To use our price comparison to get the cheapest price, please click on the "Find the Cheapest Price" button located above for Sacred Reading: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina by Michael Casey (ISBN-10: 0892438916, ISBN-13: 9780892438914).
At this time we have not yet written a review for Sacred Reading: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina by Michael Casey (ISBN-10: 0892438916, ISBN-13: 9780892438914). Please continue to keep checking back to this page as we are constantly adding reviews.
Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
This work offers a bold and engaging examination of the Western tradition of lectio divin, the contemplative approach to sacred writings, notably the Bible and the Spiritual classics.
A deep and comprehensive treatment of Lectio
| Customer Rating:  | This is simply the most helpful and the most theologically deep book I have read on the topic of Lectio or Contemplative Bible Reading. An incredibly high view of scripture and very helpful discussion of the process and techniques for those who are serious about going deeper.
|
Sacred Reading: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina
| Customer Rating: | | michael casey is among the best to talk about the subject of lectio divina or sacred reading. he brings out the best of the ancients but also imparts new understanding from his own wisdom. |
Says much of Sacred Reading: good book that provides depth exploration
| Customer Rating: | Having read a few books on Lectio Divina I looked at my book case where "Sacred Reading" by Michael Casey waited to be read and almost decided against taking it up at the time. I knew that the author was a noteworthy man, and I considered maybe there was something offered here that I needed to know. Afterall, despite my thought that I knew it all, I really had a greater suspicion that I did not.
Fortunately, I did read with diligence the paperback whose full title is "Sacred Reading: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina," published by Liguori/Triumph. One thing the book explained was the value of using Lectio as a means of reading texts other than the Bible. It said the Fathers were a good source for this. I had not thought such all right to do, but had in my mind that only the Bible could be read. The title of the book, and its content, in meaning, broadens the approach to sacred reading, including other texts. I found this helpful, and personally broadening. In fact, I had some relief since I did want to do this kind of reading with other texts--but thought it inappropriate to the Godly.
Another thing about this book, it is on my reading list for Oblates, which was changed just after I spent ten years reading the old list. Now I am almost at the end, and this book comes at the end of reading the books on the list. I am pleased to see that it did refresh me.
I liked how it is helpful with The Rule of St. Benedict. In the Preface, it says, "You will find in this book many references to Saint Benedict's Rule for monasteries and to other classical works of the monastic tradition." This is a reliable book for those inclined to The Rule, and to "The Spirit of Monastic Lectio."
Beyond such ambitions, the book is useful to anyone wanting to develop an advanced spiritual reading practice, which can be just 30 minutes a day. The benefits for a lifetime of such reading is worth the daily effort, that provides much prayer like reward and relationship with God. The author offers such as part of his teachings. For this is a book of teachings.
The book reads well, and I liked the instruction to stay with a "...single book..." which the writer says "...is not only an exercise in personal discipline; it is a condition for approaching lectio divina with an appropriate attitude." This is a useful thing to learn, and I thought this is a good way to read Jeremiah. I have wanted to delve further into that book of The Old Testament.
Because I am over 55 years old, this statement from the book was useful to me, even though the kind of maturity it refers to is not necessarily that of age. For me, it introduced the idea of growing in maturity at this time in my life: The author Michael Casey writes, "I consider that lectio divina is an important component of the mature and active years of the spiritual life; its absence diminishes the vitality of these years and may eventually lead to shipwreck."
I believe these promises, for in a way of reading the book my consideration of the contexts and attitudes of the author were ones providing a promise. I believed that what he said was of value, and that if one followed or even began the process of lectio as I knew it from previous books, and as I say certainly from this one, that there is the reward. Here is another quote, a quote from the author's of another writer named Abbot Chapman of Downside, that continues this element of promise:
"The only way to pray is to pray; and the way to pray well is to pray much. If one has no time for this, then one must at least pray regularly. But the less one prays the worse it goes." Again, the ring of truth.
Author and monk Michael Casey says that there is a theology to lectio divina. Here is a valuable statement about the relationship such reading means for ones relationship with the Church. (Though I am not Catholic as in Roman Catholic, I found this a telling matter that touched on my desire to have a more full relationship in my own Church.) "This is why an important part of our review of the theology that grounds the practice of lectio must ... recall the intrinsic relationship that exists between the Bible and the Church." Put with pith: "Mutuality exists between the Church and sacred Scripture."
