Handout: “Christ in Spiritual Life”
“Christ in Spiritual Life”, Readings
Articles on Jesus’ Love for Each One of Us
The Second Conversion: Encountering Jesus
Jesus the Groom, What Does it Mean?
The Transfiguration of the Lord in Spiritual Life
In Christ Alone Are All Things Found (Ascent II,22)
The Perfect Contemplative Prayer of Christ, chapter from “Where the Spirit Breathes, Prayer and Action”. (see the video of the talk on this chapter) This is a very interesting approach to the acts the Lord performed to save us.
The Thickest Mystery: The Passion as the Manifestation of Divine Light
Articles on Jesus Calling us to following Him
Articles on the Journey With Jesus
Articles on Jesus’ Holy Spirit
Articles explaining how to Contemplate Jesus with Mary’s Eyes and Love Him With Her Heart
Articles on How to Listen to Jesus Everyday and Put His Word Into Practice
Hearing Jesus’ Call, A Quantum Leap Our Christian life can be divided in two periods, one before hearing Jesus’ Call, and one after. This book addresses aspects of Jesus’ Call that can easily be overlooked and delves into the difference between merely knowing that God calls all the baptised to holiness and truly hearing Jesus’ personal Call in our hearts at a specific point in our lives.
Hearing the Living Word, The Gospel’s Grammar of Lectio Divina. The practice of reading Scripture prayerfully—what the Christian tradition calls Lectio Divina—is often presented as a method, a technique with steps to follow. This approach has its place. But the Scriptures themselves offer something deeper: not merely instructions for how to read, but a revelation of what happens when the Word of God encounters a human heart.
This book gathers the passages that illuminate the inner structure of Lectio Divina as the Gospel understands it.
Encountering the Word, Scriptural and Theological Foundations of Lectio Divina. The decision of the Second Vatican Council to restore the Word of God to the very centre of the Church’s life – at the heart of theology, the liturgy, prayer, and spiritual formation – represents one of the great graces and renewals of our time. It opened a path toward a new spiritual vigour for the Church and toward that “new springtime” so often evoked by Pope Benedict XVI. In many ways, this book seeks to place itself within the path opened by the great ecclesial documents Dei Verbum and Verbum Domini, both of which call the Church to rediscover the living primacy of the Word of God.
Yet this renewal also requires the development of an authentic theology of the Word of God: a biblical theology of the living Word, present, active, and transformative in the life of the believer. Such a renewal begins by learning anew how to really encounter the Word.
These nine chapters trace a unified theological and spiritual journey through the scriptural foundations of Lectio Divina toward the transformative encounter with the living Christ. They unfold a single movement: from foundational theology through concrete practice to the interior purification necessary for authentic proclamation, culminating in a fully integrated sacramental vision of Christian life in Christ.
Introduction
I- In the Beginning Was the Word
II- The Word as Divine Self-Communication
III- The Eternal Word and Christ’s Words
IV- ‘Morning by Morning He Awakens My Ear’
V- Encountering the Living Word
VI- Lectio Divina
VII- Word of God and Prophecy
VIII- Formed by the Gospel to Bear the Word
IX- The Sacramentality of the Word
Conclusion
Lectio Divina, The Method
Spiritual reading of the bible (Lectio Divina) has a long and eminent tradition in the Church. In this booklet the method is described in a fresh and practical way, encouraging every Christian to take up the Bible and find in it a true guide for the intellect and for the actions of every day. For the ones who would like to start with a small book, 40 pages, this one is perfect. It explains the method of Lectio Divina. How one can sit in a quiet place, open the daily readings, and make sure that, by the Holy Spirit, he or she is listening to Jesus Word and put it into practice.