Women's Small Group

  Video: The Muscle of Faith by Laurie Short Practice the Lectio Divina 1) Read  ( Lectio ).  Read the passage slowly. Notice any words or phrases that jump out at you. "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the Lord.  And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT   2) Reflect  ( Meditatio ).  Read the passage again. What emotions does it stir up? Is there anything God is saying to you personally through the passage? "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the Lord.  And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT   3) Respond  ( Oratio ).  Read the passage again. Begin to dialog with God a...

  Laurie Short: Faith, Doubt & GOD's Timing Practice the Lectio Divina 1) Read  ( Lectio ).  Read the passage slowly. Notice any words or phrases that jump out at you. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also given men a sense of what he's been doing down through the ages. But they can't completely figure out what he's done from the beginning to the end. Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIRV   2) Reflect  ( Meditatio ).  Read the passage again. What emotions does it stir up? Is there anything God is saying to you personally through the passage? He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also given men a sense of what he's been doing down through the ages. But they can't completely figure out what he's done from the beginning to the end. Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIRV   3) Respond  ( Oratio ).  Read the passage again. Begin to dialog with God and open yourself to his will.  Is there a response or action step God is inviting you to...

  Video by Laurie Short (9 minutes) Practice the Lectio Divina 1) Read  ( Lectio ).  Read the passage slowly. Notice any words or phrases that jump out at you. "You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them.  "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move.  Nothing would be impossible." (Matthew 17:20) 2) Reflect  ( Meditatio ).  Read the passage again. What emotions does it stir up? Is there anything God is saying to you personally through the passage? "You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them.  "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move.  Nothing would be impossible." (Matthew 17:20) 3) Respond  ( Oratio ).  Read the passage again. Begin to dialog with God and open yourself to his will.  Is there a response or...

Pope Benedict XVI recommended the Lectio Divina this way: "The ancient practice of Lectio Divina or 'spiritual reading' of Sacred Scripture consists in pouring over a biblical text for some time, reading it and rereading it, and squeezing from it, so to speak, all its 'juice', so that it may nourish meditation and contemplation and, like water, succeed in irrigating life itself." According to Pope Benedict’s description, meditating on scripture can be a form of spiritual irrigation and nourishment, akin to the way God irrigates the desert to nourish his people in Psalm 107. When you work over a piece of scripture through the Lectio Divina, you are doing something similar to the work of agriculture. Through the four stages of this reading practice you prepare the soil, you water the seeds, you look for what might sprout, and you reap a harvest. Practice the Lectio Divina 1) Read  ( Lectio ).  Read the passage slowly. Notice any words or phrases that jump out at...