Lectio Divina - Broken Bay Institute

Lectio Divina Praying the Scriptures in Lent and Holy Week 2011 Year Aby the community handing over its precious beliefs and a commitment,again publicly, by the Elect that their hearts affi rm what the tenets ofthe Creed announce. Lent is an opportune time to immerse ourselves inthis identity-giving storage of essential Christian beliefs. Let the fl ow ofthe words of the Creed confi rm and assure us this Season. Don’t let thisprecious resource be emptied out by half-hearted and mindless repetition.• Having received the Creed, the ‘what’ of the Faith, the competentes lastlywere given the Lord’s Prayer, the ‘how’ of the Christian life. Praise of God,petitioning to God and concern for right relationships, as expressed bythis model prayer, are indicators of how effectively we live as Christians.Augustine laid on a challenge. When praying the Lord’s Prayer, thecustom was (and is) to hold the hands outstretched in what is calledthe orans gesture. To pray with integrity meant that the competentes andthe Faithful had to have their whole selves, heart and minds and hands,outstretched… to include and welcome all, to live forgiveness, to givecharity. The theme of forgiveness is critical to the major Lenten focus onconversion to the loving reality of God. In our parishes, as the catechumenshave struggled over the many months of their journey to Baptism and asthe baptised continue to live up to their life-long promises, the actionof asking for and of giving forgiveness is a steady life-giving grace for theChristian person and community. It is commonly recognised that withoutforgiveness, societies lack the energy and freedom to heal, restore andgrow in peace and plenty. As a result of recent rains, many parts of ourcountry have artesian water basins replenished. The repletion of thissystem was vital to the land. Now, the promise is there for a restorationof a land and water balance, which affects all aspects of the ecology andthe daily life of all of us for years to come. Yet the basin system is a hiddenresource, a quiet achiever, a maker of balance, a well-spring quietly feedinga continent. So with forgiveness: fundamental, active, gentle, liberating.The Washpool road is clear now; the creek fast fl owing but contained.Its bed remains the same, but contours have changed in places. It has leftbehind on paddocks its rich sediment, promise for future crops to replacethose immediately lost. Downstream, it joins the wider branch that streamsinto the local dam, now full for the fi rst time in twenty years. Well, that’sthe cycle of making, breaking down, and restoring that is the stuff of theearth and of our lives. It’s an image of our Lenten task each year and of ourBaptised life as a whole… of birth, of Cross, and rebirth. Augustine, thetraveler, can leave us with this image and way forward in the water.17