Life in the Word Archives • Page 4 of 12 • The Littlest Way

January 9, 2015 by Jenny

Bible Journaling as Lectio Divina

A week ago I started writing about Bible journaling. Today let’s consider Bible Journaling as Lectio Divina. In Bible Journaling in the New Year I found this definition of lectio divina to share, “Lectio Divina is simply the classical monastic practice of the prayerful reading of the Bible…” It does not treat Scripture as texts to be studied, but as the Living Word.”” (Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer) So instead of sitting down and reading my Bible as a text to dissect, I read like the author Tim Gray mentions in his book, Praying Scripture for a Change: An Introduction to Lectio Divina; I read the scriptures as “…a personal note addressed to each of us, intended to speak personally to the intimate details of our life.”

Bible Journaling as Lectio Divina

I loved this example from Tim Gray’s book. “A lover who is separated from the beloved doesn’t let a love letter just sit on the kitchen table unopened for days on end with the ever-growing pile of junk mail, but instead quickly and eagerly opens it upon its arrival, reading and rereading it until the ink is nearly worn off from use. Scripture is a love letter from our Divine Bridegroom, and like the saints, we too should eagerly and often read the Scriptures and hear there the voice of our Beloved speaking to us.”

And before all that lovely-dovey stuff makes you feel guilty because you surely don’t feel that way about reading your Bible, did you check out my post the other day, Bible Quotes About God’s Word, where I admitted sometimes reading my Bible seemed like a penance? Yes, I said that. In those times though, I ask God for the desire to read His Word and I know He not only hears that prayer, but honors it as well.

So how does my new found attempts at Bible journaling work within the confines of lectio divina? Extremely well! I sit down and read the text, the assigned reading for the day from our Read the Bible in a Year plan. As I read it, I read it with an open heart and mind, waiting for a certain passage to stand out to me. A verse or even just a word that makes me stop and go back to re-read it. Lectio.

As I roll that verse, passage or word around in my mind, I am meditating. Meditatio. Tim Gray states, “Christian meditation makes full use of the intellect in an effort to understand God’s Word and to hear God’s voice. Christian meditation is the pursuit of understanding, starting with the fruits of lectio.” I’m spending this time considering what this verse means to me. Why did the Holy Spirit bring me to a pause on these words?

As I’m meditating, I must keep in mind, all Scripture affirms the teachings of the Church and the teachings of the Church are in agreement with the Scriptures. If my meditation begins to lead me down a path away from the Church, I have misinterpreted the passage.

During our lectio or meditatio, our heart might be stirred by one particular observation. Stop there. Don’t just continue on to the next thing. Take time to go deeper and let the Holy Spirit move your meditatio to the next stage of your journey through lectio divina.
—Praying Scripture for a Change: An Introduction to Lectio Divina

Remember when the other day when I encouraged us to not beat ourselves up if we didn’t finish a book on a list in the appointed time. (The Spirit of Perfection) This is one of the reasons why. It is much more fruitful to take time to listen to the Father admonish, teach or affirm us in His Word than to say we marked off Day 9…on Day 9.

I’ve decided for this year, I will not get behind in my Bible reading schedule. If I miss Day 10 on January 10th, I’m just going to pick up where I am supposed to be on January 11th. If I have time I can go back, but I decided I’m always going to be right on track day to day. This will eliminate any feelings of being behind…maybe even too far behind that I just give the whole thing up.

Next on to prayer–oratio. Prayer is a conversation with God. Speak to Him. You can speak to Him in writing, out loud or in the quiet of your heart, but just start a conversation. And again, how does this ancient practice of lectio divina work well with the seemingly new practice of Bible journaling?

The monks who practiced lectio divina carefully recorded in their personal notebooks or journals the key verses that struck them in prayer or liturgy. Like a honeybee collecting nectar, they would gather these precious Scripture passages for further meditation. As the monks did this they came up with a further practical insight, they realized it helped to write down, slowly, these precious Scripture passages that spoke to them, so that they could be etched into their hearts.
—Praying Scripture for a Change: An Introduction to Lectio Divina

When I read that passage today in Matthew 5 about being salt and light, those words gave me pause. What does that mean for me and to me, to be salt and light. Instead of slowly writing the phrase, I found a pretty little girl to trace and framed her with the phrase. Either way, I spent time with those words.

And finally contemplation–contemplatio. Jacques Philippe states, “Contemplation comes from a deeply personal contact with God, and that is why method is the least useful at the point where prayer is the most personal.” Do you know what that means?! We can’t “do it wrong!” On the other hand, it also means for someone like me, there is not a “do this, then this, next that…” printable.

