Praying Lectio Divina with The Prodigal Son – Lent 2025

Summary

---

Though we sometimes reject God like the Prodigal Son rejected his father, God continually calls us to repentance. When we repent, He wants to shower us with His loving mercy.

God Will Provide Song by Kitty Cleveland 

Thank you for watching and participating in this retreat!

Not Registered, yet? Don’t miss the rest of the talks! Register for the Pray More Retreat!

Downloads

---

Audio MP3

Click here to download the audio file.

Printable Study Guide PDF

Click here to download the printable study guide.

Printable Transcript PDF

Click here to download the transcript of the video presentation.

Reflective Study Guide Questions

---

“Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against you,”

Lk. 15:21.

1. The parable of the Prodigal Son tells us about a man who rejected his father. We can compare the son’s actions to our own lives. When have you attempted to look for satisfaction in places other than God?

2. The son in the parable begins to look for people to do for him what he can actually do for himself. Sometimes God asks us to trust in Him and begin doing something that we have been waiting around for. In what areas of your life might God be calling you to take more initiative?

3. The prodigal son repents and returns to his father. Repenting of our sin in confession and daily are very important for our spiritual life. How can you work on incorporating daily repentance of sin into your prayer life? 

4.  Though the son seems to be focusing on his own sin as his father forgives him, the father wants to shower the son with his loving mercy. How can this image help you to focus on God’s attitude toward you when you repent? 

Text: Praying Lectio Divina with The Prodigal Son

---

Hi friends, I’m Kitty Cleveland, and welcome back to the Pray More Novena’s Lenten Retreat. Let’s pray.

Opening Prayer

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Lord Jesus, we love you, we love you, we love you. Thank you, Lord, for the gift of this new day. Thank you for our faith. Thank you for your word, which is your love letter to us.

Lord, I thank you that you wish to speak to us. May we hear your voice today. Speaking in the depths of our hearts, a personal word from your heart to ours. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Luke 16:11

So last time, friends, we talked about the different ways that God speaks to us through nature, through other people, through inspirations of the Holy Spirit, and especially through his word, which is alive and living and effective.

And so today I’ve got my trusty Bible with me. And I want to invite you to open to Luke chapter 16, verse 11. Yes, I need glasses. Verse 11, for the parable of the prodigal son. And I’m going to read the passage, and then we’re going to go through the steps of Lectio Divina that I discussed last time. And we’re just going to do this in real time.

I haven’t really prepared. I just want to be truly present to the Holy Spirit. And hope that the Spirit speaks to you a particular word. And maybe have a journal where you can write some of these things. And I’ll just share with you what I’m getting. So, let’s begin. Jesus said to them, You know what, I’m going to start with, um, Just the way you would pray the Gospel at Mass.

Cause I think it’s really beautiful. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you, O Lord, be in my thoughts, on my lips, and in my heart. “Jesus said to them, A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the estate that is coming to me. So the father divided up the property.

Some days later, this younger son collected all his belongings and went off to a distant land, where he squandered his money on dissolute living. After he had spent everything, a great famine broke out in that country, and he was in dire need. So, he attached himself to one of the property class of the place, who sent him to his farm to take care of the pigs.

He longed to fill his belly with the husks that were fodder for the pigs, but no one made a move to give him anything. Coming to his senses at last, he said, How many hired hands at my father’s place have more than enough to eat, while here I am starving? I will break away and return to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against God and against you.

I no longer deserve to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired hands. With that, he set off for his father’s house. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was deeply moved. He ran out to meet him, threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. The son said to his father, Father, I have sinned against God and against you.

I no longer deserve to be called your son. The father said to his servants, Quick, bring out the finest robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet. Take the fatted calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life. He was lost and is found. Then the celebration began.” The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Christ. Kiss the word.

Understanding the Situation of the Prodigal Son

And so with Lectio Divina, the first step we would do is to put ourselves in the scene. What are you seeing? Can you see the son, what his living condition was like with the pigs, which was the worst that was hitting rock bottom for a Jew to be working with pigs, which we’re seeing is so unclean.

And it’s really a metaphor for his own uncleanness. That’s what it’s saying to me. And how hungry he was for good things and then thinking, I can go back, you know, my dad’s servants have it better than I have it right now. And when he had, you know, there was a lot of shame there because when he asked for his share of the inheritance for a Jew at that time, that is like saying to your dad, drop dead.

I wish you were dead. That’s what that was saying. And the father, in his goodness, in his mercy, didn’t throw his son out just for even saying such a thing, which would be understandable, but he just gave his son what he was asking for. And as I contemplate that, I think about in my own life, where are the times, Lord God, where I have rejected you. And where I have looked for satisfaction in places other than in you, essentially saying, I don’t need you, Lord have mercy.

And so, you know, we have these different steps in Lectio Divina, Lectio or Meditatio or Ratio, Contemplatio. The reading Lectio they aren’t necessarily fixed. You don’t have to go one to one to one. It generally builds up towards contemplation, which is a gift given by God. But sometimes we can go back and forth like I just did between reading the passage, trying to imagine the scene and I’m kind of convicted.

So I jumped to the prayer part, which is a third step like, God forgive me, forgive me for the times when I have rejected you and you’ve basically given me what I asked for and let me experience the legitimate consequences of that decision. It’s a little bit of tough love, isn’t it? When if, especially if you’re a parent and you have to watch your kids make mistakes so that they can learn from them and deal with the natural and logical consequences of their behavior. I’m talking, of course, mainly about older kids and well, really, you don’t want to put anyone in danger, but you know, to let them learn lessons that sometimes are learned the hard way.

