Dear Parishioners,

This week we will look at the last step of “Lectio Divina” which is not actually a rung on St. Guigo’s Ladder, but a step Dr. Grey adds to really make our experience full. The last part he calls in Latin, “Resolutio”, which many of you have most likely figured out in English is “Resolution”. Before explaining what that is, he reviews the four rungs of Guigo’s ladder that we have already learned about and compares them to wine making.

This is actually an analogy that he borrows from Pope Emeritus Benedict, in which he says that the process of “Lectio Divina” is like making wine. The “Lectio” is like picking the grapes. We chose what we are going to read and by reading it we appropriate it and make it our own. Then we press the grapes to get out the juice. We do the “meditatio”, reflecting, pondering, and thinking about what we have slowly read in order to get every last drop out of it. Then we put the juice in barrels to ferment. This is the “Oratio”, we begin to talk with God about what we have reflected and pondered. Once this fermentation process is finished we can enjoy a nice glass of wine—“Contemplatio”. “Be still and know that I am God”.

He goes on to explain the dangers of just praying without trying to put our prayer into action. We can get vain and over-estimate ourselves and just be happy that we are praying regularly. However, we will be missing real virtue and its practice will be absent or minimal in our lives. To allow the prayer to grow virtue in our lives we have to culminate in a resolution for the day. This is where the rubber hits the road. Our resolution should be very practical and small, if we aim small we miss small. As we begin to put our resolutions into action we build good habits and virtues and grow in our practice of charity. He gives some great examples from his own life and St. Therese of Liseaux. This whole process of “Lectio Divina” should help us discern what it is that God wants us to do with our lives and the talents and abilities He gave us, and also how we should tithe.