Episode 268 - Michael John Cusick, "The Art of Listening: Cultivating Intimacy with God through Lectio Divina"

"It's about letting the words and the images wash over you. It's about allowing them to surround you. It's about allowing God's spirit to draw you close." - Michael John Cusick

On this episode of Restoring the Soul, Michael discusses the practice of Lectio Divina, a spiritual reading practice that deepens one's relationship with God. He reflects on the importance of the four movements: reading, reflecting, responding, and resting. Michael also shares personal experiences and insights, emphasizing the need to listen for words and images when engaging with scripture.

Join him as he invites listeners to practice Lectio Divina using a passage from Matthew 11:28-30, known for teaching about learning the unforced rhythms of grace. Throughout the episode, Michael encourages listeners to embrace silence, respond authentically, and find rest in God's words.

HELPFUL RESOURCES:
- Episode 267 - Michael John Cusick, "Slow Down and Open Your Heart with Lectio Divina: 5 Reasons to Learn"
- Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer
- Too Deep for Words: Rediscovering Lectio Divina

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Thanks for listening!

Transcript

MICHAEL CUSICK: 0:57

Welcome to the restoring the soul Podcast. I'm Michael JOHN CUSICK today practicing Lectio Divina, which is Latin for spiritual reading, holy reading or sacred reading. And in a previous episode, we explored five reasons to cultivate Lectio Divina in our life for the purpose of cultivating a deeper life with God. And Lectio Divina is a way of coming to God with an open heart and an open mind and Turning our focus in a gentle, restful way that allows God to work in us. But in a way where we're really receiving. What I love about this on a personal level, is that I was exposed to this practice, probably 20 years ago for the first time. And when I experienced it, I thought, well, this is not enough. This somehow is like a lazy man's version of reading the Bible, I really need to be digging in and studying and getting out my commentaries. And yes, there's a place for that. And some people are called to that. But we can do that our entire lives, and not actually feed our soul, we're only feeding our mind. So this is all about the deeper life. And it's very, very simple and involves four movements. I want to describe what these four movements are in advance. And then I'm simply going to, through most of this episode, walk us through scripture, and allow you the listener to actually experience Lectio Divina, if you're in your car, don't close your eyes. But you may want to lower the volume at a certain point is there's going to be a pause opportunity in each of these four movements. If you're at home, or sitting, or in another quiet space, just allow the silence to be there and then respond is each of these four movements invite you to do so. So here are the four movements, each of which allows us to respond to God and to open ourselves to God. The first movement is called Lectio, le c t i o. And this is simply when the passage is read, I'll be reading it to you. In some apps that are available, such as electio 365, which I strongly commend you get, they will read it to you and you listen. But if you have your Bible or scriptures, or a lectionary in front of you, you would simply read the passage. And in reading it, you're opening yourself to God, and prayerfully, allowing short pauses between the sentences. And then, as you continue to practice this and cultivate it, you'll just develop your own rhythm and flow. But you're not saying For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Be reading it slowly, being able to take the words in. After that first movement of Lectio, or reading, you're simply allowing there to be a period of silence, opening yourself to God's Spirit. And I like to think of it as allowing the words to sink in. In this first movement of reading, it's like taking a garden hose and putting it on the sprayer part as opposed to the jet nozzle, and you're spraying it over ground that is parched. And the water just goes on top of the surface, and it's going to take a moment to sink down. And that's really what this is about. The second movement is called Meta tashichho. Now, of course, these are Latin phrases, and they sound really impressive if there's ever a Christian version of jeopardy, and you go on Christian Jeopardy. And they say what is the Latin word for reflect? You can go, meta Tasha, for 500, please, Alex. So the reflection in the second movement is when you're listening for a particular word or phrase, where God wants to speak to you. You're drawing your attention to something that stands out to something that grabs your mind, your heart, where there's some kind of shift in your body. And you're simply receiving this word, this phrase, this image, as I've said before, I see in pictures, and so I hear a scripture and an image pops into my head. And it's usually something that's very vivid. And when I see that image, it's often difficult for me to hear the rest of the words, which is why when I'm in church, if they're reading the scriptures, and I'm part of a liturgical church, where they read from a lectionary, I need to be listening, where that's creating images in my head, but then I also need to be following the