Karunungan, Allyana Beatrice A.

2014400089

Mindfulness of God in the Monastic Tradition

We can learn from the article “Mindfulness of God in the Monastic Tradition” it is not

only applicable to the monks but also to us. There are three stages of mindfulness in

this article the first one is memoria is a latin word and when translated to English

means memory. It is closely related to the fear of the lord. It is applicable to us in a

way that we must be always being mindful of our actions and we have to go back to

the Ten Commandments. We must live our life within those commandments to avoid

conflict. In the second stage memoria becomes an active effort of the mind and

heart to retain and enter the truth. In this stage we must not only understand it

literally but we also need to understand it by heart so that we can live by it effortless.

The final stage is when the mindfulness of God appears as a consciousness. In the

final stage of mindfulness we must always put God in the center of our daily lives. In

everything we do or make we must always render our decision to God and ask for

his guidance. We may correlate humility with the fear of God. If we are God fearing

we are always mindful of our actions and words. We also live by the Ten
Commandments. The monks live by these rules because they know their values in

life that is why they continue to live by these rules. We as a ordinary citizen must

also know our values in life clearly we must also understand it by heart so that we

can live a good life and avoid evil. If we fear the lord we will avoid at all cost evil

things and do things that we know is in conflict with the Ten Commandments.

In a life of a Benedictine monk there are three main elements they are: Prayer,

Lectio Divina and Work. As a Benedictine student we all know about prayer and

work or as we would say Ora Et Labora. But we are unfamiliar with the term Lectio

Divina. It means scripture reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote

communion with God. We may overlook this element but it is also important that we

practice it. In Lectio Divina there are 4 steps to follow which are: Lectio which is

reading the scripture slowly and let it sink to us , Meditatio which is reflecting the

passage in one’s daily life , Oratio is by responding to the passage by opening the

heart to God in this step we think about the passage that inspired us and

Contemplatio is listening to God. By practicing Lectio Divina we open ourselves to

the word of God and we gradually let go of our own agenda by listening to what God

wants for us. We simply rest in the words of God .The goal of Lectio is to put our

attention to God which will remind us that every little thing we do God can see us. It

also is a source for our growing relationship with God.

In the bible knowledge can never be separated from love. We would anticipate love

and let the holy spirit transform us. One form of lectio is reading together in this

approach it is less than a study form. We can do it by having a bible study session

with others. We can share the passage that inspires us in our life to others and

maybe it can also inspire them. Lectio is also a way to unify a monk’s life and also

our life. It is a service of unity by creating a bond with God and ourselves. It is also

spreading the word of God and telling others that we must live according to it. We

must not just know it but we have to take it to heart to truly understand it.