New Season of Lectio Divina with Cardinal Collins Begins Sept. 9

Beginning September 9, Cardinal Collins will begin another season of Lectio Divina, held at St. Michael's Cathedral in downtown Toronto. If you've never had the chance to experience Lectio Divina before, consider stopping by for one of the monthly sessions, running from September - June.

It's been described by the cardinal himself as "spiritual lasagna", an opportunity for praying aloud a short scripture passage, adding a layer or reflection, revisiting each individual line and adding another layer of silence. It's a prayer tradition that has been used by Christians over the last two thousand years and provides us with an opportunity to humbly savour God's Holy Word. Three simple concepts from this prayer tradition are: 1) To Hear - immersing ourselves into the text 2) To Know - reflecting on the sacred text and 3) To Love - our loving attentiveness to the Word of God and in our silence, offering our prayers in thanksgiving for our many blessings.

If you're looking for a primer on how it all works, dates for the 2012/2013 Lectio Divina season or past archived footage of previous seasons, you can access all the resources here.

Special thanks to our partners at Salt + Light Catholic Television who have recorded the Lectio Divina series each year since its arrival in the Archdiocese of Toronto back in 2007. The evenings air on Salt + Light each month following the gatherings and we also work together in partnership to make the archived episodes available on our YouTube channel.

For those interested in the scripture passages for the 2012/2013 season, below you'll find a listing of dates and appropriate references:

September 9, 2012 - Abraham, Our Father in Faith (Genesis 15:1 - 21)

October 14, 2012 - Paul and Faith (Romans 4:13 - 5:2)

November 4, 2012 - James: Faith and Works (James 2:14 - 26)

December 2, 2012 - Faith and the Bread of Life (John 6:26 - 51)

January 13, 2013 - The Lack of Faith of Thomas (John 20:19 - 31)

February 3, 2013 - The Door of Faith ( Acts: 14: 8 - 28)

March 3, 2013 - Hebrews (Hebrews 11:1 - 22)

April 14, 2013 - Paul and Preaching the Faith (Romans 10:5 - 21)

May 12, 2013 - Mary as Model of Faith: Annunciation & Visitation (Luke 1:26 - 45)

June 2, 2013 - Peter Walking on Water (Matthew 14:22 - 34)

Lectio Divina also is an important part of the celebration of the Year of Faith which will officially begin this October. This is just one elements of the many initiatives planned as part of this year long celebration - stay tuned for more details coming shortly.

So whether it's virtually or in person, we hope to see our family of faith from across the Archdiocese of Toronto at this year's Lectio Divina series. It's spiritual food for the soul well worth consuming!