HOLY READING – PRAYING WITH THE SACRED SCRIPTURES
Sunday, February 5th, 2012 is the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B.
The readings are: Job 7:1-4 and 6-7; 1 Corinthians 9:16-19 and 22-23; Mark 1:29-39.
For those who pray the Divine Office, the Psalter takes Week One.
In the Liturgy this week:
February 6: Sts. Paul Miki and companions, martyrs (Memorial)
February 10: St. Scholastica (Memorial). Solemnity in Benedictine Communities.
February 11: Our Lady of Lourdes (Memorial).
In the Australian Church:
February 6: The Archdiocese of Hobart remembers the Episcopal Ordination of the Most Rev. Adrian Doyle in 1998.
February 8: The Diocese of Broome remembers the Episcopal Ordination of the Most Rev. Christopher Saunders in 1996.
February 10: the Diocese of Geraldton and the Archdiocese of Perth remember the anniversary of the death of the Most Rev. William Jospeh Foley in 1991.
Our Social Justice Calendar:
February 5: World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life.
Also on this day in 1996, the Cape York Peninsula Heads of Agreement was signed.
February 11: WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE SICK.
Also on this day in 1990 Nelson Mandela was released from Prison.
Lectio: Read the First Reading from the Book of Job, chapter 7, verses 1-4 and 6-7.
Read it in a reverent way. The Word of God is Sacred. Let us give ourselves to the Sacred Text, and open our hearts to the power of the Holy Spirit calling us forth to respond. Be aware of the Holy Spirit playing on the fibres of your heart as you read. This is the true “oratio” (prayer) of Lectio Divina.
Meditatio: Some informed background so that we can honour the text in its meaning, and thus respond to it…
Chapter 7:1-10 is a Soliloquy. Prior to this Job has been addressing his friends. Now he returns to the theme of his individual lament. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary sums it up as follows: “He compares human life in general to forced military service, to the work of a day labourer, and to simple slavery – three proverbially wretched states of life.” This is Job’s reply to Eliphaz’s words to Job in 4:7. And then suddenly, Job is addressing God. And Job does something different. He appeals to the love of God. In the earlier chapters his friends recommended a penitential plea to God. Job is accustomed to a “right up front” relationship with God –an honest one! Job’s human friends may have let him down. But he knows his Divine friend won’t let him down. We note the statement about the finality of death. Job did not know of an afterlife. Christ had not come. And so, this idea of the finality of death will recur again and again in Job and in the other Wisdom Literature.
Read the text again, and take a long time to ponder on the real message of this text. After pondering over many hours (days), you will want to make your response.
I share my response in Evangelizatio No. 1.
Responsorial Psalm: The response: PRAISE THE LORD WHO HEALS THE BROKEN-HEARTED.
Psalm 146 is a song of praise to God who maintains the world.
Pray with the Psalm throughout the week, and note the words, phrases or lines which call you forth, and challenge you.
Lectio: Read the Second Reading, from the First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 9, verses 16-29 and 22-23.
PAUSE. Read it again. Listen to the Holy Spirit playing on the fibres of your heart like a harpist, in order to bring forth the most authentic melody of your response…
Meditatio: What is the text about?
As a reading, the message is straight-forward: “preaching is the expression of Paul’s being as a Christian; Paul is not subject to the constraints of the financially dependent, because he assures his own livelihood; the basis of Paul’s integrity is love for individuals, whatever their religious or social situation; Paul can share in the fruits of the gospel only by bringing it to others.” (cf. NJBC 49:46 &47).
Take time to pray with the text, ponder on the text, and finally listen to the response you are called to make.
I share my response in Evangelizatio No. 2.
The Gospel Verse is taken from Matthew 8:17 – HE BORE OUR SICKNESSES. HE CARRIED OUR SUFFERINGS. Of course, this text is originally from Isaiah. February 11th this week is the World Day of Prayer for the Sick. The Feast is Our Lady of Lourdes. This text is one which was with me when I underwent surgery for my first brain tumour in July 2006. As I went into Theatre, I was blessed by the Holy Spirit uttering this text within me. I heard it and it brought me peace. “He bore our sicknesses; He carried our sufferings.” It’s all been done before – by Jesus Christ. What more do we need?
