Professor Matt Godshall joins Rex and Mark in the studio to finish out their series on ancient Christian practices. Matt discuss the importance of Lectio Divina in his own spiritual life as the three attempt to demystify contemplative prayer.

TRANSCRIPT

0:01

Welcome to Jessup think I'm your host, Mark Moore.

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And I'm your co host, Rex Gurney.

0:06

And we are closing out our series on ancient Christian practices, part three, part three. So and our first part three, Part three series. Yeah, I think our first of many, and I think it was appropriate that it was three parts Trinitarian feel okay to, you know, I'll just make sure we cover that I think we can do

0:26

theological justification for three or seven

0:29

part series. That's all we had. So we get within the the theological world. But now we're really excited to kind of wrap this series up. And we've actually invited guests with us who's been on the show before is a friend of the show, Professor Matt godchaux. He's a New Testament and theology professor here. And we just kind of brought him on to to share some of his experiences with ancient Christian practices, and how they have formed his own spiritual life. And I think you'll really appreciate what he has to offer to our conversation. We hope you enjoy this series and enjoy the closing out of this series. And we hope you sit back and enjoy the episode.

1:18

Well, this is kind of part three of our ancient Christian practices series. And Mallard is excited to have you kind of, kind of with us and bringing in your expertise, and throwing some some questions at you, but just kind of bring you up to speed and maybe our listeners with within this series, we've really looked at the need for structure and discipline in the in the Christian life. And it was something that both for Rex and I was something that was actually very personal. There were stories in our lives, where was it moment in my life when I was in college, and, and I was just kind of tired of not really being a Christian, or not really living, you know, not not having a be a part of my life. But just kind of an add on even though I grew up in the church and, and so for me, disciplines and practices really made my spirituality real. It gave me something to focus on something to do that, that helped it become more a part of my life. And and so we kind of highlight that. And then we really took a dive a little bit deeper into some some of the practices that have been helpful for us. For us some,

2:34

I think the last our last episode, we talked a little bit about ignatian spirituality and the prayer of examine that mark does and working through the spiritual exercises for the second and hopefully, successful time. And anyway, it's all it's all trial and error. That's right. That's right. And you know, there's probably a moral lesson in that too, that at first, you know, it doesn't work for you, it might work for you again, at another time in your life. Yeah, and, and I've certainly found that true.

3:04

That's really true. I think a lot of times people try practices, and then it just doesn't hit them, right. And then they feel like, oh, maybe I failed at it or, and it might just be that that moment in your life. That wasn't the right practice, write and write and move and they're different, and maybe coming back to it in a different time in your life, different amount of maturity, or just even life experience, things like that. Akin and we kind of write those off. One thing I like about the ignition exercises, if we can talk more a little more on those as is I kind of like I think nowadays, we could maybe play off of the the knightly aspect of it. Like it just when I read through it, I feel like there's these, this band of knights that are getting together with, you know, chainmail on and

3:56

yeah, I'm actually at that point of spiritual exercises. And that's something I'm having a struggle through. B