Why Meditate on Scripture?
Luke 2:19; Dt 11:18; Ps 119:9-16; Mt 4:4
The dishes need to be done. The laundry is over flowing – or better yet – still folded on the chair from the last round. The floors haven’t seen the vacuum in weeks. The project at work is due tomorrow and it’s only half-way complete. whistle chirp whistle …The Twitter world beckons…
Our womanly worlds of home, or work, or school, or kids, or spouses, or some, or all of the above can seem overwhelming and loud at times. Where in this expansive never-ending to-do list of our minds are we to quiet down? When? What time? In the 25th hour of our day? In the midst of all of this, we say that we cannot meditate because we do not have time. Time is the enemy!!
There is a great book by Mother Angelica titled: “Private and Pithy Lessons from the Scriptures”. In it, she talks about mediation & walks readers through different biblical stories. When first reading this book, the introduction is a little off-putting. She starts off saying, “Don’t tell me you can’t meditate! You meditate ALL DAY LONG!” We, Sisters, we do meditate all day long. But what we are meditating?
When we feel underappreciated by our family, we think about it our entire commute, and make sure our peers and coworkers know of the lack of respect, love, or gratitude our family shows us. When our friends call, we tell them too – because everyone should know of this wretched ingratitude!! Oh, and speaking of friends, did you hear about So-and-so this afternoon?! It’s unbelievable what happened! The topic of So-and-so becomes the center of our family dinner’s conversation.
Sisters, how often are we meditating on things of the world? How often are we allowing the excuse of time to hold us back from dwelling on the graces, blessings, healing, and love that come from reading Scripture?
“… and Mary reflected, and kept all these things in her heart.” (Luke 2:19) What a beautiful verse. Our Mother of grace and peace was not a reactionary woman. Many times we find her thoughtful before she takes an opinion, if she even expresses her opinion. This isn’t to say that we are to not share our opinions or feelings. But first she reflected. We too, should reflect. That is what meditation is.
Tomorrow starts the first of a four part series called Lectio Divina. We’ll be learning of the Catholic Church’s ancient form of mediation for scripture. So, just in case time wasn’t our excuse, but rather “I don’t even know how to meditate on the Bible” – we have you covered! Meet us here tomorrow.
