Guesnerth Josué Perea — Lectio Divina: How Sacred Reading Can Transform Our Lives

“Lectio Divina,” which means sacred reading, is one of the most ancient contemplative practices in the Christian tradition, dating back to the Desert Fathers and Mothers, who sought renewal away from the city in open desert spaces and relied on the Word for spiritual sustenance. What does it mean to root our lives in this kind of sacred reading? How does this reading extend beyond words? As many Franciscan theologians say, Creation is God’s “first book.” The Word is alive and active in sacred texts but also in and through the world around us. If the Word, the logos, the Universal Christ, is holding all things together, then all that is good and true and beautiful is constantly rising up in our world, in our lives, in the signs of the times, in our Bibles and liturgies, to be read and received.

Guesnerth Josue Perea is breaking open Lectio in a fun and unique way. Josue serves as Director of Black Lives and Contemplation for the Center for Spiritual Imagination and belongs to the Community of the Incarnation, a new monastic community which embodies and teaches engaged contemplative spirituality in response to what Father Bede Griffiths called “the universal call to contemplation.” Perea was part of the team that founded the AfroLatine Theology Project, and he was Executive Producer of the documentary "Faith in Blackness." His perspective has been featured in prominent publications such as the New York Times, the New Yorker, and USA Today, and his writing has been featured in Sojourners, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and numerous anthologies. A dedicated Brooklynite, he wholeheartedly believes that cultivating our inner lives through contemplative practice is instrumental for liberation, allowing us to embody Biggie's call to spread love "the Brooklyn way."

Show notes are available here.

(00:00:01) Introduction

(00:03:10) Spiritual Background

(00:15:52) How Contemplation Informs Vocation

(00:20:04) What is Lectio Divina?

(00:25:23) Reflection No. 1: The Simplicity of Lectio

(00:29:12) What's the Point of Lectio and Contemplative Practice?

(00:36:29) Howard Thurman and "The Sound of the Genuine"

(00:40:55) Slowing Down and Remembering How to Read

(00:45:40) Ritual and the Heart

(00:48:15) Reflection No. 2: Franciscan Lectio

(00:52:14) Ritual: Reading As If for the First Time

(00:57:44) Hip-Hop Lectio, Kendrick, and Peeling Back Layers of Mystery

(1:10:42) Reflection No. 3: Thich Nhat Hanh and the Universe Within a Sheet of Paper

(01:13:45) The Power of Slowing and Reading with the Eye of the Heart

(01:18:41) Final Thoughts and the Play of Lectio

(01:22:45) Conclusion