The Retreat Weekend

Big Daddy and I were invited to a retreat weekend that our dear Priest-friend is holding this weekend. The retreat will center on Lectio Divina, praying of the hours, contemplation and personal reflection. A small, very personal retreat with spiritial direction and Eucharistic Adoration as well. We attended a similar retreat three years ag (B.J. - before John) and it had a life-changing impact on us.

We were not able to attend this weekend's retreat. I'm actually quite a bit heart-broken that we are not there. Instead, I am trying to keep my prayers raised for the retreatants that are there, as they each walk with God this weekend. I pray for Father S. as he is leading the retreat, that the Holy Spirit will guide him and give him strength for this weekend.



"Lectio Divina", a Latin term, means "divine reading" and describes a way of reading the Scriptures whereby we gradually let go of our own agenda and open ourselves to what God wants to say to us.Lectio Divina is a traditional way of praying the Scriptures so that the Word of God may penetrate our hearts and that we may grow in an intimate relationship with the Lord. It is a very natural way of prayer and was developed and practiced by the early monks and thus came to the first Carmelite hermits.

For some centuries reading the Bible in one's own language was rather frowned upon and this led to a lessening of the practice of Lectio Divina. Thankfully in recent years, along with the whole Church, the Carmelite Order has rediscovered the importance of Lectio Divina as a privileged way of growing in the relationship with Jesus Christ. Through the practice of Lectio Divina, as individuals and as community, we leave space for God's Word to transform us so that we may begin to look upon our world as it were with the eyes of God and to love what we see with the heart of God.