The Labyrinth was one of our most significant spiritual practices we experienced this summer. While we were kayaking the Owyhee river and in the middle of nowhere, I grabbed a few leaders and we took an hour to construct this maze on the beach. I got the idea from a post over at Rethinking Youth Ministry.

Labyrinth is simply a tool to slow down and contemplate your journey with the Lord. As your walk in you think about the things within yourself that you want to give up or let go of. The path brings you toward the center where you spend time with the Lord. And as your journey back out, you think of the things you will take with you from your experience with God.

Our kids really grabbed on to the whole metaphor and had some pretty impactful experiences.

To build you own you can go here and here.

After breakfast this morning we decided to try Lectio Divina with my kids. Miriam and I are attempting to expose them to spiritual practices and disciplines. I read a book a while back about this sacred act of reading scripture as a way of prayer. Though James, Aida, and Samuel are young (ages 5, 4, and 2 respectively), they’re never too young to delve into scripture or seek the Lord’s voice.

So for those of you who don’t know…

Lectio Divina is Latin for divine reading, spiritual reading, or “holy reading,” and represents a method of prayer and scriptural reading intended to engender communion with the Triune God and to provide special spiritual insights. It is a way of praying with Scripture that calls one to study, ponder, listen and, finally, pray from God’s Word.

It is basically meditative reading of scripture, not simply to read, but to consume it and listen. You pick a passage and will dwell on it. You’re not going for quantity or length of scripture, but simply selecting a passage and camping out on it. It is done in 4 basic stages.

1) Lectio

Read the passage slowly several times.

2) Meditatio

Reflect on the text of the passage, thinking about how to apply to one’s own life. Gravitate to any particular phrase or word that seems to be of particular importance. This is a very personal reading of the Scripture and application to one’s own life.

3) Oratio

Respond to the passage by opening the heart to God. This is not an intellectual exercise, but an intuitive conversation or dialog with God.

4) Contemplatio

Listen to God. This is a freeing oneself from one’s own thoughts, both mundane and holy. It is about hearing God talk to us. Opening our mind, heart and soul to the influence of God. Any conversation must allow for both sides to communicate, and this most unfamiliar act is allowing oneself to be open to hearing God speak. [Wikipedia]

We cut the lights, broke out the candles, lit some incense (I hit the local hippies store in town, yesterday) and all sat together around the table. I read Psalm 130 (NIV):

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.