Episode 324 - Michael John Cusick, "Discovering Lectio Divina: Ancient Practices for a Modern Spiritual Journey"

Welcome to another episode of Restoring the Soul with Michael John Cusick. Today, we dive deep into the hunger many of us feel for a more profound relationship with God. Michael opens up about his journey with spiritual practices and the struggles he faced with traditional devotions and disciplines. He introduces us to the transformative ancient practice of "Lectio Divina"—a sacred reading method that focuses on prayerful, contemplative engagement with the scriptures.

Throughout this episode, Michael shares personal stories and insights on how Lectio Divina can reboot your experience with scripture, foster a deeper connection with God, and create a posture of stillness and receiving. He also highlights the importance of slowing down and integrating both our minds' analytical and imaginative aspects in our spiritual journey.

Join us as we explore five compelling reasons to incorporate Lectio Divina into your daily life and learn how it can cultivate the deep, experiential relationship with God that your heart longs for. Stay tuned to the end as we recommend some insightful books to guide you in this practice further. Get ready to be inspired to engage with scripture in a more meaningful and personal way.

Transcript

0:01

Hey, everybody, it's Michael. John Cusick. Welcome to another episode of the Restoring the Soul podcast. A question for you. Do you long for a deeper life with God? Well, I sure do. And I've been doing this God thing and seeking God and following Jesus for. Well over 40 years now. And I'm aware that on this podcast. In our Restoring the Soul intensives, a lot of the people who engage with the ministry of Restoring the Soul, on. Whatever level that might be, are people who long for a deeper relationship with. God, but who are disillusioned with or. Disconnected from some of the ways that they were taught to engage in a relationship with God. And so in a previous episode, I. Asked the question, why even bother with devotions? And in that episode, I brought up the idea that we might have been. Told that it's devotions, that we have. To check the box, that that's the key to, you know, a richer Christian life. We might have heard that there are spiritual disciplines that we need to practice. And as was the case for me, one of my friends called me back in high school and college, Captain Discipline. And I remember an adult, I almost. Said, grown up, an adult coming to. Me when I was in high school, saying, you're the most disciplined person I know. And I felt like a fake because. Inside my life felt so far from. God and there was so much shame. But on the outside, I was pretty good at doing the disciplines, but it. Wasn'T changing me, it wasn't transforming me. And the more I flexed my muscles to try to develop spiritual disciplines, the more I felt like a failure, because. No matter how hard I tried, it wasn't producing the results. So I thought I was doing something wrong. So today on this podcast, I want to introduce a practice that goes way. Back to the 4th century, if not earlier. It was originally kind of codified and. Written down by Gregory of Nyssa, St. Gregory, and it's called lectio divina. And I've heard people pronounce it lectio, but it's L, E, C, T, I, O, like lectionary, and then divina, which is God. And this phrase or this practice of lectio divina simply means sacred reading. And if you long for a deeper relationship with God but have been disillusioned with practices, that may just be kind of left brain of getting more information. If your pursuit of God in devotions. Quiet times, et cetera, has not taken. You to where you want to go, then you're going to be excited to learn about lectio divina. And to understand why it's helpful. So today in this episode, I want to talk about five reasons to learn the practice of lectio divina and incorporate. It into your daily life. And at the end of this episode, we're going to recommend four books that I've read that I find are the. Most helpful, because there's some books that are not terribly helpful and then there's. Others that will really, really cultivate a. Deeper life with God. I want to start by reading from one of these books. And it's a book called Opening to Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer by Dr. David Benner. In this book, Opening to God, he writes lectio divina, literally meaning divine reading. But better translated as spiritual reading, is simply a way of prayerfully engaging with scriptures in order to hear God's personal word to you. It comes to us from the early. Days of the church with roots in Judaism. And he talks about how there have. Always been two ways that Jews have had to approach the Torah. One being analytical and understanding the context and the grammar and the history. And then the second being a way. That'S much more subjective, which is about going deeper and personalizing it. So the definition of lektia divina is from David Benner. And I want to read just another. Brief quote from my all time favorite book on lectio divina. And it's called Too Deep for Words Rediscovering Lectio Divina. And it includes 500 scripture texts for prayer. And I love the author, who is Thelma Hall. She's a nun who has since passed on. I believe this book