The author Tim Gray defines contemplation as a gaze of love. I need to not worry about what to do and how to do and when…I just need to look with my heart, mind and soul, to God. Worrying about doing it right, will likely hamper my gaze. Those fears and doubts will be like a cloud cover and I will be unable to see God through them.

How awesome that this practice of lectio divina will also be a practice of letting go, trusting that God will hear me, love me and respond to me not because of what I am doing but because of Who He is.

Resources:
The NRSV Notetaker’s Bible
Bible Marking Kit
Sakura 8-Piece Pigma Micron Assorted Colors 01 Ink Pen Set

More posts on how I’m using my journaling Bible:

Bible Journaling in the New Year

Bible Journaling with The Littlest Way

Bible Journaling and Bible Study

Bible Journaling: Favorites Tabs

I received the book mentioned free for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

January 6, 2015 by Jenny

Bible Quotes About God’s Word

Today, let’s consider some Bible quotes about God’s Word. Although I love the wide margins in the NRSV Notetaker’s Bible, I also love the notes in the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible. And one of the notes today reminded me of the importance of reading my Bible. One of today’s readings, following our Read the Bible in a Year Bible Journaling plan, was Matthew’s recount of the temptation of Jesus in the desert after His baptism. (Matthew 4:1-17) One of the notes was, “Jesus’ victory sets an example for Christian obedience. Earthly life is a wilderness trial for God’s people in route to the land of heaven…Triumph is possible through penance and obedience to God’s Word.”

Bible Quotes About God’s Word

If triumph over sin, vice, and death is possible through penance and obedience to God’s Word…I probably need to know some of God’s Word huh? Not only do I need to be familiar with Who God is, I also need to know what He says…the enemy certainly knows the scriptures. The enemy quoted scripture to tempt Jesus. Let’s stop and glean a lesson from that…

Just because someone can quote scripture does not mean they are a Christian.

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Do not be intimidated or impressed by someone just because they can spout off some Bible verses.

Be more impressed by one who cannot quote the Bible but lives it.

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So back to knowing the Word of God. Let’s take the example of Christ and when tempted by the lies of the evil one, let’s respond with the truth of God found in His Word. And by respond, I don’t mean just with our mouth, let’s respond with our whole life. How strong would we be if we spoke the Word of God and lived that very same Word? We cannot say “No–No–No” as we walk toward “Yes–Yes–Yes.”

And honestly, can we address the penance part of this? I don’t want to speak for anyone other myself, but reading the Word of God, well, it sometimes feels like a penance. Don’t hate or judge I’m just being honest here. There are some days I would rather… And on those days, if I remember to, I ask God for the desire to spend time in His Word. I could go to Him, head bowed and full of excuses and apologies. But I would rather ask Him for what I want instead of apologize for what I don’t have. Can you image how sweet that prayer is to Him?

January 5, 2015 by Jenny

Daily Affirmations for the New Year

Hello first Monday of 2015! Which also happens to be my 43rd birthday! Perfect day to begin some Daily Affirmations for the New Year right?! New Year…another year–all those ideas floating around how I want to make this year better, this 2015 and this 43rd year. Here’s the secret, making it better begins in my own mind.

Daily Affirmations for the New Year

Making this year better begins in my own mind. My husband, my children, my best friend, a clean floor, even paying off our house will not make this year better. Where I let my thoughts focus and the words I speak are the only sure way to make a year better…which also means I have the power to make the year worse. <cringe>

You know the one that stood out to me as I read through those…It will be worth it. We’ve set a big goal of paying off our house this year, which will be five years from purchase. We are going to have to say “No” to many less important things this year. Those temporary “No’s” will be worth it.

I’ve embraced my vocation as wife, mother and homeschooler. The long days (and nights sometimes) of hands on/hearts on teaching and training will be worth it. The choices to be here rather than there will be worth it.

Choosing to follow–for the most part–eating the Trim Healthy Mama way will be worth it in more ways than just losing almost 25 pounds in 2014.

I have chosen to respond to a call I feel God has given me to share my thoughts and words here on The Littlest Way blogging. The long nights, the vulnerability, people scoffing at me blogging and the learning curve of bogging will be worth it.

I have made the choice to live my life as a Christ follower. Striving each day to hear His voice and follow His commands, dressing modestly, reading His Word, setting aside parts of my day and week for Him alone in an extremely unchristian world will be worth it.

Print these Daily Affirmations for the New Year and the reminder that “It will be worth it” off and tape them to your bathroom mirror, place them in your Notetaker’s Bible for Bible Journaling or devotional journal, or write them on 3×5 cards to carry in your purse. Make these daily affirmations a priority in your day and your year will be better because you’ve chosen to make it so.