Michael Casey covers the bases, as you see.
If you as a reader of this review have an interest in the Holy, for your life and in a means of understanding, this book leads to living that understanding and way of living a Holy life. For me, this means being in relationship with God, having a prayer practice, being in touch with and better finding the richness of Church, and certainly knowing that we find a Christian life in community. The writer's response on motivation for lectio: "I hope to find God in my reading."
In a literal way, and I want to again quote from the book to give the reader of this review a sense of the book's language...in a literal way, "Lectio divina leads to a conscious endeavor to live in accordances with the Gospels." Could it be any better for those with this desire.
A reader interested in knowing what to bring to this kind of reading is led with the thoughts that we bring our personal salvation history, recent experience, overt faith and obedience. These are good practices, and from previous reading I know that they are good things to work with in ones life when bringing one into better understanding of and relationship with God. For me, this was a major thought in the book and I think an important goal for the purposes of the book.
Suffice it to say, I have not covered all that is important in this useful, illuminating, and enjoyable "Sacred Reading: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina." I notice that the publisher is in Missouri, and from the back cover that the author is an Australian monk (Cistercian) and an Abbot. Though I haven't read the book that is recommended by the publisher of this title, I have read the work by Thelma Hall and it is recommended by the bookseller Amazon.com as a companion. I can say the Thelma Hall book is excellent and inspirational. It was the first book I read on Lectio Divina. You as a reader who seeks God and wishes to know prayer through relationship with sacred texts will find this book useful and enjoyable. You won't be sorry to read it, there is much that the book tells.
By the way, the publisher of the book recommends as its companion, "Toward God: The Ancient Wisdom of Western Prayer." A book by Michael Casey.
Peter Menkin--Pentecost
|
A good place to start in you spiritual reading...
| Customer Rating:  | | Michael Casey is a great resource for any of us who are feeling the need to regroup spiritually. He takes the common dicipline of spiritual reading and breathes new understanding in it through the reintroduction of the Western Fathers and their thoughts. As a protestant evangelical with a mystical bent, I was very pleased with ecumenism that is prevalent throughout, and yet never at the cost of a true spirituality that is centered on the person of Jesus Christ and the scriptures that reveal Him. As a neo-pentecostal, I was also pleased with the openess Casey's approach has towards a contemporary moving of the Spirit in an individuals life or relationship with God. |
A Companion to the Scriptures and Church Fathers
| Customer Rating: | | I read this book during the first two weeks of Lent, and it has born fruit in helping me read Scripture more reverently. Fr. Casey starts by contrasting modern literacy with the monastic experience: we are surrounded by words (e.g., wander around the immensity of Amazon's website!) and much of the content is in soundbites. We get quick news summaries, advertisements, and so forth, which can be often read in a few minutes or less. Medieval monasteries would often only have a relative handful of books, which were often hand-copied over a period of years. If the monastery were to get a new book, it had to be for the ages, of great importance. Fr. Casey is quite balanced in that he does not suggest that the Medieval times were necessarily balanced--he is just as happy for modern ages as anyone--but says that we can learn from this older, slower way of reading. Following this perspective, he takes us through the discipline of lectio divina, "sacred reading", and the pattern of slow, reflective reading. The book challenges, as Casey is supportive of St. Benedict's maxim that once you select a book for lectio divina, that you follow through till the end, and not switch books in the middle. This is to respect that Biblical texts are often structured in unfamiliar ways, and the full meaning does not come out till you finish the book. It is also to stay humble: we are not going to cut off God's word when it is convenient, but let it take us where it wants while we journey with a particular book of Scripture. That said, there is an entire chapter on various distractions and barriers that people may encounter while prayerfully reading Scripture--Fr. Casey is clear that this book is not Gospel itself, and that different people will need to adapt his ideas to their own lives. Like a good athletic training, he wants us to push ourselves and grow, but does take into account individual circumstances and limitations. Casey gives a number of references for good study Bible editions and other English-language books and commentaries, giving one some concrete starting positions as well as good general advice. On the whole, I found him a very balanced, friendly guide, and recommend this to people who want to read the Bible more deeply and prayerfully. |
|
