The Word
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England dedicated 2020 to ‘The Year of the Word’. During the special year, the Church encouraged schools to celebrate, live and share God’s Word. As a school we already do this in so many ways. Various prayers and activities will be taking place during this year to encourage our daily living out of the ‘Gospel’ which simply means ‘Good News’. Let us help one another to be ‘Good News’ to everyone we meet, both in word and deed.
Lectio Divina
(Latin for ‘Divine Reading’)
There are various approaches to Lectio Divina a simple approach is to see Lectio Divina as a way of encountering God through Scripture – normally, by taking a specific passage from the Bible as the basis for this prayer.
Four Steps of Lectio Divina by James Martin SJ.
- 1st Reading (Lectio): What does the text say? First you read the text. Then you look at what is going on in this Bible passage?
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2nd Meditation: What is God saying to me in the text? At this point, you ask whether there is something that God might want to reveal to you through this passage. Often, it might connect with something in your life.
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3ʳᵈ Prayer: What do I want to say to God about the text?
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4th Action: What do I want to do based on my prayer? Finally, you act. Prayer should move us to action, even if it simply makes us want to be more compassionate and faithful.
The story of the ‘The Good Samaritan’ is a good Gospel to use for Lectio Divina.
Luke 10: 25-37
Sunday Gospel 1st June (Seventh Sunday of Easter)
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John 17:20–23
At that time: Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven, and praying said, ‘[Holy Father,] I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’
The Gospel of the Lord.
Response: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.