The first word of the Rule of St Benedict is “listen”. He tells us to “listen carefully to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.” (Rule of St Benedict, Prologue, V1). This puts listening very much at the centre of Benedictine life. We are called to listen for the Word of God, spoken through Scripture and through prayer, but also through the daily activities and interactions of our lives. To do this we have to try to be as attentive as possible to every situation because God could be revealed in any of them.
Every year our community retreat reminds us of the central place of listening in our life, and calls us to take time to become more attentive. During the retreat we generally have extra time for Lectio Divina. I like to use these times to respond in some creative way to the Scripture. I find this helps to unwrap the meaning of the text for me and allows me to deepen my understanding of its significance for my life.
This year I used the gospel readings from our daily Eucharist as the basis of my Lectio. Each day of the retreat I made a collage from photographs that resonated with the words of Scripture that had touched me most deeply from the gospel. When the retreat was over I made these into a presentation which you can view by clicking on the link below.