Prayer, Attention, Relationship

  • “Exegesis is loving God enough to stop and listen carefully to what God says.” — Eugene Peterson, “Eat This Book”

Saturday, October 11, 2025

Prayer of Sacred Reading and Listening (Lectio Divina), Monday, October 13, 2025, 9:00am

 Zoom Information

                                     Meeting ID: 814 8663 8380


Call to Prayer


Leader    Let Us gather in the welcome of our Triune God, Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit. 


Gathered:  Lord, it is good for us to be here. 


Lighting the Christ candle


Leader       Jesus Christ is the Light of the world.  


Gathered:   The Light no darkness can overcome 


Invitation Song to Lectio Divina, written and gifted by music minister John Penoyar of Hinesburg, Vermont


Were not our hearts burning as He spoke

Were not His words words we longed to hear

Were not our eyes opened in the breaking of the bread

Were not our hearts burn -ing as He spoke


Our God is here He walks among us

When two or three of us are gathered in his name

Our God is here and he surrounds us

And all creation sings the glory of his name


And we shall rise, as he is risen

And though he promised us we did not understand

Yes we shall rise as he is risen

And we will know him when he calls to us by name.



Lectio Divina Guidelines


Leader- During the first reading, listen for the overall sense of the passage. Select  a word or phrase that captures your attention, as though the Holy Spirit were flashing a light from the text to your heart, asking you to notice it. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, allow your eyes to be opened and your heart to be warmed as God speaks to you. 

LeaderDuring the second reading let us listen for the feelings, sensations and connections that God's Word stirs in us. What message might God be speaking into your life now?.

Leader- During the final reading let us attend to our own hearts for a response to God’s love. What response will you carry forth from this encounter with the Living Word into the world? 

Leader Let us now rest in the silence and attend once more to the presence of Christ among us. We hold a quiet space to hear God speaking in our hearts.




                                          "Unjust Judge and the Importunate Widow",    
                                                    John Everett Millais, 1864



Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my accuser.' For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"




The Lord's Prayer in Three Voices

(prayed aloud in sequence by the same three readers for Lectio)



Voice 1 Our Father who art in Heaven
Voice 2 Holy One beyond all names, Eternal Wellspring
Voice 3 O Great Spirit, our Father from above,

Voice 1 Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come
Voice 2 May love rise again in us today 
Voice 3 we honor your name as sacred and holy.

Voice 1 thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Voice 2 with food for every table, shelter for every person,
Voice 3 Bring your good road to us, where the beauty of your              ways in the spirit-world above is reflected in the earth below.

Voice 1 Give us this day our daily bread
Voice 2 and reverence for every living being.
Voice 3 Provide for us day by day--the elk, the buffalo, and the                     salmon. The corn, the squash, and the wild rice. All the                 things we need for each day.

Voice 1 Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against                 us
Voice 2 Forgive us our failings in love,  and free us from all                         falseness, 
Voice 3 Release us from the things we have done wrong, in the         same way we release others for the things done wrong to us.

Voice 1 and Lead us not into temptation,
Voice 2 that the light of our souls may shine 
Voice 3    Guide us away from the things that tempt us to stray                         from your good road

Voice 1     but deliver us from evil
Voice 2    and the strength of our spirits endure for earth and all                     its people
Voice 3 and set us free from the evil one and his worthless ways.

Voice 1 For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours                     forever
Voice 2 this day, tonight,  and forever.  

Voice 1     Amen!
Voice 2 Yes, I commit! 
Voice 3 Aho! May it be so!


Voice 1   Matthew 6: 9-13
Voice 2 (from "Celtic Benediction," by John Phillip Newell)


Closing Prayer 




Holy One, we lift our eyes to you in hope and awe.
Grant that we may reject all apathy of spirit,
all impatience and anxiety, so that, with the persistence of the widow, we may lift our voice again and again to seek your justice. Amen









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