One image we can have of our life would be if you place a fish, a big fish, in a small pond it doesn’t take too long for the big fish to swim around and pretty much know the small pond and zigzag across it until he becomes bored. The longer we live in the monastery the more it= s possible that we know all the ins and outs and we stay in that small world. Yet we are surrounded by all kinds of graces and all kinds of blessings from the Lord. So it= s always good for us to reflect on the fundamentals so let= s take the blessing that we have for Lectio Divina.

If you really look at it what= s the first real attitude that we should have for Lectio Divina? I think the first real attitude we need is that this is the Word of the Lord. That is, it= s the authority of God. It= s God who is speaking. It= s a very important statement because we live in a world that doesn’t think too much of the Word of the Lord. That is, we can look at abortion and euthanasia and there= s a lot of other things that show that the Word of the Lord is not a cultural impact on us. Since we live in that kind of world it= s very easy for us to not really understand that when we do Lectio we= re encountering God speaking to me. It= s God speaking not some politician.

That this is real in the life of Billy Graham he was given a gift to preach the Word of God but he himself, after a while felt that he was really struggling because he didn’t understand certain passages and he was also unsure. So he took himself to prayer about this question and he said "From now on Lord it= s your Word, I will obey it and that= s enough.@ From that day on he blossomed and became the great proclaimer of the gospel that he was. So that= s the first and the very important attitude.

The second one is one we already know that we should pause and assimilate the Word. Which means you’ve got to read. If you spend three hours in front of the TV and three minutes reading scripture you= re not going to increase your spiritual life. So you have to read the Word of God and you have to reflect on it. We are privileged all over the place. Even just coming to Office and reading the psalms. There= s a psalm on Sunday= s lauds that says the Lord is God and we are the people he shepherds and he leads us. Do we really take that seriously? That God is leading us in and through all our circumstances and therefore he is available to us. There are many examples that you can give of this question and how it changed peoples lives. St. Anthony of the Desert when he heard the Scripture passage go sell all you have and give to the poor and follow me it touched him so deeply that he went into the desert eventually and gave his whole life to God.

Then the third one is that we have to put it into practice. And that too is a struggle because we see in the life of St. Augustine when he finally began to hear the Word of God about his living with a mistress he finally admitted but even then he was saying, not yet I= m not ready. So he struggled with the Word of God.

It seems to me that we have to really think about the great gift we have in this because it is the Word of God that lifts us out of our small world into God= s thinking. His thoughts, His ways which are not our ways and not our thoughts. And that opens us up to the whole universe and it open us up to his designs and his purposes and therefore makes our life more meaningful in everything we do. Besides what is God doing when we let in the Word? He’s writing his image in our hearts. He’s readying us for the supper of the Lamb. So that when we come knocking on the door we will be recognized.

We really need to pause and ask ourselves at least this one question to start with, what is the Word that the Lord is trying to speak to me now at this point in my life and how am I really letting it in? How am I resisting it? How am I struggling with it? How am I surrendering myself to it and allowing the Lord to transform me?