St Lucia Spirituality Group
Newsletter July 2022
Greetings
Our recent meeting in June on the subject of meditation was well attended and provoked much discussion. Consequently, at our July meeting we shall turn our attention to Praying with Scripture.
Each of us has had a personal experience of Scripture that can vary from passive listening to deep contemplation. The common Catholic experience was to hear Scripture at Mass and to have it unpacked for its meaning by a priest. Many did not discuss the sermon after church, so were effectively “taught” to be passive listeners. Vatican II encouraged Catholics to adopt an active and contemplative approach to Scripture by reading the Bible on a regular basis at home and reflecting upon it. Anecdotally, it seems that only a small percentage took up that challenge.
In our next meeting we will examine three aspects of praying with Scripture.
- Rules for reading Scripture for accurate meaning
- Reading Scripture with Commentary
- The traditional practice of Lectio Divina
Our focus will be on Lectio Divina. We will briefly outline the practice and then provide a recommended scriptural passage to help you experience this practice before our meeting. Our meeting will focus mainly on member’s experience of using this process.
At our following meeting in August, we will focus on the Ignatian practice of imagining oneself inside the Gospel scene.
There is no single best way to pray with Scripture. Through the next two meetings, we hope to give you some well-established methods for improving your understanding of Scripture and deepening your experience of it and therefore of God.
Plenary Council of Australia – Second General Assembly
Many of you will be aware that the Second General Assembly took place in Sydney on 3-9 July. This is a significant event in the life of the Catholic Church in Australia and, just like the Anglican Synod that we reported on in May, it had its moments of controversy. You can find the final motions and voting at https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/. Significantly, the Council passed landmark motions to elevate the status of women in the Church. See https://catholicleader.com.au/news/australias-plenary-council-passes-landmark-motions-to-elevate-women-in-the-church/
Butterfly Series – Next Meeting – Praying with Scripture Part 1
Our Episode 10 meeting will be held on Zoom at 6:00pm AEST on Tuesday 26 July. To register your attendance, please email John at jscoble@hradvantage.com.au.
If you would like a copy of our pre-reading material, simply email us. It is also available on our Facebook page. There is no obligation to join our meeting.
Butterfly Series – What’s Next?
Our practice has been to introduce the content of our meetings through our newsletters and then provide pre-reading material to those who register for our meetings on Zoom. However, we are aware that there is interest in our activities amongst some who observe from a distance or who do not wish to participate in Zoom meetings. Consequently, we are examining some options whereby we can access relatively short videos through links to the internet so that anyone receiving our newsletter can watch them if they wish. In this way, we can disseminate the material we are considering more widely. Those who wish to examine these ideas further can then meet for discussion online via our Zoom meetings. Or over coffee.
If you are aware of any videos or podcasts we could use for this purpose please let us know.
Our Facebook Page
The St Lucia Spirituality Group is a community seeking to develop a more mature understanding of what lies at the core of spiritual beliefs, embracing explanations for the nature, meaning and purpose of life. We currently have 35 members, of whom about half are active. Interaction is the lifeblood of a community. Therefore, we wish to encourage you to make posts on Facebook about questions you are considering, books you have read or interesting podcasts you have listened to. Furthermore, we would ask you to invite friends who you believe may be interested in spiritual enquiry and development to join us. You could share this newsletter and invite others to our next meeting.
We invite you to find our FB group by clicking on this link, it will take you to our page where you will be able to apply to join.
If you are not a Facebook user, we can help you set up your account with maximum privacy, you can be anonymous and even use a nick name or an alias if you wish. Consult Robert or John if you want help.
You can also contact us by email slsg4067@gmail.com.
Go well…
John Scoble & Robert van Mourik
oOo