was written in the 80s. The elegance and the richness that she writes out of is out of her own experience of a life of depth with God. And she says there is an inner dynamic in the evolution of all true love that leads to a level of. Communication too deep for words. I love that because I've been married 33 years this June and there's an aspect to my relationship with Julianne that. No matter how hard I try to communicate to her, no matter how hard. She tries to communicate to me, there's something after all this time that is inexpressible and that it's simply too deep for words. She continues there, the lover becomes inarticulate. Falls silent, and the beloved receives the silence as eloquence. What a wonderful idea that silence can be eloquence. So lectio divina is a holistic way of prayer which disposes, opens and quote, informs, as in forming Inward informs us. For the gift of contemplation that God. Waits to give us by leading us to a meeting place with him in our deepest center. So again, the question came up in an earlier episode, why bother with devotions? And lectio divina is all about a meeting place with God. But rather than being about content and. Understanding the history, it's really about hearing from God and experiencing God and meeting him through a dialogic conversational process with the scriptures in very, very short bites. Before we get into defining it more. In another episode and getting into the. Actual practice of it, I want to give five reasons for learning about and practicing lectio divina. And the first is that it's just a way of slowing down. I have a habit that I am not batting a thousand with. I'm probably batting.500. So maybe half of the days of. The week and half of the times. That I want to sit down and engage with the scriptures, I just don't do that faithfully. Big confession and maybe you'll hit stop. On your podcast player right now and say, I can't listen to another word. This guy says if he's not faithfully having his devotions and quiet times every day. But I'm just not a person who has been able to do it consistently. In about the last 20 years. And I have to believe, I've come. To believe that part of that is the way my brain works. It's not an excuse, it's a reality. Part of that is the way that. My nervous system works, that it's very. Difficult for me to sit still. Part of it is that unless I'm talking or being talked to, it's difficult to stay engaged and it's difficult for me to track with people. So I've got to ask myself, well, how do I connect? And if I'm not talking or being. Talked to, the other way that I engage is through pictures. I see the world in pictures and images. So lectio divina for me has been a way to slow down and to practice slowing down. So when I'm in a chair or on my couch or if I'm outside walking, I'm not just trying to clear my mind. I'm not trying to gaze upon nothingness. I'm not just choosing a mantra that. I'm repeating over and over again, but. I'm slowing down to focus on in the images of a certain scripture, certain words from God. And we're going to model this coming up here shortly. It's a way to slow down. There's a lot of conversation today. I see on social media different pastors, counselors, therapists, they talk about slowing down. I've certainly done that a lot on. This podcast, and I've seen some courses. On how to slow down, how to. Be mindful, how to meditate. And I think it's just as simple. As having a place and a person to be with. You know, one of the reasons why I'm not an agnostic or a New Ager is that those practices may give. Me a sense of peace inwardly. It may give me more of a connection to my center. It may help me to feel more grounded, if you will, to be rooted and established, as the Christian scriptures say. But there's not a person there and there's not a place that feels safe and secure. I need, and I believe we all. Need a face and a name and. A person that we can connect with. As part of this idea of devotion. We're not devoted to information, we're not devoted to left brain learning. Were devoted to a person. And the whole point of spiritual practices is really to cultivate that relationship and. Not to go wider, but to go deeper. The second reason for practicing lektia divina. Is a posture of receiving. I've often said that all spiritual growth is really the result of postures of our heart. Postures like humility, postures of attentiveness, postures. Of overflow, which of course requires a. Sense of needing to be filled. And one of the postures that I. Often speak about is the posture of receiving. I won't speak for others, but as. I speak for myself. One of the most difficult things for. Me to do and one of the most difficult things to learn is to. Learn to receive as an enneagram two, a helper, giver with a three wing, where I perform and I achieve. I can get really busy in being there for others and other people receive from my giving, my helping, my serving. But it's difficult to turn that around. And I've had some really good friends say to me, you know, Michael, just receive. Just receive the gift. Just receive my presence, just receive my love. There's a lot of pictures of this in scripture, but I think one of. The most powerful examples that we see. In scripture of Jesus saying, dude, you. Need to learn to receive is with Peter, who of course, Jesus