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Thursday, January 1, 2009

Finding Strength in Scripture Reading

As a New Year begins, the following quotation from Kathleen Norris' The Cloister Walk, fits my thinking on a way to approach living with Scripture. Norris writes:

"For a long time I had no idea why I was so attracted to the Benedictines, why I keep returning to their choirs. Now I believe it's because of the hospitality I've encountered in their communal lectio, a hospitality so vast that it invites all present into communion with the text being read. I encounter there not a God who rejects me because I can't pass some dogmatic litmus test but one who invites me to become part of a process, the continuing revelation of holy word. Heard aloud, the metaphors of scripture are roomy indeed; they allow me to relax, and listen, and roam. I take them in, to my 'specific strength,' as Emily Dickinson put it in her poem 'A Word Made Flesh is seldom.' And I hope to give something back" (The Cloister Walk, Riverhead Books, New York, 1997, page 217).

Now I invite you to share your response, to post your thoughts, to leave a Comment.

Make 2009 a year when you relax, listen, and roam whenever you hear or read or meditate on Scripture. Make it your aim this New Year to give something back to the God who invites.