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Lectio Matters Proposal

(Meg) I sent this proposal to Continuum Publishing and it was accepted. Signed the contract last week.
On March 20th am inviting a group from here to come to the community room and bless this computer, me and my Bible so I can begin in earnest this major project. This epiclesis is important as the Manuscript is due December 1, 2009.

My editor at Continuum is Burke Gerstenschläger, a young energetic Biblical Scholar. He is already proven to be a good fit for me and this project.

I had envisioned a small book of about 80 pages, but Continuum prefers a larger book closer to 250 pages. (62,000-67,000 pages) So, I’ll put in my supporting teachings along with the method of sustained lectio and not have my website as the appendix, but lectio is endless in depth and breadth.

I consider this a privilege to write the fourth book in the Matter Series. I beg your prayers and welcome suggestions for the text at megfunk@earthlink.net. I have taught this for several years and have learned so much from you.



NAME: Mary Margaret Funk
1. The Book:
___________________________________________

Title: Lectio Matters, a God Encounter

Subtitle: Through the revelatory texts of Scripture, Nature and Experience

Summary:

Lectio Matters is a viable method of lectio divina retrieved and reclaimed from the Alexandrian School of the 3rd CE whose teachers, e.g. Origin, Evagarius, were favorite sources for the Rule of Benedict (6th CE).

Lectio divina is an encounter with God through the revelatory texts of Scripture, Nature and Experience as received by the four senses of the reader.

Key features (maximum of two lines for each)
Please try to express these in terms of their benefits to the intended readers, for example:

What need will the book be fulfilling?

What will it help its readers to do, or do better?

*The work of the monastery is to cultivate the interior life. This book is a direct path into the ancient method of praying through deeper levels of the heart.

*Readers that are not satisfied with knowing the teachings of the elders, but also, would like to learn to pray as they did can benefit from this clear presentation on the personal prayform of lectio divina.

Monastic sources have not been eclipsed by contemporary spiritualities. This book describes the most hallowed way of prayer that leads to contemplation that is recommended by St. Benedict.

At the recent Synod on Scripture the topic of lectio divina came up so frequently that the Vatican had to alter their program to include a special session on lectio divina. There’s a universal impulse to shift beyond study of the Bible and into its internal dynamic of prayer. This is lectio divina.

The current teachings on lectio divina are derivatives from the later Scholastic tradition summarized by Guigo II (d. 1188). This book retrieves the tradition that was in use by the Desert Elders who were foundational for the monastic rules.

Readers today would benefit from the teachings stored in the Desert Tradition of Antiquity through attention not only to the text but also to the appropriate functions of the human mind. Much attention has been given to the senses and pluriform meanings in the text, but seldom is there training of the mind to use differing functions of the brain depending on the level of the text.

Description (250 words maximum, split into at least two paragraphs)

Lectio Matters is a clear teaching from the Alexandrian School for catechumens (Didaskeleion) that is recommended by the Rule of Benedict. The voices of the revelatory text of Scripture are multiple but can be easily sorted into four major invitations:
1. The literal level
2. The symbolic level (sometimes called allegorical),
3. The moral level, and
4. The mystical level.

Sister Meg brings forward to contemporary readers by instructing them to receive the four voices with the distinct senses:
1. The literal level is received by the logical senses. (Left brain)
2. The symbolic voice is received by the intuitive senses. (Right brain)
3. The moral voice is received by the personal senses. (Ascetical).
4. The mystical voice is received by the classic spiritual senses.

The personal senses refrain from all that is not God and still the body, mind and heart so that the afflictions are replaced by ceaseless prayer. This third level of doing the hard moral imperatives gives rise to that place beyond the ego where purity of heart rises. Most teachings mention this inner work, but do not provide the training of the mind to actually move into this space habitually, where prayer happens. If this work is not essentially linked to lectio divina the prayerform reverts to either study or self-centered cognition.

The mystical senses are received by the spiritual senses. The mind opens naturally when one has less consciousness of our personal afflictions and more consciousness of Christ Jesus in the heart.

Lectio Divina is understood as a revelatory text that has many doors. Scripture is the hallowed point of entry but also God comes as God through the windows of personal experience and the powerfully pervasive Book of Nature.

Lectio Matters is for those who have encountered God through either or all of these revelatory texts and the person wants to sustain their lectio into habits of a lifetime.



Methodology (250 words maximum, split into at least two paragraphs)

Lectio Matters will be a brief teaching of this sustained method of Lectio Divina as traditionally taught in the 3rd C. The whole four voices of the text received by the four senses of the reader will be presented in simple language for the sake of the ordinary practitioner. Then, the teaching will be followed by an example of this method of lectio divina using the Book of Jonah.

Sister Meg will use here website: megfunk.com to offer readers follow up and more detailed footnotes so that the reader can go into more depth for either their own practice or their ministry of preaching or teaching.