built the church upon him. And I'm going to take a minute just to unpack this prior to John chapter 13, which is holy Thursday. It's the upper room, Maundy Thursday, the Protestants call it. Where the disciples gather together and they. Have the Passover meal, which becomes, of. Course, the first Communion or the first Lord's Supper. After they have this meal where Jesus breaks the bread and he consecrates the bread and the wine, he says, this is my body. The Scriptures tell us in John 13 that Jesus got up from the table, removed his outer garment, and then he. Knelt down and began to wash their feet. It doesn't tell us the order or the ranking, but Jesus is washing feet. And he gets to Peter, on whom. Jesus already changed his name from Simon to Peter. Jesus has already, by that point in the story, said, I am going to. Build my church upon you. And we can presume that Jesus somehow. Knows that later that night that Peter is going to disown him, because Jesus. Announced at the meal that they just. Had that Judas would betray him. And I don't have the text open, but I do believe that he had. Said, peter, before the cock crows, you'll betray me. So you've got this amazing calling that Jesus gave Peter, where, I'm going to. Build my church upon you. And this knowledge that he's going to fail him and disown him. And Jesus does something absolutely brilliant and loving to prepare Peter to be the one on whom he builds the church, but also to deal with this failure of disowning. And as Jesus is washing feet, he gets to Peter and Peter says, lord, you'll never wash my feet. He doesn't just say, you know, this is kind of uncomfortable. My feet are really smelly. He just goes, you'll never wash my feet. It's not going to happen. I watch what you did with everybody else. And Jesus says, if I don't wash. Your feet, you have no part of me. And Jesus is not saying, if I. Don'T wash your feet, you're not going to be saved. You're not going to go to heaven. If I don't wash your feet, then I'm going to renege on the promise and I'm going to build my church about you. What Jesus is saying is, Peter, unless. You learn to receive, unless you give. Me access to these unfavorable parts of you, your smelly, calloused, dirty feet, unless. You'Re vulnerable and let me into that. Vulnerability and weakness, something's going to happen later on, that is tonight, when you betray me three times, you're not going to be able to come back from that unless you somehow have some practice. With me in learning to receive grace and mercy and tenderness. And I think it's a Beautiful kindness. That Jesus does just along the way. Of the sacrament of washing feet, that he doesn't teach a lesson to Peter. He just lets him wash his feet. And of course, Peter says, okay, I'll let you wash my feet, but not just my feet, but all of me. You know, he wants to go big or go home. And then Jesus, of course, says, you're already clean. I don't need to wash your whole self. I've already done that. My presence has given you that. So we need to learn to receive. Because it's only in receiving love and mercy that we can offer that to others. And that's a truth or a lesson that has taken me so long to learn. I have lived so much of my. Life doing ministry, loving others, being a husband, being a dad, being a friend, trying to give something that I didn't myself have. And it wasn't because I was a bad person or I didn't want to. But my heart was broken, cracked, wounded. And the love that would go in. Would leak out through the holes in my heart and through the cracks. And so I had to, finally, I. Had to kind of compulsively keep coming. Back to God, just trying to stay filled. And it never happened because I wasn't whole. So Lectio Divina puts us in a posture of receiving. The third thing that I found that it does. And listeners might look up some of. These books that I'm recommending and come. Up with a whole bunch of other things on a list. But for me, Lectio Divina has really. Helped me to reboot my experience with scripture. I'll say something controversial, but I was. Very, very disciplined in reading the scriptures. I had a number of devotions. I had books that led me through different reading processes, trying to read the Bible in a year, I would always get into those and never be able to finish it. And please, dear listener, if you're a person who can do that and that works well for you, I encourage you to continue doing that and then possibly. To explore Lectio divina. But I know there's lot of listeners. That have not been able to have. That kind of discipline for one reason or another, or that discipline has not taken them to where they want to go. And so here's the controversial thing. I remember early in my life of. Recovery and healing, when I was in my early 20s, just after my life blew up for the first time because of my addiction, I went to a counselor, and I basically thought when they. Asked me, why do you do what you do with your Addictions with your compulsions. Why do you think that you're drawn. To pornography and acting out sexually? And why do you think you drink. Alcohol when you don't want to? Why are you getting drunk despite being a Christian man? I said, because I'm not spending enough time in God's word and I'm not praying enough. And the person smiled and said, I. Think that's something that we