Back to Home Following an ancient tradition that dates to Old Testament times and which the Church preserved from her Jewish heritage, we daily ponder the Word of God using the four-fold method called "Lectio Divina". First, we slowly read (lectio), then as the Spirit directs, we pause and repeat what we have read over and over (meditation) until it has penetrated our heart. There it gives birth to a response that we lift to the Father in prayer (oratio). In His presence we come to rest (contemplatio). Being enriched by the Word, we are thus prepared to receive Him anew in the daily celebration of the Eucharist. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and God was the Word." That one perfect Word has become the dayspring of the contemplative's life. Before the light has yet touched the horizon, she takes God's Word into her hands and heart. She experiences anew the creative power of God's word. "God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." Every creature and creation itself are created and sustained in being by the Word of God. He spoke, and it came to be. All that exists in creation is a word, an expression, of God outside Himself. It is of the nature of a spoken word to express the meaning of the speaker. God is love and all that He says, all He creates, bears that love God has another Word, apart from all the words of creation, an Only-Begotten Word, a Son, generated by the Father from Eternity to Eternity. This is the Son, the Word Who was with God in the beginning. And this Word was God. To redeem the world the Father sent His Eternal Word into the heart and bosom of a poor maiden girl of Israel. In her, a created word, the Uncreated Word became flesh and dwelt among us Walking in her footsteps, the Poor Clare seeks to mirror His Mother's littleness and hiddenness, the silence in which she lived. Walking in Mary's footsteps, she opens herself moment by moment to the coming of the Word in the depths of her being. God sends His Word, and she receives It. This Divine Word restores to creature-words their lost meaning. More wonderful still, He bestows upon all who receive Him an infinitely transcending meaning of love, beyond all the possibilities of a creature, to restore us to the splendor that He desires to see reflected in the face of the Beloved. Back to Home