Newsletter Column: Deep Wells, issue 3 Glenn E. Myers SOAKING IN GOD’S WORD Beguines’ Love for the Bible I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11) The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. . . . They are sweeter than honey, than the honey from the comb. (Psalm 19:9-10) A Day Centered about Scripture Each morning the women rise early and gather together to hear Scripture read. They are grateful for the opportunity to learn God’s Word. Individuals have no Bibles of their own at this time in history, but spiritual communities possess portions of Scripture that have newly been translated into Dutch, German and French. Few Beguines know Latin, so they are privileged to hear God’s Word in their native language. After the morning chapel the women return to their rooms where they work with their hands throughout the day—sewing, spinning, and pressing linen (see photo 1).  All the while they repeat the morning’s passage in their minds. As they labor in silence, they meditate on the Bible reading, savoring God’s Word in their hearts. They reflect on the portion of Scripture and seek how it relates to their lives. Their whole day will focus on this passage. The opportunity to learn Scripture and soak in it throughout the day is one of the main reasons that these women joined the Beguines. Midday they proceed to the cupboard in the corner of their room (see photo 2). The top third holds the dishes they brought from home, and the bottom section serves as a pantry. The middle opens into a table where they eat alone as they reflect on the day’s Scripture. Praying the passage back to the Lord, they apply it to their own life in order to be transformed by its truth. Throughout the afternoon the women continue to work alone and then gather again in the evening for a closing chapel service for the day. Afterwards, they take time to enjoy each other’s company and share what they have learned from God’s Word throughout the day. The Beguines appreciate the fellowship they are privileged to have in Christian community.  Beguine Communities Christian women in the Middle Ages joined Beguine households first and foremost to have an opportunity to learn Scripture and to grow spiritually. Bibles were few and very expensive, so individuals and families were not able to possess their own copies. The only opportunity for most people to learn God’s Word was to join a spiritual community like that of the Beguines. Because individuals did not have a copy of the Bible that they could pick up any time they desired, they gathered together to hear someone read from the community’s copy of Scripture. Beguine households did so both morning and evening. The person reading would read a short passage slowly and generally would repeat it several times so that everyone could allow it to sink in. Often the listeners would virtually memorize the passage so they could carry it with them all day long. After hearing God’s Word, Beguines would take time to meditate on the morning’s reading. Then they would take the passage with them all day long as they engaged in their usual work. One person who was very close to the early Beguines wrote: Rising early they meet at church. . . . When they have heard the mass and each has said her prayers, they return to their own houses and work in silence all day so that they never cease from prayer; or they repeat . . . Psalms which they know. Late in the evening after vespers, when they have leisure for prayer and meditation, they go again to church and then retire.[1] As medieval believers reflected on the Word, they would pray that portion of Scripture back to the Lord. If their passage was on perseverance, they would ask God to build such spiritual endurance in their life. If it was on humility, they would pray for humility in their hearts. Rather than simply hearing Scripture, they sought to incorporate its truth into their daily lives. They wanted to be infused by God’s living Word. Finally, devotions for these Christians usually culminated with awesome silence. This time of quiet centered about God’s presence—simply soaking in God’s love and enjoying his company. Sometimes such stillness focused on the Holy Spirit speaking through the day’s Scripture passage; other times it pulsated with adoring awe of God’s grandeur. Lectio Divina This process of soaking in God’s Word and savoring his presence is known as Lectio Divina, Latin for sacred reading or devotional reading. Rather than racing through a quick chapter of the Bible before rushing out the door, as so many contemporary Christians are wont to do, the fourfold rhythm of Lectio Divina helps us to slow down and savor Scripture, instead of trying to inhale it as we do fast food at the driver through. 1. Reading & Hearing Scripture The first rhythm is reading God’s Word. Here we take a passage and read it through several times. Reading it out loud is best because it slows us down and highlights words that we would otherwise skim over. Speaking God’s Word aloud enables us to hear the verses and taste the words with our mouth, as it were, as well as seeing them on the page. When we repeat the passage several times we notice small but important items that we missed the first time through. In order to give adequate attention to what we focus on for the day, it is often best to choose a shorter portion of Scripture. As Psalm 19 states, his words are “sweeter than honey” to those who are willing to enjoy them! 2. Savoring Scripture When we put down our Bible, our time in God’s Word is not finished for the day but rather just beginning. The second rhythm of Lectio Divina is reflecting on what we have read. Here we ponder the passage and approach it from many different angles. We picture the events in our mind or even place ourselves in that setting. In short, we soak in God’s Word and allow it to saturate our minds, our hearts and our lives. Asking questions such as, “How does this relate to my life?” and “What do I need to change?” we seek to apply what we are learning. As the Lord commands in Joshua 1:8, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.” 