Brother Richard

As you sit into this meditation, notice how your body wants this time of peace.

While there may be an agitation at the surface, perhaps a pressure from another activity outside, or even the feeling of not being able to give this time as generously as you would like, if you look deeply within, you will find a point within you that is in need of this time of rest and stillness.

And you can approach the meditation from that place.

there is always a part of us longing for stillness.

And so settling into that still place, we are aware of the breath moving gently, aware of the expansion of the body as we breathe in, the retraction of the body as we breathe out,

aware of all of the subtle sensations of breath, aware of this moment, this time.

And while we may not have the written text in front of us at the moment, we can simply listen to the verse of scripture that says,

I have come that you may have life and have it in all fullness.

I have come that you may have life and have it in all fullness.

And resting with that line, we take a moment at the start of this process of Lectio Divina to simply be aware of the impact of that line upon us.

What arises for you as you hear this line?

I have come that you may have life and have it in all fullness.

Because we're listening to a line of scripture, there might be associations, emotional resonances, even narrative that arises.

And in Lectio Divina meditation, we take these into account, noticing what arises within the mind, within the heart,

and even within the body as we listen to these words.

I have come that you may have life and have it in all fullness.

And we can begin to parse the line, begin to look at different parts of the line,

and again sit with the resonances of these words.

I have come.

I have come.