Under the spiritual practices tab I wrote about Lectio Divina, which is a way of reading Scripture that goes beyond knowing about the Scripture to receiving it “into our bones” through reading and reflection. One way to approach this is to read it, reflect on it, respond to it, and resolve to listen to God through it. Charlotte Mason puts it like this – we bite, we chew, we savor, and we digest. We can do this in reading Scripture and we can also do it with other forms of reading (or listening or even viewing – Lectio Visio is a real thing!). Obviously, these other practices don’t hold the authority of Scripture but they do yield great wisdom when we slow down and take in what someone else has created!
We bite, we chew, we savor, and we digest.
Charlotte Mason
I have discovered this new way of reading through keeping a commonplace book. I have done this for years, mostly through typing passages from books I’ve read, etc. into my OneNote app. (Which I love!) But I discovered commonplacing quite by accident at the beginning of this year and the person who filmed the YouTube video I watched challenged us to write these out by hand (I have terrible handwriting). I found that as I slowed down to write or copy a passage out, it stayed with me longer, and was legible as well! My commonplace books have really helped form my understanding of Christian formation and the Church calendar. So each week, I have selected a passage from what I’ve been reading that fits our theme for the week and now want to encourage you to take it and “bite, chew, savor and digest!” I may include at some point some of my other meanderings into commonplacing so that you reap the benefit I’ve received as well! This week’s quote comes from John Shea and is more lengthy than I will probably do in the future. But I love what he says about repentance!
“The more deeply one enters into the experience of the sacred the more one is aware of one’s own personal evil and the destructive forces in society. The fact that one is alive to what is possible for humankind sharpens one’s sense that we are fallen people. The awareness of sin is the inevitable consequence of having met grace… This grace-judgment dynamic reveals that the center of Christian life is repentance. This does not mean that the distinguishing mark of the Christian is breast-beating. Feeling sorry, acknowledging guilt, and prolonging regret may be components of the human condition, but they are not what Jesus means by repentance. Repentance is the response to grace that overcomes the past and opens out to a new future…
Repentance distinguishes Christian life as one of struggle and conversion, and pervades it, not with remorse, but with hope. The message of Jesus is not “Repent,” but “Repent for the Kingdom of God is near.”
John Shea, A Star is Rising: Advent Meditations