3. Praying Scripture Such application leads naturally into the third rhythm: prayer. As our hearts and minds become saturated with God’s Word we spontaneously begin to pray that Word back to God. “Lord, give me the courage of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment.” “Let me be an encourager like Barnabas.” “Root out pride in my life where I am like the Pharisee at prayer and develop humble repentance in my heart like the tax collector.” Here our hearts become fully engaged in God’s Word. 4. Silence in God’s Presence After responding in prayer, the fourth rhythm is resting quietly in God’s presence for a few moments. Like allowing a piece of good chocolate to melt on our tongue, we savor what the Lord has spoken to us through his Word and we simply enjoy his company. Whether sitting still in our chair before leaving our devotional time or taking a walk with the Lord in the out-of-doors, we resist the temptation to simply rush into the day’s activities. Resting, listening, and enjoying are operative activities at this time. Like two lovers sitting on a swing together or walking hand-in-hand, we relish Jesus’ closeness to us. These four rhythms of Lectio Divina flow from one into the next: we read, we reflect, we respond in prayer, and we rest. In practice, however, we often flow back and forth among the various stages. As we pray the passage back to God, we may want to reread a portion of it or we may take time to further meditate on what it says. The goal is not to complete our time and say “been there, done that,” but rather to soak in God’s Word, his love and his divine presence so that we are transformed and come to know how deeply we are loved. Our Lives Like the Beguines of long ago, let us value the tremendous opportunity we have of hearing the Bible in our own language. In appreciation, let us savor Scripture and allow it to permeate our hearts and minds throughout the day. May we soak in God’s Word, treasure our time with the Lord and be transformed by his truth and presence in our lives. ©2008 Glenn Myers One copy of this article may be made for personal use. To receive permission for more than one copy, please contact the author at Restoration Ministries. [1]Quoted in Ernst McDonnell, The Beguines and Beghards in Medieval Culture, with Special Emphasis on the Belgian Scene (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1954), 148. LONGING LOVE Beguine Spirituality O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is not water. (Psalm 63:1) As we cultivate our desire for God, we begin to realize how powerful a force that yearning is within us. Longing for the Lord can be intense. Throughout his life King David passionately pursued the Lord. David tells us in Psalm 63 that not only his heart, but his whole body ached for God’s presence. Likewise David compares his intense longing for the Lord to the way that a thirsty deer gasps desperately for water in the heat of the Judean desert. “As the deer pants for streams of water,” he cries out in Psalm 42, “so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” Movement of Women Longing for Jesus Many of the Beguines, to whom we were introduced in our last newsletter, experienced the same overwhelming desire that David describes in the Psalms. These godly women in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries abandoned themselves to the Lord and longed for him with their whole heart, soul and body. One of the first leaders of the movement was a woman known as Mary of Oignies. Mary was given in marriage to John when she was just fourteen years old. Coming from well-to-do families, the couple was poised to enjoy a comfortable life in Nivelles, a growing town in Belgium. Mary, however, was not content to live in leisure. Radically committed to the Lord, she desired above all else to seek him and serve him in whatever way possible. So after a couple years, Mary convinced John to dedicate their lives to the Lord. Selling their possessions, they consecrated themselves to working with lepers in the nearby town of Williambroux. There they spent the majority of their married years together tending the open soars of the sick and dying while they served God in the most humbling form of ministry. News traveled throughout the region of Mary’s commitment to Christ, her deep Christian walk, and her passion to grow in the Lord. As word spread, women began to migrate to the leper hospital to join the work and to be mentored by Mary, who proved to be a wonderful spiritual director. Often she would receive words from the Lord for those who sought counsel from her, and her sanctified life served as a model for all to see. Mary and her women were one of the first Beguine groups to form. Soon scores of other such groups gathered across Belgium, northern France, the Netherlands and Germany. By the hundreds women established Beguine houses across northern Europe, pooling their resources to buy homes where they could live together in a spiritual community. What motivated these women to found their own Christian communities? First and foremost, they longed for more of the Lord. Their passion for Christ was so great that they were determined to find a place where they could learn Scripture and be mentored by mature mothers in the faith. Intense Love Because we have the writings of some of these Beguines, we can learn from their intense desire for Christ. Not satisfied with brief daily devotions, as so many Christians settle for in our day, these women sought the Lord in intense prayer. They would meditate on the morning’s Scripture reading throughout the entire day as they worked with their hands, making God’s Word part and parcel of their lives. In addition they would invite older women to be their mentor and spiritual director, giving them encouragement and correction as they grew in Christ’s character. Their spiritual formation was constantly fueled by a burning love for Jesus and a yearning to draw closer to him. One of the Beguines from Germany, Mechthild of Magdeburg, expressed to the Lord her inner longing: Jesus, dearest Lover of mine, let me approach you . . . with deep love for you in my heart, and never let me grow cold, so that I constantly feel your love in my heart and in my soul and in my five senses and in all my members. Then I can never grow cold.