A Calling From God

“And so he came to the end of his resources and then said, he longed to fill his belly with a husks. With the pig food, but no one made a move to give him anything.”And it makes me think just that we can have that attitude. I can have that attitude of um, looking for people to do for me what I can do for myself. What God is asking me to do. To be proactive and not just to wait. for people to do things for me. I remember when as a high school kid, I just knew my heart was burning to become a Catholic recording artist.

And it really felt like God was calling me to do that. And I just kept waiting to be discovered, waiting for someone to give me some great record deal. And it finally occurred to me after years of not getting a record deal and actually working with one person that didn’t work out at all. And I finally realized that the Lord wanted me to just do it myself.

I had to learn how to do everything. And he wanted me just to trust more and more on him, but also to take more initiative. Yeah. So that just comes to mind with it. No one gave him a move to give, give him anything.

“Coming to his senses. He said, how many hard hands at my father’s place have more than enough to eat while I’m starving? I’ll return to my father and admit his wrongdoing. Father, I have sinned against you.”

Humility, repentance. This is the road back to the father, to the father’s house, friends. And that is our road back too, isn’t it? To repent of all of our idols, our attachments, any attachment that isn’t to God. That we’ve used as a substitute and we want to come home.

We want friendship with the father. We want to know his blessing. And so it begins with that decision to repent and to humble ourselves before him. And so the son does this. I have sinned against God and against you. I don’t deserve to be called your son. Treat me as one of your servants.

And so he goes back to the father’s house and it says while he was still a long way off. His father caught sight of him and was deeply moved. His heart was moved with pity. And that is how God looks at you and me when we repent, when we go back to reconciliation. And even before we can get there, just at the end of the day to do an examination, Father, where have I strayed from your house?

Where have I strayed from your love and your will and your blessing? Forgive me. Forgive me. And then returning with repentance to him. So his heart is moved by that. His heart is moved by our humility and by our acknowledging our need for him. And he ran out to meet him.

A Welcome From God

When I read that, I think of my, my spiritual director who’s a priest who wears like this brown Franciscan habit and he’s short, he’s got little short legs and he’s got a full beard and this great joy and he really exudes the father’s heart and I could just see him like just running with his short little legs, kind of like Zacchaeus.

Running out with all this enthusiasm and throwing his arms wide open. Welcome home. Oh, I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you so much. And just father weeping over him and kissing him and the son, the son wants to keep focusing on his own sin. And the father’s like, forget all that, you’re home. You’re home.

Friends, when we go to confession, whoo, I’m already getting some of the consolations from the spirit. Thank you, Lord. When we go to confession, it’s not so much about our sin. That’s not the focus. It’s on His merciful love that He wants to pour out on us. And so the enemy wants to keep convicting us, accusing us and shaming us.

But once we go and we can, we just acknowledge I am a sinner in need of a savior. Lord have mercy on me. That he just says, okay, that’s done, come, come and receive your father’s blessing. And then he says, put out the finest robe, the best robe, the coat of many colors was so to speak, you know, not just any old robe, but clothe him in my glory and in my goodness.

Put it on him and a ring on his finger. And as I think about, I’ve got two rings on, I’ve got my wedding ring on and I’ve got my miraculous metal ring on just to remind me of my consecration to Our Lady. A ring like these are, this is a covenant that the father’s making with the son. You are my beloved son.

And I just can imagine the father doing that for each one of us. Putting on that covenantal ring, reminding us of our baptismal promises that we were adopted into the family of God. And I’m seeing, even as I’m saying this, like a signet ring with a family crest on it, like you are mine. All that I have is yours.

Come, come and receive your father’s blessing. Receive his joy over you. And so, Father God, my heart is just filled, gosh, do I cry in every video? I mean, I think I do, but I’m just so moved by the goodness of God.

Closing Prayer

Oh, Father, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for giving us Jesus to bridge our way home, to be that road home. Jesus is our road home to the Father. To the Father’s house, Father God, may we live under your shelter, acknowledging your providence for us, your love, your merciful love. And that you don’t come to convict, to judge, to condemn, but to have mercy and to wait longing for, longingly for us to return home.

And the doorway home, that road home is Jesus and the doorway is that door into the confessional. And I thank you God, I ask, I pray right now for all of your priests, the ministers of your mercy, that they might receive your mercy and be generous dispensers of it, Father. And may we too dispense your mercy, not in a sacramental sense, but through forgiveness.

Because Father God, we cannot receive your mercy unless we extend it to people when they don’t deserve it. Lord, may we love with your heart, with your heart. And Father God, I just pray right now through the intercession of Our Lady and Our Lord Jesus. I just sense them on either side of us right now.

Father God, I pray your blessing upon us. As we humble ourselves before you, acknowledge our need for you, for every good thing. And I know, Father, that you will provide, you do provide, you have provided, and you will provide for all of our needs. Hmm. You’re so good to us. And may we never forget, Father. That your heart is our home.

And I pray, especially right now, for anyone listening who has a father wound, whose own father, for whatever reason, did not reflect your merciful love.

Father, I pray for the grace to forgive, to entrust them to your merciful love, to release them to you. And, Father, I pray that you would show us. Bring to mind an image, perhaps, of someone who has reflected your love, and to help us see what that looks like. Maybe it’s a priest who was merciful to us. I ask you to bless them, Father, as we receive your blessing.

And let’s pray the Our Father together. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Friends, it’s been a joy to pray with you this morning. Again, I’ll put links down at the bottom of the show notes to some of the books that I find really helpful for praying with scripture. And anything else that comes to mind, uh, the song God Will Provide, that I wrote, I’ll put that down there too.

God bless you friends, and I’ll see you next time. This is Kitty Cleveland.

About Kitty Cleveland

---