GOD-centric Interior Spiritual Disciplines:

To live in a good and fair God of love

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Ch. 5 Exercise: Lectio Divina

"Is parchment then the sacred fount from which a draught will quench our thirst forever? You must draw it from your inward soul or else you'll not be satisfied." ~ ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Pantheist/Humanist), Faust

  In this chapter, the Roman Catholic interior spiritual discipline of Lectio Divina (divine reading) embraces in GOD-centric fashion passages from the sacred texts of Judeo-Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism that celebrate our loving, good, and fair God. Since GOD-centrics do not believe that God operates by providing special truth in a holy book that could not be equally available to all people in all times and locations, this chapter merely hopes to open a window to the GOD-centric beauty and wisdom found in multiple faith traditions and to provide an example of filtering those sacred texts through the GOD-centric lens of God's being eternally loving, good, and fair and never violent, mean-spirited, immoral, capricious, or biased in favor of one group of people over another. The first step (lectio) of Lectio Divina involves the attentive reading of a sacred passage listening to its inner message. The second step (meditatio) involves meditating on the sacred passage by entering into it experientially rather than analyzing it intellectually. The third step (oratio) involves our dialoguing with the passage to explore its meaning for us in this moment. The final step (contemplatio) involves resting in the sacred truth we discover with the aim of nourishing and deepening our relationship with God.

Note to you, Gentle Reader: I do not believe in divine texts; yet, I painstakingly read the Muktika Upanishads, Lotus Sutra, New American Bible, and Sahih International Qu'ran to find good, fair, loving gems. You will have to buy the book as payback for these efforts; however, in keeping with the GOD-centric tradition of using the filter of love, goodness, and fairness to filter the holy texts of our own traditions, I here provide my GOD-centric Bible Statement with links to both my Devotional and Undevotional.