Lectio: Read the Gospel from Mark 1:29-39.
Meditatio: What is the meaning of this text?
It is a story of healing – Jesus, the Messiah, heals the sick. Fr. Keating, in his commentary on the Gospel, notes that Peter would have been impressed when Jesus stopped at his house. And that Jesus would also have noted his discomfort about his mother-in-law being sick. Of all the days to get sick? However, Jesus uses the opportunity to continue his healing ministry and the story has a happy ending. The mother-in-law prepares a great meal for all to enjoy Then there is a night’s sleep. After that, a call to the prayer of the night – long before dawn! The solitude, the silence, the refuge from crowds of sick people. And then back to ministry, this time all through Galilee, not just in the immediate area. Fr. Keating notes that the people would have been more than satisfied if Jesus made his headquarters in Peter’s home town, but he wasn’t sent to be limited in this way.
Take time to ponder on this Gospel story, and pray with it. Then make your response.
I share my response in Evangeliztio No. 3
EVANGELIZATIO. LET US TAKE TIME TO RESPOND TO THE Sacred texts. THE WORD OF GOD IS IN MY HANDS TO DO IT. BE DOERS OF THE WORD, NOT HEARERS ONLY. (Deuteronomy and James) – Evangelizatio is about the evangelization of the self – if this part of the overall prayer is omitted then the texts remain on the page in our Bibles. The Scriptures are given to us to call us forth!
- I am responding to the words: “Remember that my life is but a breath…” Yes, I do know of an afterlife – eternal life. But I am also aware of the shortness of my life on earth, and therefore that I must make the most of it. Quality time evolves from my fidelity to the Christian journey. If I pass up just one opportunity to be “Christ” to another person, then I have lost time from an already too short journey. If I am with-holding love from one person, then I am losing precious time – and more than that, wasting precious time on my life’s journey. That phone call I meant to make, that card I meant to send, that letter I meant to write, that gift I meant to buy, those flowers I meant to send. Why not just do it? Let’s stop wasting time. We don’t have time to waste. While we are thinking about these things the person concerned could die, or I could die. What of all those killed on our roads over the Christmas holidays? What of all those who met with other accidents over the Christmas holidays? House fires? Who would have thought that Matt Golinski would lose his whole family? Thank God the last thing they were doing together was having a Christmas party. They had been giving quality time to one another.
- Over a number of days of staying with this text, the following messages have touched my heart and called me to respond: (1) …not to insist on the rights which the Gospel gives me. (2) I have made myself the slave of everyone so as to win as many as I could. (3) I made myself all things to all men in order to save some at any cost. I hear the call to humility. I am blessed with a knowledge of the Gospel message and this is humbling. It doesn’t make me better than another by giving me “holy” rights! In fact, there are no rights in the land of the Gospel. All are equal in the Kingdom of God. Secondly, I hear again the call to service. There is only service, no lording it over other people. I achieve the best when I am the servant of all. Lastly, to make oneself all things to all – this is hard work – it means living a life of sincere understanding of the plight of another person: the sick, the joyful, the grieving, the financially distressed, the young married couple having their first child, the aged woman or man in a nursing home, the child who wants to play, the child who wants you to listen one more time to a piece of music he or she is trying to play Every bit of understanding brings the smile of Jesus Christ to the other.
- I am reminded by this story, that I can do nothing without first praying, and indeed, my life must be a balance between prayer and work, times of solitude and times of gathering, times of night and times of day, times of service and times for refuelling. Prayer will sustain me. Finally, a word about “Lectio Divina” in which we have been involved with this leaflet. A Carthusian Monk writes: “The Word of God will not endure falsehood. The Word is the breaking of the light of God into our little world. The proximity of God is not always comfortable. It is a fire which purifies, a hammer which shatters the hardness of our armour…a sword which pierces our heart.”
Lectio Divina is Holy Reading, that is, reading of the Sacred Scriptures. It is a way of life, not a method of prayer. It is about reading (and listening), reflecting, praying in tune with the Holy Spirit within me, resting in God, responding in the way I live, and continually pondering on the Scriptures.Lectio/meditatio/oratio/contemplatio/evangelizatio/ruminatio (round and round and round – there is no end to it –“IT IS THE WAY WE LIVE).