"Opening to God" (David G. Benner)

TITLE: Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer
AUTHOR: David G. Benner
PUBLISHER: Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2021, (208 pages).

Prayer is more than conversation or communication. It is more than simply words uttered out from our mouths. Prayer is a deep relationship with God toward communion. At the heart of prayer is love and longing to be with God more. For many of us, prayer is has been reduced to merely asking for things. If prayer is a relationship of longing, surely we need to learn to listen first. For prayer is much less about doing and more about being. It is about an encounter with Love. Prayer is that journey into Love. In describing this journey, author and psychologist David Benner reminds us that listening is a big part of prayer. It is in fact a crucial part of prayer that many of us had unwittingly left out. Benner makes several poignant observations about the conventional prayer practices many of us do. 

• Seeing prayer as an obligation rather than spontaneous desire;
• Observing spiritual discipline instead of earnest devotion;
• Prayer as doing instead of being;
• One-way instead of bi-directional;
• Prayer beginning with mouth instead of from the heart;
• Monologue instead of dialogue.

After listing down several possible ways to turn our monologues into conversations, he introduces us to the ancient practice of lectio divina. The hope is that we will grow our prayers from one-way communication into dialogues and conversations to communion. The preparation part includes the readiness to be open to God; to be radically honest with God; and to learn the language of prayer. He urges us to find our own "prayer dialect" and lists four classic prayer paths for us to follow. These paths are taken from the lectio divina's reading (lectio); inquiring (meditatio); responding (oratio); and contemplating (contemplatio). Benner calls them attending, pondering, responding, and being, respectively. Holistic prayer incorporates all of these paths. 

In "Prayer as Attending," the key is not to pray to get God's attention but to pray in a way that God will be pleased to come to us. Many Christians live as if God is absent. Prayer is that practice to sense the presence of God. Readers learn how to keep watch and to pray the examen. In "Prayer as Pondering," we learn soul reflection, especially when we let Scripture meditation or study guide our thoughts. "Prayer as Responding" is what we commonly begin with when it comes to prayer. We often take this third path as our first step. Here, Benner guides us with four elements: Faith, Praise, Kingdom Hope, and Petitions & Intercessions. Finally, "Prayer as Being" is about resting in the presence of God, or as the mystics call it, Union with God. 

My Thoughts

In one book, Benner has incorporated much spiritual wisdom from the saints of old. There is the Ignatian Prayer of Examen; Centering prayer; Simone Weil's attentiveness prayer; Jesus Prayer; Contemplative Prayer; and so on. He not only introduces them as snippets to help us along, he uses them to tell the story of prayer. All of them are used to fill up the framework of the lectio divina. There is a lot of spirituality lessons in this book that make it not just a prayer book nor a book of prayers. It is actually living out authentic spirituality. In order to get to that point, Benner shows us the way with careful explanation of the concepts as well as suggestions at the end of each chapter. This book guides us into a deeper level of prayer. A lot of our prayers tend to be superficial and merely about asking for things. Benner reminds us that prayer is not just a relationship but a longing. Each of the four paths of the lectio divina has one common theme: Desiring God. 

For some readers, there is hesitation when they read about spiritual mystics like Sufis mentioned in the book. I assure such readers that the mere mention of these does not change the overall thrust of prayer and Christian spirituality. There is a reason why many are turning to the spiritual wisdom of old. That is because they are so rich in spiritual insight and have withstood the test of time. If there is any concern, it should be the lack of learning from our past. My point: Do not disregard practices simply because of their association with people who do not share our faith persuasion. Learn the intent and the motivation behind the discipline. If it is about legitimately reaching out to the God we love, why not?

Perhaps, the way forward is to use this book both as a personal spiritual guide but also as a group prayer project. There is one resource that I can point to. That is "Lectio 365" which can be downloaded as an App on Apple Store or Android store. 

David G. Benner (PhD, York University) is an internationally known depth psychologist, author, and wisdom teacher whose life's work has been directed toward facilitating human unfolding through a journey of awakening and transformation. He is the founding director, teacher, and mentor of Cascadia Living Wisdom. He has authored many books, including The Spiritual Journey trilogy: Surrender to Love, The Gift of Being Yourself, and Desiring God's Will.

Rating: 4.25 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of InterVarsity Press and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.