The current generation is trying out old and new.
Lectio Divina is tried out in youth groups and worship services. The usual format is a quiet atmosphere, a continuous reading of a short passage (usually scripture), and focused meditation on that passage. This is an ancient practice newly revived.
For a generation who has worked with short bursts of information constantly repeated, this is a way that is familiar. To those used to linear logic that builds on previous statements and assumptions, this is hard to accept — to just take one thought and dwell on it smacks of mantras and eastern religion.
Right and wrong!
Right? Christianity is not without content and context. Lectio divina needs a full teaching component, otherwise you form your own revelation of truth. Your meditation becomes unrelated to the full orb of Christian truth, and becomes at worst self-centered and perverted. What you may hear in your meditation (and I do not dispute that God talks to us in our contemporary situations) can be from other than the Holy Spirit. Without external revelation there is no way to anchor or test your visions/dreams/hearing!
Wrong? I think we have squelched hearing from God and his word. I love the practice of the Anglicans — upon completion of Scripture reading you hear, “This is the word of the Lord, Thanks be to God.” When I hear a Scripture passage read and repeated, can God not speak through that to my contemporary situation? Can there not be a transference of the intent of the passage into my life stiuation? Can I not trust God to insert into my life His thoughts, dreams, visions?
The old made new seems often seems to collide with present practice. I wonder if we can’t learn from the past’s mistakes and yet accept the future’s opportunities?