[1] Like David in Psalm 63, Mechthild longed for the Lord with her whole being. Her body literally ached for the Almighty in her life and her physical senses craved his divine touch. Such a spiritual fire characterized the women of the medieval spiritual revival and can be found throughout their writings. Yearning for God’s presence—that tangible experience of supernatural love which pervades her very senses—Mechthild exclaimed: This love passes through the senses and storms the soul with all its might. All the while that love grows in the soul, it ascends to God longingly and, richly flowing, opens up to receive the wonder that is approaching. It dissolves through the soul into the senses.[2] Fear of Being Overwhelmed Although such ardent desire permeates the pages of Scriptures, it often startles us when we first experience it. We are not sure what to do with such intense inner emotions. Often to experience such powerful inner longing is painful, and we are afraid of being overwhelmed. If we are truly to experience the Lord’s love for us, we must learn to let go of control. Not only is love a powerful force, but when we are in love with God Almighty, we cannot be the ones in charge. Much of our contemporary spirituality that seeks to place God—and our relationship with him—into a neat, orderly box is merely a fantasy of our own making. Vibrant, living relationship does not fit into quick quiet times. Moreover, any “god” contained by our boxes and controlled by our expectations is not the God of Scripture who rides on the winds of the storm and in whose presence the mountains shake to their very foundation (Psalm 18). The Beguines were not willing to settle for such tame spirituality or such a shadow of relationship with the true God. They wanted to encounter the Creator of the universe and were willing to be overwhelmed by his divine presence in prayer. Mechthild’s ardent yearning for the Lord ignited a fire in her heart. Her desire for the Lord was intense and indeed all-consuming. Mechthild cried aloud in her longing for the Lord’s intimate love which is so sweet and wonderful that she said no one could begin to explain “even half of the intensity of my longing and the pain of my suffering and my heart’s pursuit and my soul’s striving for [you], to hang inseparably in your embrace forever.”[3] Afraid of Disappointment Another reason we are afraid to tap into our subterranean desires is that we know we might be disappointed. Will we be hurt if we expose our hearts? What if our longing for love is not fulfilled? What if we surrender our hearts to such intense longing for Jesus only to find that we cannot truly experience an intimately relationship with him as we had hoped? Love requires risk. When we open ourselves to be loved, it also leaves us exposed to hurt, and most of us avoid such a position of weakness. True relationship makes us vulnerable because relationships are never static. They ebb and flow, and our emotions are bound to go up and down. Even a relationship with the Lord has highs and lows as we see throughout the Psalms. The Lord never forsakes us, but at times we cannot experience him as we would like. Other times he surprises us with his manifest presence. Vital Christianity entails risk, and take that risk, we must! Here again the Beguines provide wisdom and insight. Another of these devout women of the thirteenth century named Hadewijch wrote a letter encouraging one of the young women who looked to her as a mentor: O beloved, why has not Love sufficiently overwhelmed you and engulfed you in her abyss? Alas! when Love is so sweet, why do you not fall deep into her? And why do you not touch God deeply enough in the abyss of his Nature, which is so unfathomable? Sweet love, give yourself for Love’s sake full to God in love.[4] Hadewijch was aware that we can be hurt or disappointed even in our love relationship with the Lord. Because it is truly a love affair with another Person, we are vulnerable. As a result, some people who lack courage “fear that cost will to too high” and therefore “withdraw from Love.”[5] In doing so, however, they lose all the good that they would have gained from opening their hearts to the Lord, asserted Hadewijch. Therefore, we need to take courage: we must take the risk of opening up to the Lord. In one of her poems Hadewijch challenged us as her readers to “take the adventure”! Although our hearts might temporarily feel hurt at times, in the long run we will discover God’s great faithfulness to us. If we persevere, we will experience the fidelity of divine love. He who wishes thus to progress in love Must not fear expense, or harm, Or pain; but faithfully confront The strictest commands of Love . . . In all her comings and in all her goings: Anyone who behaved thus, relying on Loves’ fidelity, Would stand to the end, having become all love in Love.[6] Tap into Your Longing Let us not settle for bland devotion or some tame religion. Rather, like these women of old, let our spiritual formation throb with longing for the Lord and pulsate with passion for an intimate relationship with the personal Creator of the universe. Willing to release control, let us pursue the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and body—not satisfied with anything less than the adventure of being in love with Almighty God! [1] Mechthild of Magdeburg, The Flowing Light of the Godhead, trans. Frank Tobin, in The Classics of Western Spirituality (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1998), 309. [2] Ibid., 182. [3] Ibid., 213. [4] Hadewijch: The Complete Works, trans. Mother Columba Hart, in The Classics of Western Spirituality (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1980), 56. [5] Ibid., 149. [6] Ibid., 218.
  Here is a photo of a Beguine house in Brussels that has been preserved as a museum. This was a small home that held six women at any given time. The space between the two buildings at one time was the Beguine's garden where they could grow vegetables for thier use. It is fascinating to see the desire these women had for the Lord and their resourcefulness in establishing a way of life that allowed them to pursue Christ! |
