Lectio Divina with The Beatitudes – Healing 2024

Summary

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The Beatitudes was Jesus’ greatest sermon, but the Beatitudes isn’t just a list of things that Christians need to do –they reveal the face of Jesus. Jake Khym leads you through a time of meditation on the Beatitudes, inviting you to ponder and turn your heart back to Jesus’ love so you can fully receive the blessings given to His disciples.

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Reflective Study Guide Questions

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“The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity…they proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ’s disciples”

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1717

1. What has been your understanding of the Beatitudes? Do you look at them as a list of things you must do to earn God’s love? Do you trust that God is your Beatitude?

2. What Beatitude(s) did you find yourself stopping to pray with longer during this time of prayer? What might Jesus want to reveal to you through that?

3. Did you notice any lies arise during this exercise? Were you able to renounce that lie in the moment? How can you hold on to the Truth as you move about your life?

4. How can you more fully receive these blessings that God wants to give you?

Text: Lectio Divina with The Beatitudes

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Hi, my name is Jake Khym. I am really happy to be with you in this Pray More Novenas talk, where we’re going to be going through Lectio Divina of the Beatitudes. And so I’m not going to start with an opening prayer because the majority of this video will be a prayer. So I just want to share a little bit about the Beatitudes and then we’ll start with a prayer and have kind of the rest of, uh, our time together be a prayer. 

What are the Beatitudes? 

The Beatitudes are arguably Jesus’s greatest sermon ever and if it’s Jesus’s greatest sermon, you could argue that it is the greatest sermon ever. But a lot of us don’t understand what beatitude is, or we’ve heard of the beatific vision and we’re not totally sure what that is. It’s pretty simple. When you look up beatitude, it basically means like supreme blessedness, like ultra happy, heavenly joy, ecstasy. Those are some of the definitions of beatitude. and one of the things I think that we struggle with the whole way along is do we actually trust that God is our beatitude? And when we approach the beatitudes, I think often we approach them in an interesting way where we come to the beatitudes and go, okay, this is what I have to choose to do in my life. If I’m going to be loved by God, like I need to go do this beatitude and then God will love me. I don’t think that’s at all what the beatitudes are. The beatitudes are good news and Jesus is saying them as the Savior of the world. I think they’re a response to the utter devastation that we experience as humans. I mean, listen to this quote from the catechism. 

This is catechism, paragraph 1717 It says, “The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray His charity. They proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured however dimly for Christ’s disciples.” So what are the beatitudes? They are our blessings and rewards. If we’re Christ’s disciples, they show us Jesus’s face, His countenance, and they reveal his heart, his charity. I don’t know about you, but I want Jesus, I want to see His face. I want His heart. I want blessings and rewards. And so the church is saying that’s the beatitudes. And so with that in mind, I’m inviting us to actually press into these beatitudes. And what I’m going to try to do is actually draw our attention to some heart dynamics with each one. And then I’m going to slowly pray the beatitude a few times and see why I think this is important is because when we have dynamics stir up in our heart, we need truth. And the thing about the sacred scriptures is that not only are they true, but the scriptures are alive. 

They are efficacious means, what we, what they’re meant to do, they do as long as we’re disposed. And so kind of what I’m wanting to do in this time of prayer is to actually have you bring up the stuff in your heart that the beatitude is aiming for, and then for the beatitude and the power, the beatitude to penetrate us. And so what you might experience as we’re praying along here is as these things stir up, is you’ll probably experience lies. You know, because I’m going after the stuff that the beatitude is responding to. 

So if you experience or hear something that sounds contrary to the beatitude, what I’m inviting you to do in those moments when I’m repeating it, is to set aside or renounce or turn away from the lie that you might be believing. And to give Jesus a shot to receive the truth of His beatitude right there in the moment. Now, does that mean that we snap our fingers and everything magically gets better? No. But does that mean that nothing happens? No. See, God is a god of love. And often we don’t actually know what’s loving for us. And sometimes the most loving thing is a process, not an instant fix That can be hard. But the goal is union with God, not just all of our problems that go away. Union with God is the most important thing. And a result of union is the reduction of struggles and difficulties. And even we find an ability to tolerate struggles and difficulties more so struggles and difficulties aren’t the goal here. It’s God, that’s the goal. 

So in the midst of these prayers, I’m inviting you to turn your heart. I’m doing it with you back to Jesus’s face, His love, so that we can receive from Him what He’s offering as disciples. So with that, let’s pray. In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, Amen, I invite you to get comfortable as we’ll be praying here for, I don’t know, maybe ten to fifteen minutes. So I hope that you can find a spot that’s comfortable. And I just want you for a few moments to start off by just breathing. I just want you to notice your breathing. And this is simply a way for you to try to focus a bit. It could be hard to focus on all the things that we do in life and gadgets and phones and all. So just breathing. We’re trying to bring our central nervous system to a place of calm so that we can pay attention. Good job. Just breathe. 

