Week 1: The Gift of Sacred Stories

In Befriending Silence: Discovering the Gifts of Cistercian Spirituality, Carl McColman shares what we can learn from an ancient monastic tradition. McColman himself is a Lay Cistercian affiliated with the Trappist Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia.

Befriending Silence explores eleven gifts from the Cistercian tradition. The chapter “Sacred Stories” diagnoses a problem: “Our society as a whole has forgotten who we are, and the consequences are devastating,” McColman writes. “[W]e have forgotten that we all are created in the image of God.” He goes on to explain how Scripture and other spiritual writings can help us live in God’s story and remind us who we truly are. Reading sacred story is a sacred tradition.

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God wants to remind us of the image we were created in—our true story—by helping us see with the eyes of love, feel with the heart of mercy, and think with the mind of compassion.

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The gift of Christian, Benedictine, and Cistercian wisdom and memory is that these timeless stories and teachings from the past provide the foundation on which we can build our own spiritual identity, our own sense of what it means to respond to God’s grace, in our time.

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For people of faith, reading can be a doorway not to greater control but greater surrender, a way to open our minds and hearts to the transfiguring and life-giving Word of God.

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Following the chapter, McColman explains the practice of lectio divina, or sacred reading, giving advice and guidance to those beginning on this path:

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Although lectio divina originated in monasteries and remains a core spiritual practice for monks and nuns, it is something anyone may learn, practice, and enjoy. By making lectio divina a regular part of your life, you participate in a practice that has nurtured Cistercians and other monastics for centuries.

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[L]ectio divina is like spending time with someone special. The purpose is to linger, savoring the time spent together.

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Remember, the purpose of lectio divina is not to gather more information but to seek God’s living word for your life.

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Read more.

For reflection: