“Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.” Mk 12:29-30.
More often than not people forget the first and fundamental part of this commandment and reduce it to: ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart’. We must never forget that the first commandment is: ‘Listen…’
To obey this commandment we must practice Lectio Divina.
Lectio Divina is exactly what it means to ‘Listen’ to God in his Word and without it we cannot say the we are obeying the commandment to love the Lord.
So, what is Lectio Divina? While it is true that Lectio Divina is the Christian response to the command to love God, there is more that needs to be said.
Traditionally Lectio Divina is understood to have four parts:
1) Lectio, which means reading. Click here to find out more about what Lectio means.
2) Meditatio, which means meditation
3) Oratio, which means prayer
4) Contemplatio, which means contemplation.
“Daily Bread” is a response to a desire to see the Word of God alive and active to its fullest extent in the hearts of the faithful. “Daily Bread” is a way to help spread the Practice of Lectio Divina so that God will be more loved in his Word.
“Daily Bread” is a magazine of the daily readings from Mass. It comes out each month and includes a reflection for each Sunday. You can have this sent to you each month and you can use this website to delve deeper into the Scriptures in your efforts to respond to God’s commandment to Listen and to Love.