January 1, 2015 by Jenny

Bible Journaling with The Littlest Way

So I have this idea where we all come together, when we can. And we all open our Bibles, where we can. And we share, what we can. Maybe this Bible Journaling with The Littlest Way is for the more introvert at heart…or just born out of the distance of time and place that separates us? Either way, welcome to Bible Journaling with The Littlest Way. The disclaimer should be made, I am a total and complete beginner to Bible journaling. I am not overly artistic, I prefer word painting to mixed media and weaving sentences to sketching. Some days my Bible journaling may look more like a collection of verses strung together rather than an artistic interpretation of the verse read…that’s ok with me. That’s ok with God.

Bible Journaling with The Littlest Way

See that picture of a light bulb up there? That is my artistic interpretation of our first day’s Bible reading. (The FREE One Year Bible Reading Plan printable is found here–Bible Journaling in the New Year.) That light bulb took me a couple of attempts–I know, it’s basically a circular shape sitting on a rectangular shape…and it took me a couple of tries and lots of erasing in between those tries. But guess what happened each time I had to erase or I sat there trying to figure out how in the world I was going to draw a light bulb…I repeated the verse to myself trying to get the picture in my head and translate it through my fingertips…

“God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.”
†1 John 1:5

And if I thought the drawing was hard…the highlighting was even harder!

Click the image for the printable Bible journaling color key.

What color do I highlight “…the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” I could use pink, because it was for love of me that Jesus shed His blood for me. Or, should I use yellow because the verse specifically applies to Jesus and God? I mean to tell you, this took me some time to figure out. (Please, if you are looking for a Bible journaling site/person that has it all together, clearly you are in the wrong place. On the other hand, if you are looking for someone to learn with, because of or in spite of…Welcome!)

Here’s what I decided for myself when it came to those tricky scripture verses–which now that I pay closer attention, it seems lots of them can and will be for me–I highlighted with the future in mind. I asked myself, “Six months to a year from now when I am flipping through my Bible trying to find words of _____, what would this be useful for?” Clear as mud? For this verse in particular, I thought, “Would I want to identify this verse about Christ shedding His blood to cleanse me from my sin in yellow–telling me about Jesus…or in pink–telling me what Jesus did for love of me?” I choose pink…YOU MAY CHOOSE YELLOW…that is ok; there is no right or wrong here. But guess what? As I thought and considered and pondered what color to highlight those eleven words…I kept repeating them to myself. I rolled them around in my head. I considered Christ’s love and Christ’s actions.

Are you starting to see just a little bit, in an extremely informal way how Bible journaling and lectio divina are going to pair nicely?

In lectio divina, you typically read the verse more than once–lectio. Next, the passage, the verse is meditated upon–meditatio. During this time, the verse is pondered from different angles. This pondering is not to produce some formal interpretation but to allow the Holy Spirit to work within and to encourage a communion with God, with the Word. Following this pondering is prayer–oratio. St Teresa of Avila is quotes as saying, “Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.” According to the Catechism, “Prayer is defined as “the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or requesting of goods from God.”” And finally, contemplation–contemplatio–rest in the presence of God.

In the above example where I read today’s assigned Bible reading, if a passage stood out to me as one I knew I wanted to highlight for easier reference in the future, I stopped and reread it. Sometimes I had to read it a couple of times because I was trying to discern in my heart, how I wanted this passage marked–lectio. This process of discernment was considering the verse from different sides. I had to discern if this verse was speaking to me as an example of Jesus or more specifically as an an example of Jesus’ love for me–meditatio. While in this process of pondering and considering, I was raising my heart and mind to God; my consideration could be likened to a conversation with God the Father, God the Son and/or God the Holy Spirit–oratio. Finally, resting in the presence of God in the form of His Word–contemplatio. Ah, that would have been nice, but as you can see from the picture above, I had company. Leo was wallowing all over and around me this morning. I’m not sure I could have rested in the presence of God if I tried. And that’s ok.

Here’s an important point about Bible journaling and lectio divina…mine will look differently than yours. If examined closely trying to follow the letter of the lectio divina law, mine may not even fully qualify as true lectio divina…I was sitting in bed (although I’ve not read any rules that say you can’t sit in bed), with a toddler all over me…that’s my lectio divina for today. Some days it will look a little “holier” if that’s a term I want to use. I might use my prie-dieu some days, I might sit in a quiet chair or the front porch while my children run around the yard. Any one of those places will be perfectly fine for my quite time with God. I am a wife and mother and my time with God will reflect that vocation…and that’s ok with me and God.