can explore. And maybe there's another reason. See, good counselors, therapists, spiritual directors, pastoral. Caregivers are always looking deeper down below. The surface of things. It's Proverbs, chapter 20, verse 5 that. Tells us that the purposes of our. Heart are deep waters. But a man of understanding draws them out. So back to the story. As we began to explore what was. Beneath what I thought, not reading my. Bible enough and praying hard enough, my counselor said to me, michael, I want you to give up on needing to. Read your Bible every day. I said, I'm not sure what you mean. He said, I want you to stop reading your Bible. And I remember thinking to myself, I. Thought he was a Christian counselor. I thought I saw up on his. Wall that there was this seminary counseling. Degree and I was anxious and judgmental. I was anxious because my first thought. Was if I stop reading my Bible, then God won't be pleased. He won't bless me, he won't affirm me. And then the second thing is I just judged him, thinking he must really. Not value the word of God. And what that counselor knew is that. Even back then I had more scripture inside of me than your average Christian. And that I didn't need more information about God, I needed more experience with God. So lectio divina is all about giving me the goal of experiencing God through. The imaginative use of scripture and allowing. This to be hearing from God in the images, in the words, in the ideas behind the scriptures, as opposed to simply getting more left brain knowledge, it's more experiential knowledge. This began to reboot my experience with. Scripture, where there was a long period. Where I didn't read the Bible, where. I didn't have devotions and quiet times. And that counselor took a great risk in telling me not to read the. Bible because there was a chance I might never do it again. And actually there was a point where I wasn't reading the Bible and I thought, why do I even need to restart? What would inevitably happen is after I. Would be away from it for weeks. Or even months sometimes I would see. My Bible sitting there with dust on. It and instead of, well, I better do that or I have to do that in order to get God's blessing. Or in order to find the lock. The key that would turn the lock. I would just be drawn to these scriptures and I'd pick it up and I would spend time in it for. An hour or two, reading an entire. Book to pick up the story of God. And eventually the hunger for the scriptures came back. And lectio divina has been a big part of my life. And so if you're struggling with motivation or getting anything, quote unquote, getting anything out of spending time in devotions or spiritual disciplines, lectio divina may be something that you want to experience. The next reason is I mentioned this. Word earlier, the imagination. Most people believe that imagination is using our mind to engage in the make believe. But I think it was Eugene Peterson who I first heard say that it's the imagination by which we see what is actually real lectio divina as we will explore in an actual experiencing of this practice. The next episode is all about the imagination. Finally, it's about creating a conversation spiritually. So as we learn to slow down and as we posture our hearts to receive, as we reboot our experience with scripture to experience God as He really is and not just learn about him in terms of left brain knowledge, we use our imagination to integrate our mind. Our left and right brain, to integrate. What we know about God with actually knowing and experiencing God. And that becomes a conversation. And you don't need to be charismatic or Pentecostal or whatever version that you might think is woo woo to hear. From God or to have a conversation. With him, because God's word is living and active. And when I began to understand, lectio. Divina opens the door to an interactive way of being with the Scriptures. So I want to end with this verse From Matthew, chapter 11, verses 28 through 30 that we're going to use as the basis for the next couple of episodes. This is an invitation from Jesus that. I read in a previous episode that. Is all about coming to Him. I want you to listen to the imagery and the richness of this invitation. And then we'll just wrap up this episode and jump in in a future episode. These are the words of Jesus, Matthew. 11, paraphrased in the message. Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me and you'll recover your life. 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. Take a moment and just pay attention to those words. Pay attention to any image that stands out. Take a deep breath and then just. Engage in a conversation out of those words. Look forward to you tuning in again as we continue to unpack what it means to have this deeper life with God and to cultivate that life that your heart truly hungers for. So thank you for listening to another episode of Restoring the Soul. We want you to know that Restoring the Soul is so much more than a podcast. What we're all about is helping couples and individuals get unstuck. You know how some people go to counseling or marriage therapy for months or even years and never really get anywhere? Our intensive programs help clients get unstuck in as little as two weeks. To learn more, visit restoringthesol. Com. That's restoringthesol. Com.