NON-BIBLICAL LECTIO DIVINA PASSAGES
PAUL TILLICH FROM THE ESSAY "YOU ARE ACCEPTED" IN THE ESSENTIAL PAUL TILLICH: AN ANTHOLOGY OF THE WRITINGS OF PAUL TILLICH, ED. F. FORRESTER CHURCH, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO, 1987, 201.
You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted! If that happens to us, we experience grace.
TERESA OF AVILA
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks with
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
PARKER J. PALMER, LET YOUR LIFE SPEAK: LISTENING FOR THE VOICE OF VOCATION SAN FRANCISCO: JOHN WILEY & SONS, 2000, 4.
Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about -- quite apart from what I would like it to be about -- or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no matter how earnest my intentions. That insight is hidden in the word vocation itself, which is rooted in the Latin for “voice.” Vocation does not mean a goal that I pursue. It means a calling that I hear. Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am. I must listen for the truths and values at the heart of my own identity, not the standards by which I must live -- but the standards by which I cannot help but live if I am living my own life.
TAO TE CHING, TRANS. STEPHEN MITCHELL. NEW YORK: HARPER PERENNIAL, 1982, #67.
I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.
THOMAS MERTON, THE WISDOM OF THE DESERT, NEW YORK: NEW DIRECTIONS, 1960, P. 50.
Abbot Lot came to Abbot Joseph and said: Father, according as I am able, I keep my little rule, and my little fast, my prayer, meditation and contemplative silence; and according as I am able I strive to cleanse my heart of thoughts: now what more should I do? The elder rose up in reply and stretched out his hands to heaven, and his fingers became like ten lamps of fire. He said: Why not be totally changed into fire?
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Centering Prayer for Everyone: With Readings, Instructions, and Programs for Home and Group Practice is a welcoming, accessible, and practical guide focusing on five practices - lectio divina, visio divina, walking meditation, chanting the Psalms, and especially the silent practice of centering prayer. This inclusive handbook explicitly welcomes everyone to these practices whatever their beliefs or doubts.
Includes a concise guide to lectio divina, an anthology of lectio divina passages, prayer programs for home and group use incorporating lectio divina, and a guide for prayer group leaders.
Read more about Centering Prayer for Everyone.