Reflections on the parts of prayer through the Gospel Luke 17
14 th S after Trinity. Prayer, Thanksgiving and Contemplation Luke 17
The moments in our lives pass by and we often pass by without noting the spiritual and beautiful moments that we have. This was the story last week when the religious leaders passed by the man who had been robbed and left "half dead." 10:30 It may be we are caught up in this as well with more worry about what hymn we are singing, what words we are saying instead of the kernal of the truth of God. Prayer ? Pausing? Living a contemplative ( the action of looking thoughtfully for some time, thoughtful observation) life?
Bishop JC Ryle of the Church of England of the 1800's wakes us up with this :" To be prayerless is to be without God, without Christ, without grace, without hope, and without heaven." Yet this is so true of the practice of many Christians ( professing Christians) who do not have a habit of meditation, prayer and contemplation. Why? Perhaps we feel this way too. Our lives are a combination of running from errand to errand, or issue to issue without reflection. We do wish to be better yet somehow it does not happen.
I was reading about contemplation this week and prayer and saw that we may have neglected in our rush to do things: "
In the 12th century, a Carthusian monk named Guigo, formalized four stages to the practice of Lectio Divina. ( Meditation on Scripture and Truth of the Scriptures). Today, there are many ways of practicing Lectio Divina but Guigo’s description remains the foundation. As in the earliest Judaic textual practices, he described four levels of meaning and four approaches to the text: lectio (reading and then understanding the text), meditation (reflection and contextualizing the meaning), oratio (listening within and living the meaning), and contemplatio (being still, and meeting God in the text). It was a fundamentally contemplative approach: first becoming keenly aware of what was on the page and then successively attending to greater and deeper meaning within, building to the realization of global connection.
To narrow it down, Reading and understanding ( sounds like the Good Samaritan last week, who as we read in Luke 10 " as he journeyed, came where he was : and when he saw him, he had compassion on him") In today's Gospel, another religious outcast, a Samaritan goes back to Jesus "when he saw that he was healed,turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,and fell down on his face at His feet, giving him thanks."
Like the Samaritan we must stop and look. As we said in the study on Jonah, " stop , drop and pray" ( recalling the fire instructions for safety) Catch the moment before we are caught by something else. " The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing....to find the place where all the beauty came from." CS Lewis Till We Have Faces
Secondly, meditation and reflection. How? The leper realized he had been healed and he was so thankful he had to turn back and glorify God and give Him thanks. He went to the prayer posture . He fell down on his face at the feet of Jesus.
Retreats, silence ,music and singing, deep listening, slowly saying the words of the liturgy. The words of the Te Deum ( ancient Christian hymn) ring us to worship in a heartbeat,"
WE praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting.
To thee all Angels cry aloud; the Heavens, and all the Powers therein;
To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory.
The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee.
The noble army of Martyrs praise thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee;
The Father, of an infinite Majesty;
Thine adorable, true, and only Son;
Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter." 1928 Prayer Book, p 10
Thirdly, oratio- listening within and living the meaning. The word means speech oratio. What are we saying to ourselves within? What do the words say to us? Perhaps we need help in the art of listening . I think this is the hardest thing to see. We can talk to others, but can we listen?
Let's summarize:
First, we said taking a bite (lectio); then chewing on it (meditatio); next savoring the essence of it (oratio); and finally, digesting the Word and making it a part of the body (contemplatio). We move on to the last step, having an encounter with God Himself as take the time to contemplate, reflect, pray and study the text itself written by God through many centuries yet inspired by the Holy Ghost.
Finally (fourthly), contemplatio (being still, and meeting God in the text). The one leper , a Samaritan , meet God Himself, Jesus, the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity. One way to enlarge one's contemplative life is to take some of the Prayers of the Prayer Book and say them. They are deep resources of prayer and contemplation.
For example here is one from a Prayer Book I have.
" For the Tempted, Fallen, Persecuted, and Lonely
O GOD, the Strength of the weak, the Friend of sinners, and the Comfort of the sorrowful;grant thy mighty protection to the tempted; reveal thy grace to the fallen; maintain the faith of those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake; and give the consolation of thy presence to those who are disappointed , embittered, lonely, or in despair; for thy mercies' sake. Amen." 1929, Free Church Book of Common Prayer
or of course the Prayer Book 1928
" O Heavenly Father, thou understandest all thy children; through thy gift of faith we bring our perplexities to the light of thy wisdom, and receive the blessed encouragement of thy sympathy, and a clearer knowledge of thy will. Glory be to thee for all thy gracious gifts. Amen." pb 596
Let us look for God in the ordinary as so many Christian saints have told us to do. Let us pray for all who need prayer, especially our own spiritual care of ourselves and others, and let us reflect and stop to look at the small moments that Christ is revealed to us and in others. We remember what our Lord said in Matthew 25, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." vs. 40
We are the ones often that cannot reach out to others because we have not prayed for God to come to us in meditation, understanding, reflection and meeting God in consolation thru stillness .