The voice of this book on Lectio Divina is the teachings from the monastic tradition as retrieved and reclaimed from the early sources used by St. Benedict. Sister Meg’s innovative research and teaching will incorporate the notion that senses of the text ought to be separated from the English word “senses” that refers to the mind/heart of the reader. The English word “voices” will be used for the text and the English word “senses” will be used for the receptivity of the reader. This is how the unnamed author of the Cloud of Unknowing wrote to make this distinction in our English language.

Sister Meg will show in the example of her sustained lection on the Book of Jonah who the reader uses different senses for the corresponding level of voice in the text. For example to read with the logical mind a clearly symbolic passage written in the Scriptural text would lead to fundamentalism and uncritical assumptions about this historicity of the story. Literalism leads to reductionism while insight leads to whole vistas of meaning and grac

Contents (proposed chapter titles plus subtitles and/or brief descriptions. If this is a multi-contributor volume please indicate the university/college affiliation of each contributor.)

Lectio Matters, a God Encounter through Scripture, Nature or Experience

Forward: by Pope Shenouda, Coptic Patriarch of Egypt (I have not heard from him yet, but pray that he accepts this invitation).

Acknowledgements:

Introduction: Many methods of Lectio Divina are available. Most teachings are forms derived from the Ladder of Monks by Guigo II (d. 1188). This sustained Lectio Divina is from the 3rd Century CE. As descriptive presentation as to what is lectio divina.

Chapter:


1. First Voice, “What does the text say?” received by the Logical Senses
2. Second Voice, “What does the text mean? Received by the intuitive senses (aesthetical)
3. Third Voice, “What does the text mean to me? Received by the personal senses (ascetical)
4. Fourth Voice, “Who is the voice? What springs up? Received by the spiritual senses
5. Teachings that support the interior work of Lectio Divina:
a. What is the Human Condition
b. How do we train our minds to receive the word?
c. What is practice? Praxis?
d. What are the main paths in the spiritual life: doing, loving, truth, and being.
e. The image of the River
f. The necessity of forms in the spiritual life
g. About lectio of nature
h. About lectio of experience

6. Example of sustained lectio divina from Scripture: Book of Jonah
7. Some wider implications:
a. About Baptism
b. About Confession
c. About Spiritual Direction
d. About Lectio Divina and ministry of teaching/preaching.
e. About Biblical spirituality not being optional
f. About right and left brain functions


Summary and Conclusion
Select Bibliography
Afterward: what is on megfunk.com


Brief author description (40 words maximum)
Please provide a brief description of yourself (including name, title, affiliation and, where relevant, your most recent publications), as appropriate for the back cover of a book.


Mary Margaret Funk is a Benedictine nun from Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove Indiana. She is the author of Thoughts Matter, Tools Matter and Humility Matters. This book, Lectio Matters is the fourth book in this series. Currently she lives the monastic life in Beech Grove and continues writing and teaching on contemplative disciplines. For more information see megfunk.com





________________________________________________
1) How Lectio Matters will differ and improve on the series of Sister Mary Margaret’s series Thoughts Matter, Tools Matter and Humility Matters:

Thoughts Matter was my first book bringing forward the teachings of John Cassian. The 8 thoughts are the afflictions named in antiquity that prevent the presence of God from rising in one’s heart.

The second book in the series is Tools Matter. Stored in the Institutes and Conferences of John Cassian are the classic monastic practices that reduce the afflictions and prevent prayer from rising. To bring forward the teachings from other monastic teachers I added practices recommended by Carmelites and French School of spirituality elders.

The third book of the series is Humility Matters. This book is a presentation of the whole theoretical framework of John Cassian, namely the four renunciations. The first renunciation is former way of life and committing to Baptismal Promises. The second renunciation is to renounce ones thoughts of our former way of life (the 8 thoughts as presented in Cassian’s Institutes). The third renunciation is to renounce our thoughts of God, as any thought of God is not God in and of Himself. All thoughts must be renounced, even holy ones! The fourth renunciation is to renounce thoughts of ourselves as thinking about self is usually from ego-derived thoughts. Others experience the purity of heart of a holy one as humility. The humble one is silent and never shares innermost spiritual consciousness. Again, what one would see of a humble one is self-less service.

The fourth book, Lectio Matters, is using the personal prayer form of a Christian that keeps the previous teachings of the thoughts, tools and humility in an ordinary and current way of life. The first three books are teachings from the Desert Elders. This fourth book is the method our elders used to live their spiritual life. We not only do the teachings as prescribed, but we do the method our teachers used to come to their own Christ Consciousness.

The spiritual journey is sourced in our initiation as Baptized Christians. We can do no better than look for guidance from the elders that met the Christ in their lives. We know that Lectio Divina is the classic personal prayer form, as Divine Office is the common prayer and Eucharist is Universal prayer. Though this book, Lectio Matters, we can see the method of lectio divina that comes from this early tradition and inspired the monastic tradition of old and the contemplative traditions ever new.