words otherwise I'll get off track, and I'll hear them read for three minutes and it might be multiple paragraphs, and I'll have no idea what it just said. Lectio Divina allows us to take short bites of Scripture, to read it to pause to get into a slow rhythm, and then in the second movement to simply reflect, but it's not an intellectual cognitive reflection, primarily, it's asking this question What word phrase image idea jumps out at me. The third movement is Oratia, or ratio, and that is to respond. So the first r would be to read the second R is to reflect and this third art is to respond. And in this third reading, we're listening for God's invitation. As you've tuned into the word, or the image or the phrase, how does your heart want to respond? If you're hearing Jesus say, Come to me, and I will give you rest, your heart might respond to the word come, it might respond to the to me, it might respond to the rest. And with whatever word phrase your image is brought to you, what does your heart want to do? And because we talked to a lot of people here with disillusionment, trauma, anxiety, and some not so positive experiences with the Scripture, sometimes because of spiritual wounding, or maybe teaching that you've had, it's also important to give you permission, that maybe you feel nothing. Maybe you hear the scripture, and there's nothing that leaps, nothing that comes alive, there's no word or image or phrase that jumps out, then you can sit there, and your response might be, Lord, I'm feeling numb. Or God, I don't feel anything. And let that be a prayer and allow that to be the doorway into the intimacy that your heart craves, and that God is inviting you into. In this response, many people choose to respond verbally out loud, other people respond and pray inwardly and silently, whatever is most comfortable, whatever is most comfortable to you in the responding, you can just fine tune that as you move along and begin to cultivate this practice. The fourth and final movement of Lectio Divina is rest. And this is the Latin word contemplation to and it's contemplate, and to contemplate is to really take your place in the loving, embracing presence of God into rest. And it's here that some of the greatest action takes place in this paradox of resting and acting. It's in the resting in the contemplating that we get filled up. And rather than flexing our muscles, or taking buckets of water from the well and pouring them out, as we're filled, we overflow. And this is the rhythm of heaven, a rhythm of coming, of feeding of being filled of overflowing. Thomas Burton referred to this as a model of a spring and a stream. The stream fills the spring, the spring overflows, the stream flows into the spring, it just becomes an endless cycle. In this cycle, after the reading of the passage, after the reflection, after the responding, it's resting in the words and the ideas of the passage, but resting simply in the love of God as he's speaking to us. In the resting passage, it's about letting the words and the images wash over you. It's about allowing them to surround you. It's about allowing God's spirit to draw you close. It's in this stage where in the resting stage, sometimes, for example, with the words come to me, I'll see in the eyes of my heart with my eyes closed, and it's not required that you close your eyes. But as I'm sitting here talking to you now my eyes are closed and with the words come to me, I picture Jesus with open arms, and I'm coming to him or I might hear the word simply come to and I'm seeing him coming closer to me. I might hear the word rest. And just reflexively without consciously thinking about I take a deep breath. And I exhale. And in that exhalation I feel a freedom and a permission to be embraced by God. So in this rest stage, it's really a time more than any of the other movements to experience God and what he's saying to us. So Some authors have written about this fourth stage of rest as a place of lingering, as a place of receiving as a place of maintaining connection, as a place of, as I've already said, being filled. It's a time also in this resting to allow that word or phrase, to be a kind of literary icon, a picture, something that we take hold of, in our mind, almost like picking up a stone off the ground and putting in our pocket. We can take this word or phrase or image into the pocket of our heart and then carry it with us throughout the day. And if we believe the scriptures are really from God, every word of God is living and active, sharper than a double edged sword. God is speaking to us through the Bible through the scriptures in a way that is not just a book that was written 2000 years ago, but through the Holy Spirit, that he's actually speaking to us that it's an intimate communication. I'm going to read a scripture out of Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 through 30. It's the passage that Eugene Peterson paraphrased that many know well about learning the unforced rhythms of grace. But it's the passage that in traditional translations, we know to be that my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. This passage in the message is particularly poetic and vibrant, and just very fresh imagery. And that's why it's a good passage to read. In addition to being meaningful, just in general, it's a good practice to learn Lectio Divina with just because it's so rich, and