Amen.
The moments in our lives pass by and we often pass by without noting the spiritual and beautiful moments that we have. This was the story last week when the religious leaders passed by the man who had been robbed and left "half dead." 10:30 It may be we are caught up in this as well with more worry about what hymn we are singing, what words we are saying instead of the kernal of the truth of God. Prayer ? Pausing? Living a contemplative ( the action of looking thoughtfully for some time, thoughtful observation) life?
Bishop JC Ryle of the Church of England of the 1800's wakes us up with this :" To be prayerless is to be without God, without Christ, without grace, without hope, and without heaven." Yet this is so true of the practice of many Christians ( professing Christians) who do not have a habit of meditation, prayer and contemplation. Why? Perhaps we feel this way too. Our lives are a combination of running from errand to errand, or issue to issue without reflection. We do wish to be better yet somehow it does not happen.
I was reading about contemplation this week and prayer and saw that we may have neglected in our rush to do things: "
In the 12th century, a Carthusian monk named Guigo, formalized four stages to the practice of Lectio Divina. ( Meditation on Scripture and Truth of the Scriptures). Today, there are many ways of practicing Lectio Divina but Guigo’s description remains the foundation. As in the earliest Judaic textual practices, he described four levels of meaning and four approaches to the text: lectio (reading and then understanding the text), meditation (reflection and contextualizing the meaning), oratio (listening within and living the meaning), and contemplatio (being still, and meeting God in the text). It was a fundamentally contemplative approach: first becoming keenly aware of what was on the page and then successively attending to greater and deeper meaning within, building to the realization of global connection.
To narrow it down, Reading and understanding ( sounds like the Good Samaritan last week, who as we read in Luke 10 " as he journeyed, came where he was : and when he saw him, he had compassion on him") In today's Gospel, another religious outcast, a Samaritan goes back to Jesus "when he saw that he was healed,turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,and fell down on his face at His feet, giving him thanks."
Like the Samaritan we must stop and look. As we said in the study on Jonah, " stop , drop and pray" ( recalling the fire instructions for safety) Catch the moment before we are caught by something else. " The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing....to find the place where all the beauty came from." CS Lewis Till We Have Faces
Secondly, meditation and reflection. How? The leper realized he had been healed and he was so thankful he had to turn back and glorify God and give Him thanks. He went to the prayer posture . He fell down on his face at the feet of Jesus.
Retreats, silence ,music and singing, deep listening, slowly saying the words of the liturgy. The words of the Te Deum ( ancient Christian hymn) ring us to worship in a heartbeat,"
WE praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting.
To thee all Angels cry aloud; the Heavens, and all the Powers therein;
To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory.
The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee.
The noble army of Martyrs praise thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee;
The Father, of an infinite Majesty;
Thine adorable, true, and only Son;
Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter." 1928 Prayer Book, p 10
Thirdly, oratio- listening within and living the meaning. The word means speech oratio. What are we saying to ourselves within? What do the words say to us? Perhaps we need help in the art of listening . I think this is the hardest thing to see. We can talk to others, but can we listen?
Let's summarize:
First, we said taking a bite (lectio); then chewing on it (meditatio); next savoring the essence of it (oratio); and finally, digesting the Word and making it a part of the body (contemplatio). We move on to the last step, having an encounter with God Himself as take the time to contemplate, reflect, pray and study the text itself written by God through many centuries yet inspired by the Holy Ghost.
Finally (fourthly), contemplatio (being still, and meeting God in the text). The one leper , a Samaritan , meet God Himself, Jesus, the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity. One way to enlarge one's contemplative life is to take some of the Prayers of the Prayer Book and say them. They are deep resources of prayer and contemplation.
For example here is one from a Prayer Book I have.
" For the Tempted, Fallen, Persecuted, and Lonely
O GOD, the Strength of the weak, the Friend of sinners, and the Comfort of the sorrowful;grant thy mighty protection to the tempted; reveal thy grace to the fallen; maintain the faith of those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake; and give the consolation of thy presence to those who are disappointed , embittered, lonely, or in despair; for thy mercies' sake. Amen." 1929, Free Church Book of Common Prayer
or of course the Prayer Book 1928
" O Heavenly Father, thou understandest all thy children; through thy gift of faith we bring our perplexities to the light of thy wisdom, and receive the blessed encouragement of thy sympathy, and a clearer knowledge of thy will. Glory be to thee for all thy gracious gifts. Amen." pb 596
Let us look for God in the ordinary as so many Christian saints have told us to do. Let us pray for all who need prayer, especially our own spiritual care of ourselves and others, and let us reflect and stop to look at the small moments that Christ is revealed to us and in others. We remember what our Lord said in Matthew 25, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." vs. 40
We are the ones often that cannot reach out to others because we have not prayed for God to come to us in meditation, understanding, reflection and meeting God in consolation thru stillness .
Amen.
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