discern something big—such as our vocation—then ordinarily we need to take our time with it, and there are a number of steps we can follow. Discerning about smaller, daily choices may take merely moments to make. For me, it often takes just a few minutes to do the following:

  • an evaluation of the need(s) presented to me
  • a short prayer to the Holy Spirit
  • an honest glance at my heart, to make sure I’m aware of my desires and to uncover any unconscious “agenda” that may sway me
  • a renewal of my deepest desire: to live in union with Christ
  • a check-in with my current schedule/responsibilities and, when needed, with a mentor and the people who will be affected by my decision (e.g. the team I’m working with)
  • good old common sense

Then, I put all those together and make a decision.

This may seem like a lot of steps for a smaller choice, but they’ve gradually become automatic for me as I’ve grown in the art of discernment, and they help me to pay more attention to seeking God’s will. Becoming proficient in this spiritual art means that seeking God’s will becomes as habitual as breathing.

To Think About

What would be your list of steps for a discernment about a smaller, daily matter? If you can, share them in the comments or via email (and I’ll post them)!

Discernment is…a living relationship with all creation!

/ Sr. Marie Paul Curley / Leave a comment

Every once in a while, I’ll post one of my favorite quotations from Father Marko Ivan Rupnik’s book, Discernment: Acquiring the Heart of God. I had a little problem with the size, but if you click on the title or image, you can read it more easily. Here is today’s quotation:

Discernment Blog Backgrounds

Discerning in Daily Life

/ Sr. Marie Paul Curley / 1 Comment

02 F (GS)Discernment is not just about big decisions. Discernment is a spiritual art, an attitude of seeking God’s will that we can take into our daily life. As our relationship with God deepens and grows, discernment naturally seems to become more and more a part of our daily life, even to our daily decisions. Even the small decisions can have untold influence on the story of our lives or the lives of others.

When I first wondered if I was called to religious life, I thought discernment was a one-time thing I needed to do—to discover my vocation. I believe that God gently led my young self through the steps of discernment, and I entered religious life. I thought I had finished discerning.

But as I traveled further into religious life, I found that, even when I finished my initial discernment regarding my vocation (which lasted several years), I had to continue discerning within my vocation. Especially when I was confronted by large questions, such as being asked to take on a particular assignment, I felt the need to discern God’s will. I wanted to live God’s story for me, so I brought these big questions to prayer and discerned, within the context of my vow of obedience, which apostolic work was God’s will for me.

Gradually, I started to feel the need to discern smaller apostolic choices within the assigned field of my ministry. For example, now every time I write a book, I spend at least several weeks discerning if it’s God’s will that I write that particular book. (Any writer will tell you that choosing one’s next book–which can take from a few months to several years to write–is not a small decision!) Is God calling me to respond to this particular need, to reach out to this particular group of people? How is he calling me to do that? What is it about this topic that God invites me to learn, deepen, and share with others? How will writing this book fulfill the mission that God has given me as a Daughter of Saint Paul? How will writing this book shape how I live my story, and my community?

After discernment became such an important part of my writing, it started to “leak” into my daily life—especially difficult choices. Long ago, I used to just trust common sense, the inspiration of the moment, and the intentions that I placed in my morning offering. But now, I try to bring a spirit of discernment to these daily choices. This allows me to be more mindful about seeking God’s will all the time, not just with big decisions.

But I still have a long way to go before I can claim to truly seek God’s will in everything. That’s my desire, but other things—like selfishness, a desire to please others, or fear of conflict—still get in the way. Making these daily little discernments helps to shape my larger life story, and makes me more receptive to God’s invitations—no matter how big or small, how obvious or subtle.

To Journal and Share

  • What discernments have I already done?
  • What kinds of things do I feel are important for me to discern?