Lectio Divina: Read, Reflect, Pray

My husband and I have chosen to go to another Catholic church after our parish priest berated the whole congregation for having the audacity of being born white and how we should be guilty for it. We both have been disagreeing with the priest's homilies, but that last homily was the final straw. This new church isn't the greatest, but switching churches has been a long time coming.

When I was younger, I did try to read the Bible, but I don't remember getting much out of it. I was trying to be a good Protestant and read the Word of God. I even had a list of verses and passages picked out by preachers that pointed out parts of the Bible that dealt with different issues we all face like those passages that dealt with love, death, suffering, etc. But when I turned to the those pages, I read them and didn't understand. I would think, "How is this suppose to be about (this) when Jesus is telling a story about something completely different?" (I don't remember exactly what I read.) I just remember getting frustrated and closing the Bible. I didn't understand that Jesus spoke in parables for a reason. Of course now that I'm an adult, I can try to understand more of what Jesus was really saying through these parables. I don't pretend that I understand everything, and I'm always interested in what other people get out of these storie...

I felt compelled to write this post because everyone (including my parish priest) references the story about Jesus and the fish and bread that he hands out to everyone. As if that automatically makes Jesus a socialist, and if you don't agree with Jesus, then you might as well go to Hell, you horrible capitalist. Okay, maybe not that extreme, but this story comes up a lot.

Okay, I've been missing the Lectio Divina that I was doing for awhile, so I'm trying to bring that back. So how I start is by literally just flipping around the Bible. Not a very methodical way of doing things, but honestly, that is how I always read the Bible. I'll read a few passages and reflect on it. Sometimes I'll find something right away. Sometimes, I'll keep flipping, reading, and reflecting until something strikes me. This whole passage is just mind-blowing. I hate the word "unpack" but that's exactly what I'm going to do ("Unpack" is such a triggering word from Common Core standards. Ugh).

So I go to Saturday vigil Mass, and everything was normal until the homily.

When I was growing up,  pastors would say that you should never question your faith. Questioning things was considered bad. Because that meant you didn't really believe. Even back then, that didn't sit well with me. I couldn't articulate why, but I felt that was wrong. So, if I just ask a question about God or about faith in general, then my faith would be shattered? How brittle and weak is faith if it can't hold up to any questions?