Silvia Ledon

Years ago, when my kids were little, we brought a young tree home. It was a Carambola (a starfruit tree). We discussed where we wanted to plant it and decided on a spot in our front yard. We dug a hole and in went our baby tree. The kids were so excited. Every time we returned home and parked our car in the circular driveway, we would walk over to the tree to see if it was growing. One day we had a get-together at our house and our driveway was full of cars. We didn’t realize this but one of...

This is another ancient practice on how to read the Bible with your heart. Pick a short passage of Scripture (no more than 10-15 verses) Read it slowly. Resist the need to analyze it. Instead, notice the words or phrases that jump at you. Read it again a second time. This time use your imagination. Put yourself in the scene. For example, in the passage of Jesus and his disciples in the storm, imagine yourself to be one of the disciples, imagine what the weather felt like on your skin, what...

This is an Ignatian practice to help you position your heart as a listener (shema) in prayer. The example below takes about 10-12 minutes, but you can adapt it to be a longer time of reflection or a shorter one (I’ve often done the Examen in 5 minutes.) I suggest you do this at night before you go to sleep, if it works with you. Of course, you can do it at any other time of the day as well. Follow these steps: Begin by taking a couple of deep breaths and asking the Holy Spirit to be...