Today, we hear a reading from the book of Proverbs in our first
reading.
Proverbs is a book of sayings and
Hebrew poems that are perhaps not easy for us to read or understand, especially
from our modern Western point of view. One of the things our reading says today
is that we are to take refuge in the word of God, that God’s word is to be a
security for us, that his word is show us what true goodness and truth lie. But, it is difficult to understand the word of
God sometimes, isn’t it? And there is a
danger in us wanting to manipulate and interpret God’s word to say what we want
it to say. To distort God’s word for
our convenience
Father Burke Masters, in our parish mission a couple of weeks ago, spoke
about leccio divina, which is Latin for “Divine Reading”. In leccio divina, we read the Scripture
reading several times, we see what words and phrases stick out to us, we hear
God’s word speak to us in the reality of our lives, reflecting on it in its
many facets. Father Burke also
recommended that we read the Scripture readings from the mass before we attend
it, so that when we are there, we are already familiar with the reading and we
can have them further penetrate our hearts.
There
are so many other messages calling out to us in the world today. How is God’s word our strength and our
foundation?
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