Transcript of Abbot Clement= s Talk on Monday, August 29, 2005

The spiritual practice of Benedictine= s is Lectio Divina. Every now and then we need to reflect on it because we have experiences to test things out against other people= s insights. I= m sure that when you sit down to do Lectio you place yourself in the presence of God and really try to awaken your faith but God wants to speak to you, he= s always speaking to us, he never doesn= t speak to us.

What I= ve noticed as I listen to people who especially are coming to me for counseling, they= ll go through the whole book of St. John= s gospel and they= re still looking for ideas. They follow what one Benedictine told me that when you do Lectio you read until something touches you. In his case he went through five chapters of John= s gospel by then he was tired and he had other things to do so he quit. What happened with all the first five chapters? I think it= s important that you realize that the taking seriously the Word of God means you= re converted. It= s not something very profound. You simply turn toward this word.

For instance, suppose you= re reading the book of Revelation and you read the passage that says: A I= m the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning the end, I am the Living One.@ Well you could say, A I understand that@ and go on. Or you can pause and be converted, turned toward that sentence as God speaking, revealing himself to you. A I am the beginning and the end.@ A The Alpha and the Omega.@ A I am the Living One.@

Some authors say you should repeat it so you can let it sink in. But I think converting means you really take this passage seriously. That= s what it means. You don= t bypass it.

Then I think the second step is you begin to communicate. You begin to talk to the Lord, conversatio, has two meanings: to talk and then a way of life flows from it. The first thing is to talk. What could you say about A I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the Living One@ certainly you can begin to see and realize that God has been in your life, all your life. He= s the living One. He has been relating to you from the time and even before you were born and that means there is a relationship between God= s action and you all the time. So now you can turn to prayer in all kinds of forms. You can tell the Lord you are sorry for all the times you totally ignored his presence in your life. You can tell him that you really didn= t walk with him in times when you should have. You can praise and thank him for revealing this to you. You could adore him as the one who= s always living, who is life itself. So your prayer can go on and on.

But then I think it should reach the next step, conversatio. It really has the meaning that it shapes my life. So I begin to realize that I need to walk with the Lord better. I need to take out time and recall his presence. Here again we have a spiritual principal that= s in many authors that says we should recall the awareness and the presence of God on the hour. Well, that= s a practice, therefore a way of life.

Maximilian Kobe did this quite faithfully. He would go to the chapel and adore God for about maybe less than 15 seconds, but he was totally present, so much so, that he couldn= t be distracted. So his life was really intense moments of walking with the Lord.

So this conversatio had the notion of changing my life then adds an exercise in your life that allows you to come to intimacy. Because the Lord is always speaking to each of us. By listening to that passage and by beginning to realize that God is the Living One, that he= s the beginning and the end, I will meet him some day in full glory, then I can begin to impact my life just like Maximilian Kobe did. This way Lectio begins to bear fruit. Then , I hope, transformation, not only transformation but make your life much more the joy of the Christian life.