between “Personal Lectio Divina” & “Common Lectio Divina”
(...continuation)
Both
exercises are important, but nobody will stop me from showing the
"personal lectio divina". We always pray "in the
church" even when we are alone. The Church starts in our heart,
not outside of it. But nobody can deter us from listening to Christ.
He comes in the Church, during the "Proclamation of the Word",
and speaks to us, but in fact first of all, and fundamentally, He is
speaking to each human being in his heart. The community doesn't have
a heart, each member has a heart. The encounter of real hearts,
alive, might create a "heart" for the community, but not
the opposite. The walls of the Church are composed of bricks, and
without the single bricks, there is no wall. The Person is the Corner
stone of the Church... we are not Communists. Vatican the second
explains that aspect, in Gaudium et Spes
16.
Notes
on Couple
lectio divina
The
challenge is to ensure the supernatural mechanism of « Couple
lectio divina ».
Otherwise lectio divina
done by the couple can become an intellectual, theological, exercise,
nothing more, where often, one or each will exercise his « power »
against the other (by pressurising him/her), thinking that in doing
so, he/she is doing right.
The
supernatural work of the Holy Spirit through a Word that God sends to
the couple (as one) requires a common strong disposition, and a
common just balance between the two members (this is a challenge),
capacity to hear, listen to God that speaks through the partner.
Lectio divina will be one of the best moments to open, in prayer and
with a common prayer to the Holy Spirit, to listen to God that speaks
sacramentally through the other.
This
is a marvellous actuation of the Sacrament. Any sacrament has two
dimension, two layers: a physical layer, and a deeper divine layer.
This is why it is called “sacrament”. Like the stained-glass, one
has the glass and the light that passes through. For the sacrament of
Marriage, the man and his wife are sacraments of Jesus and the
Church, as stated in the Holy Scriptures by saint Paul and by saint
Peter. So we have here the two layers: the man, and the woman are the
“material” layer. Jesus and the Church are the Divine Layer.
To
“actuate the sacrament” is to make it work, to allow all the
supernatural power enclosed in it to be activated, each day, the
measure of each day, and not less. This comes by giving full
attention, through the material aspect (the life and presence of the
man and his wife) to the divine layer that is constantly there. The
risk in each sacrament is to forget the deeper layer, therefore the
sacrament remains inefficient. Any sacrament.
One
of the most two important acts in order to enact the Sacrament is to
see and to listen. These two spiritual senses are fundamental for us
in order to receive the Grâce of God daily. To see through my
husband or my wife, by the help of the Holy Spirit, as we see through
the holy Scriptures, the living and powerful Words of Jesus. There shouldn't be any contradiction between the layers, but they are still
two layers. Like the letter and the spirit in a text of the
Scriptures, they are different layers, but not opposed, or in
contradiction, or dislocated, without links (that would be to see
things in a text that the text doesn't say or doesn't allude to, or
contort the text in order to get a different subject or sense, or
application).
Listening
to Jesus is through my husband of wife, and “through” (the
sacramental operation) is not an abstract seeing, or listening. There
are criteria for discernment for this listening, as for the
“spiritual senses of the Scriptures” in their relationship with
the letter of the text.
By
asking the help of the Holy Spirit, He comes and helps us see
through, with respect and attention to God. By asking the help of the
Holy Spirit, we can listen to what Jesus is telling us by our
partner.
Couple
Lectio divia,
this common attention to the word of God from two wills, united in
one prayer, is a great moment of Grace for them and for the Church
and for the world. Because this is Peace on earth, this is real
progress, when two on earth succeed in agreeing, in seeking the will
of God and receiving it. It is so powerful that, like the payer of
the Monks, it allows the earth to make its “revolutions”.
(to be continued...)
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