How to do Lectio Devina:
Sisters, this is really your time with the Lord. This will be a challenge but so fruitful. There will also be a short reflection. Give this a chance and see where the Lord takes you.
There are a couple of different ways to do this but there is one way that I will point out. This is a simple way to pray. A great resource here is your prayer journal.
1: Read the whole Scripture: James 5:1-6
2: Reflect on it for a short time (3 min or more) and see if any particular verse stands out to you.
3: Read the verse that stood out to you again.
4: Reflect on it and see if a particular word stands out to you (3 min or more)
5: Reflect on the word and see what the Lord is trying to point out to you.
You can go back and read any verses that you stood out to you and just spend a short time in prayer (silence) and listening to what God wants to point out to you. God will show up. He always does.
Short Reflection
There is talk sometimes of karma. “Oh you’ll get yours”. But what exactly is Karma? The definition from Google is, “(in Hinduism and Buddhism) the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.” So your actions will decide your fate later. Or if someone does something bad, only negative things will come back to them. Well if that was the case, I think everyone would be dead already. We are sinners. We all are; but here is a different perspective that I got from James 5:1-6.
We all are a part of the body of Christ. If you stub your toe, your whole body feels it, not just your toe. So when we sin, the whole body feels it. In 1 Corinthians 12: 12-13 Paul says,
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one spirit we all are baptized into one body –Jews or Greeks, slaves or free –and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”
So if I come to the Lord and confess my sins to him through a priest, I am free of those sins and I have contributed to making the part of the “body” (of Christ) that I am, a bit more clean and healthy. For example, if I get a cut on my hand but I clean it and put ointment on it, it will heal and I would be able to use my hand again to help me in daily life. The same goes for when we sin. For example: If we're driving and out of the window we see two people arguing and fighting and cursing at each other, it might make you feel uncomfortable and ugly inside. It might even make you angry! It's not Karma, it’s the body of Christ in which we all are a part of and can make better for everyone each day!
If we sin, we are hurting ourselves and sometimes the Lord let's us see the gravity of our sins so that we wouldn’t like it and we can turn back to him who is love.
God is merciful. He is love. He is also a father who loves us - his daughters. If we are trying to run to him in this life, he will hear our cry and will run to us. He is a father who never leaves us. So if we want this new life, if we want to be better, God is here. He already showed up. Let us come to him sisters and let him show us his love.
Sisters, You are loved!
