Sanctuary of the Soul

On Thursdays at 3 PM I do a small zoom group that I call a "spiritual growth group."  We began meeting last March when the pandemic started and it was a book study and then after we read the book on spiritual practices we have basically just met to do lectio divina.

Two weeks ago I introduced a new book for us to slowly read together - it is Sanctuary of the Soul by Richard Foster.  Richard Foster is an old mentor of mine - I first encountered his writings when I was in seminary and read Celebration of Discipline. Some twenty years later when I was in the Wellstreams program we read his book that was simply entitled Prayer.  And now I spend time with this book and get to share it with others who take seriously this journey into meditative prayer.

The chapter I read this morning was about the practice of lectio divina and how we can use our imagination in reading scripture to allow the scripture to come alive and speak to us.  Here is a quote from the book:

"To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart,

and there to stand before the face of the Lord,

ever present, all seeing, within you."

As I write that, in some ways I don't know what it means.  But in other ways I know I experience it on Thursdays when we do lectio divina.  It is a practice of reading scripture several times and asking it different questions.  Or seeing ourselves in the scene that is enacted.  What happens for me is that frequently something new is experienced or seen or heard.  This is similar to my usually daily practice with the "Pray as you go" app that includes music, scripture and questions for reflection. 

This morning the song that was sung had these words in it - "unveil my eyes" so that I can see the grace and the plans that you have for me.  And that really is my prayer today.  I am so grateful for the ways in which  authors  - like Richard Foster, Henri Nouwen, Joan Chittister, Morton Kelsey - have guided my journey over the years.

I am grateful for the Bible which really is a book of transformation as long as we spend time with it. And truly grateful to have a community where we can struggle and share together this journey.

Here's a quote from Richard Foster on understanding prayer

Prayer is the heart’s true home. But, you see, we have been in a far coun­try. It’s been a coun­try of climb and push and shove. It’s been a coun­try of noise and hur­ry and crowds.

The heart of God is an open wound of love because of this dis­tance and pre­oc­cu­pa­tion of ours. God mourns that we do not draw near to him. God weeps over our obses­sion with ​“much­ness” and ​“many­ness.”

And God is seek­ing after us. God seeks us like the father rush­ing out to embrace the prodi­gal. God seeks us like the woman who will leave no stone unturned in her deter­mi­na­tion to find a lost coin. God seeks us like the shep­herd search­ing, search­ing, search­ing for one lost sheep. God is seek­ing us. 

God invites us to come home: home to where we belong; home to seren­i­ty and peace and joy; home to inti­ma­cy and accep­tance and affirmation