Lectio Divina ("Divine Reading") during Lent

Searching for a way to reflect more deeply during Lent? Lent arrives soon with Ash Wednesday on February 18. Does it inspire thoughts about fasting or memories of giving up chocolate? This year you might want to consider another choice as you keep the season. Lectio Divina is a prayer practice which in a small group setting includes meditation on Scripture and sharing responses.

In my childhood Lent was a time of penance and being told to quit fighting with my sister. Of course we abstained from chocolate which was a rare treat anyway and not so very hard to do. I did not discover group Lectio Divina prayer until I was a grown up. I moved here from Indianapolis in 1996 when I was 51. At that time I was a Presbyterian Pastor, a Minister of Word and Sacrament, and as close to burn out as I hope ever to be. I went on a retreat sponsored by San Francisco Seminary, held at Zephyr Point at Lake Tahoe in early August. The group was called Companions on the Inner Way.

The theme of the week was the Wizard of Oz. This was a Christian retreat with mostly pastors in attendance. The group art project was a huge Rainbow about 15 feet wide carried into worship on the final morning. I slept during much of each day but I did go to the small group prayer, and let down my guard and shared from my heart as we meditated on the daily gospel reading, hearing a few verses read 4 times. No cross talk was allowed. No one tried to fix me. Some people were mostly silent, listening, waiting. When I spoke, they listened, constructively and empathetically.

We closed each prayer holding hands, praying for each other, blessing each one in the circle. A few years later I was invited to be part of a San Francisco Lectio Divina group that would meet once a month. This group still meets 26 years later even as our lives have changed, even as I have become a widow, fully retired from ministry and returned to the Catholic Church into which I had been born nearly 80 years ago. Now we meet on Zoom. One of our number has died. But we continue to pray together, meditating on the Word, listening for the Spirit.

The last Companions on the Inner Way retreat I attended maybe 4 years ago I heard God calling me to share this experience with my new friends here at St. Ignatius. Mary Klipp and I both attend OWLS meetings and so we found each other, each of us wanting a prayer group. In 2023 we began, and now we continue about six of us meeting each week, meditating on the Word, sharing our hearts, praying with one another, deepening our trust in God. Fr. Greg and Maggie Warner asked me to share my story again with you this year as we offer this way of praying as one choice for you this Lent. This year, with the help of Mary Lou Cranna, we will meet at 9 am on Thursdays during Lent after the 8 am daily Mass: 2/19, 2/26, 3/5, 3/12 3/19 and 3/26. We will meet in the Church's Manresa gallery, beginning Thursday, February 19 and ending the Thursday before Palm Sunday. We invite you to register on line.

The six of us who now meet regularly on Thursday mornings began as strangers who have become friends in Christ, dearly beloved ones, trusted companions. Weekly we each hear wisdom spoken, the Spirit moving. These  meetings for prayer in Lent 2026 will be a sample taste which may spark in you a desire to do something similar. Or it may simply be a way to invite God, Jesus, Holy Spirit more deeply into your heart just for this moment in time. Spiritual renewal comes in many forms, just the right form for each heart that opens and asks. May it be so for you this Lent. 

Joan Huff

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