Personal Prayer 4 - Fr. Boniface Hicks, OSB
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- Опубліковано 23 сер 2024
- Online Retreat with Fr. Boniface Hicks, OSB
Growing Closer to God through Personal Prayer
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To summarize the steps of Lectio Divina, they are just parts of a relationship: Engage the person of God, let Him speak, respond to Him, rest and be with Him.
An analogy to describe Lectio Divina like eating: we put good food in our mouth (scripture) for the sake of both tasting it and the nutrients - both that tastes good and is good for us. And don't be discouraged if we don't immediately experience or notice the affects.
Take a bite, chew on it, start to taste and digest, take it in, gnaw on it. And don't just spit it out: our goal is to swallow, to make it a part of us. Thus praying with scripture is not just a bible study, but committing one life and choosing to respond as one is moved: with thanks, praise, repentance, compassion.
Like a cow would bring it back and chew on it some more, we reiterate, reflect some more, persist as the Lord brings connections together.
Digestion is not something we do consciously - as long we have given our stomach food, it automatically starts digesting. So too contemplation is something that happens to us, a gift from God which he gives in response to our feeding ourselves with prayer.
And like with digestion, where it's good to rest and enjoy after a meal. And then we will be ready to use that energy to act.
The Jesus Prayer
A practice from eastern Christians, wanting to make time to be with the Lord, they summarized prayer in one verse that was repeated: "God come to my assistance... Lord make haste to help me."
With time, they repeated the name of Jesus and plea for mercy in the prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
Repeat it, slow it down, connect with one's weakness and need for Him.
lots of good fruit in this talk. prayer with out ceasing is my goal but truly difficult. thank you Fr. Boniface~ I really enjoy your talks