Abide: Keeping Vigil with the Word of God

Abide: Keeping Vigil with the Word of God by Macrina Wiederkehr, OSB

To begin with, not being a Catholic, I wondered about the "OSB" behind Ms. Wiederkehr's name. Apparently, she is a Benedictine oblate. What is that? It means she is a monk at a Benedictine monastery, or affiliated with one. 

What is a Benedictine monastery? St. Benedict was a fifth-century saint who wrote a book of Rules that still have much to teach us today. He also founded 12 communities of monks, and even today there are Benedictine monasteries all over the world. 

In fact, last fall my husband and I visited a Benedictine monastery, St. Gertrude's in Cottonwood, Idaho, not too far from our home, which I wrote about here. 

Now that we know the briefest information about Benedictine monasteries and Benedictine oblates, let's move on to Abide: Keeping Vigil with the Word of God. It focuses on Lectio Divina, a Benedictine practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer that promotes communion with God. 

This was not my first encounter with Lectio Divina, which I love so much that I bought about a dozen books on the subject, written by authors from several different traditions within the body of Christ. (But they all borrowed the original idea from St. Benedict!)

The author of Abide, Ms. Wiederkehr notes, 

"In the monastic way of abiding with the Word, we do not read the Scripture text to obtain information. The careful reading of the text is for the purpose of opening our hearts to be formed by the Word of God. We listen to the words so carefully that even our reading becomes a prayer."

So, how does one practice Lectio Divina? 

1. We read a selected scripture portion, generally only a few verses
2. We meditate or reflect on anything that seems to have special meaning to us, especially in ways that invite us to greater spiritual maturity. 
3. Once we have reflected, we pray about what God is telling us personally and specifically through the passage. 
4. Then we abide or rest in God.

In this book, at the end of each passage, the author poses questions to think about, and then to pray about, relative to the reading. 

I bought this and the other books on Lectio Divina because of an eagerness to see which passages each author selected to meditate upon. 

God's Word is full of treasures that I could read on my own. But I love reading the passages in concert with the thoughts of others who've meditated on them, to see what they received, as well. 

The book is divided into five chapters, each with eight scripture selections for meditation. For example, here are a few of them:

Our Desire for God: Ps. 63
Come to the Water: Isa. 55
Pilgrimage to the Heart of God: Ps. 84

Do you practice Lectio Divina? Do you think it's something you might like to try? If so, pick one of the scriptures above and see what God has to say to you. 

It's a lovely spiritual discipline, a lovely method of prayer and meditation by which to deepen our relationship with God.