March 15/Third Wednesday of Lent
He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. ~ Ps 147.15
Having grown up in the Episcopal church with a robust education in the Bible, provided by Sunday school teachers, youth group leaders, and especially the Children’s and Youth Choir director who vigorously imparted the Word of God to her young choristers, I find that for me, Scripture lights the way to God. Even as I try to dwell in what the anonymous 14th-century mystic called a “cloud of unknowing,” forgetting all else but the longing for God, I inevitably revert to particular verses or phrases from the Bible to ground my prayer time. Any of us can pray with the Bible, as we seek, through the Word-who-is-God, an encounter with God himself. We might focus on a favorite psalm or psalm verse – “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” is one of my go-to choices. We may dwell on Mark’s story about Jesus’ healing of the demoniac, or Matthew’s account of the five loaves and two fishes. We may also encounter God in the Old Testament, in the tale of the leprous Aramean general Naaman whom Elisha heals in 2 Kings 5, or in the story of the loyal Ruth, who as a foreigner accompanies her mother-in-law back to Israel, or even, perhaps, in the pyrotechnic visions of Ezekiel. To read a passage attentively, to ask what it is saying to us here and now, and to go beyond interpretation to wordless contemplation – taken together, a practice known as lectio divina, or “holy reading” — is to open ourselves to the message that God is sending out to the earth, and to each of us. Through such prayer, as Pope Francis has noted, “the Word of God comes to abide in us and we abide in it.”
O God, whose Spirit is wisdom and love, May I seek and find true encounter with you in your Word. Amen.
To hear the Altar of Praise Chorale sing “O Word of God Incarnate,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn5GS8aVi_c
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031523.cfm
