Depending on where we are in the stages of prayer, we will “verbalize” differently, according to St. John of the Cross. In the purgative and illuminative stages, we have a lot to say to God, and He reciprocates. Verbal meditation becomes increasingly more frequent, focused, balanced, and peaceful. But in the desolation of the night of the soul, where God is preparing one to receive Him as He is – without images or words – verbalization comes to an abrupt and shocking halt. Indeed words are unnecessary, now, and can even prohibit the union with Him that God wants to give us.

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NOTE: The new 2025 Mary journal I spoke about in this episode will be out in a few weeks at Advent. Until then, you can download a free 2024 journal and guide page in the margin to the right.

The book I mentioned in the podcast that I wrote with Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, Ignite, Read the Bible Like Never Before, is also available in the right margin. 

This is a re-released, vintage podcast from 2017, but the complete resource on LOVE the Word® is How to Pray Like Mary, available in the right margin, in which you’ll learn to approach Scripture and lectio divina with a more open and receptive disposition versus a checklist mentality.

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LOVE the Word® is a Bible study method based on Mary’s own practice: lectio without the Latin. Get the book based on Sonja’s method in the right margin, How to Pray Like Mary.  

L | Listen (Receive the Word via audio or video.)

 

O | Observe (Connect the passage to your life and recent events.)

If you haven’t done so already, read the Mass readings for today, available every day, right here. To what is your attention drawn – perhaps a word, phrase, or idea? How is God speaking to you through it? How does His word apply to your circumstances, relationships, and concerns today?

V | Verbalize (Pray about your thoughts and emotions.)

Remembering that He loves you and that you are in His presence, talk to God about the particulars of your O – Observe step. You may want to write your reflections in your LOVE the Word® journal. Or, get a free journal page and guide in the right-hand margin.

E | Entrust (Rest in the Word.)

“May it be done to me according to Your Word” (Luke 1:38).

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What We Discussed | Show Notes

“In an address in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis once compared our ability to hear the voice of God with that of the Blessed Mother and her kinswoman Elizabeth.

‘What gave rise to Mary’s act of going to visit her relative Elizabeth? A word of God’s angel. “Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son . . .” (Lk 1:36). Mary knew how to listen to God. Be careful: it was not merely “hearing” a superficial word, but it was “listening,” that consists of attention, acceptance and availability to God. It was not in the distracted way with which we sometimes face the Lord or others: we hear their words, but we do not really listen. Mary is attentive to God. She listens to God.

‘However Mary also listens to the events, that is, she interprets the events of her life, she is attentive to reality itself and does not stop on the surface but goes to the depths to grasp its meaning. Her kinswoman Elizabeth, who is already elderly, is expecting a child: this is the event. But Mary is attentive to the meaning. She can understand it: “with God nothing will be impossible” (Lk 1:37).

‘This is also true in our life: listening to God who speaks to us, and listening also to daily reality, paying attention to people, to events, because the Lord is at the door of our life and knocks in many ways, he puts signs on our path; he gives us the ability to see them. Mary is the mother of listening, of attentive listening to God and of equally attentive listening to the events of life (emphasis added)’” (Unleashed & How To Pray Like Mary, Sonja Corbitt).

Overview:

Minutes 00:00-12:00 – Pope Francis’ sermon from Unleashed & How To Pray Like Mary; John of the Cross’ Stages of Prayer: purgative, illuminative, unitive; the state of beginners, the state of proficients, the state of the perfect (mature)

Minutes 12:01-24:00 – resist sin, cultivate virtue, rest in God; sensible consolations in the purgative way or active purification; prayer is verbal in “meditation”; learning is verbal in meditation 

Minutes 24:01-36:00 – passive purification of the senses; taming the passions, or runaway emotions  

Minutes 36:01-48:00 – Night of the Spirit; verbalization stops; silence is the language of God; do not resist, rest

Transcript

Friends of the Show, sign in first to download a transcript of this episode: [transcript link=’https://sonjacorbitt.prodmirror.com/wp-content/uploads/0731717_Verbalize.pdf’]. Courtesy of Kristie Hynniman, 2017.