image driven. So again, first, I'm going to read it, and then give a time of silence, and you're just going to prayerfully. And slowly allow these phrases to sink in, there will be the pause. I'll read it a second time. And this is the time to reflect, to be curious to see what image phrase or word you're drawn to, then there will be a period of silence. I'll read it a third time. In the third movement, we're responding and allowing your heart inwardly, or as you speak out really to respond to the Lord, as he spoken to you through the Word, the image or the phrase, you're simply responding. And it can be very meaningful if it's one, two or three words, or it might lead into a deeper conversation. But this is where it becomes conversational. And the fourth is to rest, read, reflect, respond and rest. you're eventually going to just know this rhythm. And you can begin to do this anywhere anytime. read, reflect, respond and rest. And so if you're in a place where you can do this, I invite you to settle yourself to take a few deep breaths. Just begin to be present with yourself and know that the God who dwells within you, is present to you. You don't need to attain or acquire his presence or his love. You're simply to be with it. As I read this passage the first time. Just allow it to sink in Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 through 30. Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me, and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy, or ill fitting on you. keep company with me. And you'll learn to live freely and lightly just sit with those words in silence for several moments. And now if you're doing this Lectio I wouldn't be giving the commentary but in this movement, you're going to reflect and that reflection is to listen for a word or a phrase or an image from the scriptures which is God speaking to you. Are you tired? worn out, burned out on religion. Come to me, get away with me, and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. keep company with me. And you'll learn to live freely and lightly. And now reflecting listening for a word or phrase or an image and I'll model this. I could say this inwardly. But for the purpose of this podcast, I'm going to speak it out. What's the word Fraser image? Michael, I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting upon you ill fitting ill fitting. So listener, what image or phrase or word jumps out or catches you? What are you drawn to? Just reflect the third movement of respond. This is where it becomes interactive and conversational. I'll read the passage again. I'll have a moment of silence. And then I'll model by responding just as I'm doing this exercise along with you. Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me. And you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy, or ill fitting on you. keep company with me. And you'll learn to live freely and lightly. And as I model this, I might say, Lord, as I hear those words, that you won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting so much of the time, my faith has felt ill fitting that I have laid burdens on myself and expectations and perfectionism. God, it feels like this faith in this journey in this way of knowing you just feels like it doesn't fit me. And I'm tired of striving. I'm tired of working. I'm tired of evaluating our relationship based on what I do. So I just asked for help. Show me the stuff different way that you invite me to. That's simply my response. And if I were to simply say, God, ill fitting, I don't get it. Open my eyes, that would be sufficient. Or if I heard in this passage, freely and lightly. And something in me feels joy when I hear those words and I respond with Thank you. Thank you. And then the fourth movement of rest. Could it be really true in this fourth moment that I could just sit here with God's words to me, freely and lightly are nothing ill fitting and that I just take those in like something delicious and nourishing. And I just rest and I present to this. And like that garden hose that sprinkling and spraying water onto the parched ground. My job is just to sit and allow that water and the imagery and the life they're in to be absorbed into the ground and soil of my heart. So here we go with the fourth movement of rest Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. And watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. keep company with me. And you'll learn to live freely and lightly. And so listener just rest and stay with all of that. Stay with the image, the phrase or the word letting it go down into the depths of you, letting it go below the surface, not trying to make anything happen but to receive. And so on this journey of digging deeper into life with God into a depth life with God will continue looking at practices and disciplines that will help to restore our soul on upcoming episodes. Until then, bless you.

Brian Beatty: 22:30

So we've wrapped up another episode of restoring the soul. We want you to know that restoring the soul is so much more than a podcast. In fact, the heart of what we have done for nearly 20 years is intensive counseling. When you can't wait months or years to get out of the rut you're in our intensive counseling programs in Colorado, allow you to experience deep change and half day blocks over two weeks. To learn more visit restoring the soul.com That's restoring the soul.com