Quiet yourself and get comfortable.
Begin with a prayer to the Holy Spirit asking for guidance and openness to grace.
Example of Prayer to Holy Spirit:
Come, O Holy Spirit, fill my heart and mind and inflame them with the fire of your divine love. Open my mind and heart to your word. Help me to comprehend the wisdom You spread before me as well as the love You shower upon me. Assist me in discerning your will and strengthen my resolve so that I might live fully the life You are calling me to live in You, with You, and through You. Come, O Holy Spirit, Come.
LECTIO: You initiate your conversation with the LORD by reading a text.
Choose a passage (daily reading, next reading if doing a biblical book, a favorite biblical passage).
Begin reading. Read the passage slowly. Read it deliberately. Read it at least four times.
MEDITATIO: Now you allow the LORD to inform your mind and heart.
Be still.
Consider what stood out as you were reading the text.
A word
A phrase
A feeling
Focus on this word, phrase, or feeling.
Allow yourself to be led into meditation and let the LORD take you where He wants you to go.
ORATIO: Your prayerful response to what the LORD has revealed.
Express your experience during meditatio. Express the feelings that stirred within you as you sat with the text in the LORD’s presence.
Do you feel moved to lift your voice in adoration and praise to the LORD?
Did your meditation raise your awareness of personal failings, words or actions which warrant your contrition?
During your meditation, did you realize specific needs which you feel compelled to bring to the LORD through petitions? Needs such as the grace of perseverance, the grace of forgiveness, the grace of courage, the grace of strength?
Has your meditation stirred within you a desire to offer the LORD thanksgiving for His power and presence in your life, for gifts received?
CONTEMPLATIO: Now rest in the LORD.
Let the LORD fill you with His presence and love.
Let the LORD hold you in His embrace.
Feel yourself living and being in Him in whom you live and move and have your being.
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