Resources:

You can get your own Journaling Bible here at Amazon…Journaling Bible

I use these pens–Perfect Bible Journaling Pens. They don’t bleed through even the thinnest pages, come in a variety of colors and are thin enough to write legibly between lines, in the margin, etc.

My favorite Bible marking kit. Again, no bleed through and they have a chisel tip on one end and a fine tip on the other.

My My Bible Concordance for the Revised Standard Version .

More posts on how I’m using my journaling Bible:

Bible Journaling in the New Year

Bible Journaling as Lectio Divina

Bible Journaling and Bible Study

Bible Journaling: Favorites Tabs

December 29, 2014 by Jenny

Bible Journaling in the New Year

I mentioned briefly in yesterday’s Daybook Online Journal post about thoughts and ideas I had for us to share the scriptures in the New Year. My thoughts are centered on practicing lectio divina alongside Bible journaling. So let’s define the two and see how they will pair nicely with each other as we begin our Bible Journaling in the New Year.

Bible Journaling in the New Year

Lectio Divina is simply the classical monastic practice of the prayerful reading of the Bible…”It does not treat Scripture as texts to be studied, but as the Living Word.” (Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer) “The monastic practice of Lectio Divina was first established in the 6th century by Saint Benedict and was then formalized as a 4 step process by the Carthusian monk, Guigo II, in the 12th century.” (Lectio Divina)

The four common steps, or “Rungs” as the monk Guigo II called them are:

Lectio (read)

Meditatio (meditate)

Oratio (pray)

Contemplatio (contemplate)

So there is a brief introduction to lectio divina, now let’s briefly talk about Bible journaling.

Bible journaling can be what you make it…simple enough? If you are an artist, then your Bible journaling is going to look differently than mine. I am not an artist, but I love to take notes and make connections between passages, so my bible journaling will look differently than an artists. Fair enough, easy peasy, let’s move on.

And now that we’ve covered lectio divina and Bible journaling, let’s talk some specifics I have come up with. I want us to read the Bible together this year. I want us to spend time with each other with the Word. So I will know each day as I’m reading, so is (fill your name in here). So in a sense we are practicing lectio divina as it was intended to be used in a group, our group is just scattered. To keep us together as we read, let’s use this Bible in Year reading plan Meg put together, READ THE BIBLE IN A YEAR. I have used the other one she links to the past couple of years (no, I have not ever made it through the WHOLE Bible, but close), but decided on the one she made because following it, we will read the Gospels twice! Exclamation because I love reading the Gospels!

So we have our reading plan, we have our explanation of lectio divina and Bible journaling, we have our Notetaker’s Bible, now let’s go one more…let’s color code passages as we go with our Bible Marking Kit. Years ago when I started making my Bible my own, I started using a very simple color coding system…then I got too complicated for my own good. The other day while trying to figure out how to share this so it would be non-scary, easy to follow and inexpensive for all of us–but especially those who may be intimidated by, scared of or not even sure about making marks in their Bible–I came up with this: let’s use the ever so common highlighter colors (or pen or colored pencils) of blue, green, pink, yellow to highlight verses as we read.

Click the picture for the bookmark size Bible Journaling Guide.

I specifically chose the color green to represent new life. Years ago, the first color I used was green and the first verses I highlighted were verses that spoke about our words. I wanted to speak words of life to myself and others. I associated the color green with new life and my words needed some new life breathed into them. But words do not begin in the mouth, they begin in the mind. I want us to think and meditate on life giving thoughts as well. A verse I would highlight green would be Philippians 2:14, “Do all things without murmuring and arguing.”

Blue is a common color associated with Mary, the Mother of Jesus. I want to imitate her humility, her care and concern for others and her quiet spirit of contemplation. So I chose the color blue to highlight passages that speak to me as a woman seeking to imitate the Mother of Jesus; verses that will help me grow into a Godly woman. A good verse for a pretty blue highlight would be, 1 Thessalonians 5:11 “Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.”

I chose the color pink to mark passages that deal with love–God’s love for us and our love for Him and others. When I come across a verse that speaks of love, care or kindness, I think of the heart and that makes me think pink! Psalm 31:16, “Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.”

The color yellow makes me think of the sun–The Son. I chose yellow for verses that reveal Who God is…Who Jesus is and Who the Holy Spirit is; verses that reveal the character of God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit. I would definitely highlight John 1:14 yellow, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” or Philippians 1:6, “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”

Ok, we have our Bible…Bible reading plan…Bible Marking Kit…journal if you don’t have the room to keep notes in your Bible or choose to keep them somewhere else…any pens, colored pencils or art supplies you will be using in your Bible or journal…the only thing we are missing is a plan as we read our Bible–we’ll cover that in another post.