A Place of Negativity In Your Heart

And let’s start with the first beatitude. I want to invite you with the Holy Spirit to notice a spot or a place in your life where you feel like you are not good enough, where it seems like no one sees you, no one notices you, where no one really cares, a place maybe where you feel alone, where it seems like you have nothing left to give. Maybe it’s a place where there’s a lot of negativity in your heart. Maybe it’s the places where you feel like you can’t connect with God like you want to, but it’s like you just can’t. These are all places where we are poor. 

And Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor and spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” “Blessed are the poor and spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Pause for a few moments and let that beatitude, love and bless you in those spaces. And if you’d like to stay there, wonderful. And we’re going to move on now to the next one. 

A Place of Emotional Pain

Now I’d like to invite you to notice with the Holy Spirit, places where you’ve been hurt, places where you feel emotional pain. Maybe it’s places where you feel the pain of what’s not right within you. Maybe it’s the pain of what’s not right with others of the world and it really hurts. Notice the places of regret about what’s happened or what hasn’t happened that’s resulted in this sadness that seems to follow you wherever you go. These are the places where we mourn. 

And Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” So pause now for a few moments and let that beatitude. Bless these places of mourning in your heart. And again, maybe you want to stay there. Feel free to pause and stay there. You don’t have to rush this if it’s going too fast. 

A Place That Desires Freedom

Now, I’d like you to notice places in your heart where you deeply desire freedom, places where you want what is good and right, but for some reason it’s not taking root. Maybe it’s the places where it’s like we know all the right answers, but we struggle to deeply trust and believe. Maybe it’s a place of addiction. Maybe it’s a place of wounding and hurt that we’ve suffered the places where we ache for righteousness. These are the places where we’re hungering and thirsting for righteousness. And Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For they shall be satisfied. Yes, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For they shall be satisfied. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For they shall be satisfied, they shall be satisfied.” Pause now and let that beatitude. Bless you and those places that you hunger and thirst for righteousness. Feel free to pause and stay here if you’d like. 

A Place Where You Were Wronged 

And now we’ll move on to the next one. I’d like you to call to mind any place of hardship where you’ve been wronged, places where things happened and they should have never happened. And you know it. And there’s an invitation to forgive. Maybe it’s a place that you’ve forgiven and you feel like you have to forgive again and again and again and again. And you wonder if you can continue to find the forgiveness that’s needed. Maybe it’s a place where you need to forgive yourself. These are places where we need mercy. 

And Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.” Pause now and let that be attitude. Bless you and the places where you need mercy. And again, if you need to pause and stay here, please do that and we’ll move on. 

A Place Where You Feel Innocent

I’d like you now to call to mind places that you feel innocent. And maybe that’s hard to do, but places maybe where you don’t know everything or places that you feel like you’re unsure or unaware. Maybe it’s places where you’ve been sheltered. Maybe you’re not wise to all the ways of the world and at times you feel like you’re missing out. Call to mind the times and the places where you’ve chosen what is good, but worry about what you’re missing out on. 

Maybe the places and times where you didn’t do the thing that you felt like would’ve been amazing or great and now you feel empty or like an outsider. But there are places that you lean toward what is good, but you feel like you might’ve missed something better. I think these are places where we actually were pure in heart. 

And this is what Jesus says. “Blessed are the pure and heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the pure and heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the pure and heart for they shall See God.” Pause for a few moments And let this beatitude bless you in the places that you’ve been pure in heart. And if you’d like to pause, please do so and we’ll move on. 

A Place of Tension and Turmoil

I want to invite you to notice places with the Holy Spirit. Bring up places with the Holy Spirit where you seem to always be caught in tension and turmoil. Places where you feel like you’re bearing the burden of others and their troubles. Places where you feel like you’re caught in the middle The places where you feel like there’s never space for you, there’s never time for you, for your ideas, for your opinions, or even for your struggles and burdens. I think these are the places of peacemaking and these are the places where we will not be abandoned. 

And Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God.” Pause now and let this beatitude bless you and the places where you have sought peace. Feel free to pause if you’d like here and now we’ll move on to our final beatitude. 

A Place Where You’ve Been Mocked or Ridiculed

I had like you with the Holy Spirit to notice and bring up any places in your heart where you’ve tried to be good and were mocked or teased or ridiculed for it. Any place where you chose not to push the moral limit, but because of that you were left out or ostracized. Any place where you feel like you have lost something or someone because you chose Jesus and His church, these are the places where you’ve suffered for righteousness.

And Jesus says, “Blessed are those who suffer persecution for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who suffer persecution for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who suffer persecution for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Pause now and let this beatitude bless you and the places that you have suffered for righteousness. And if you’d like to pause here, please do so to stay with that beatitude. 

It’s my hope and prayer that you could use this time of prayer or make it your own and spend time with the beatitudes and proclaiming the truth that Jesus offers in them to His disciples, His love, His loving countenance. Jesus’ words transform. It’s my hope that by praying the beatitudes, we can experience that transformation. 

About Jake Khym 

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