How to Love the Word Like Mary

When Sonja Corbitt asked the Blessed Mother what she wanted Sonja to know about her, Mary tenderly revealed her own method of prayer and the way pondering scripture fosters a love for the Word who is Jesus and his Word that is scripture. In this episode, Sonja explains how her healing charism sprang from applying scripture to her life. She shares her favorite verse and demonstrates, using the Sunday gospel, how to pray the Word like Mary.

Sonja Corbitt is a Catholic author and speaker who has produced several multimedia Bible studies, including Fearless, Unleashed, and Exalted. She is the author of Just Rest and the host of Evangelista Bible Study on CatholicTV and the Bible Evangelista Show on radio and podcast. Her LOVE the Word method for praying with scripture is explained in an appendix to the Living the Word Catholic Women’s Bible, to which she also contributed a number of essays including a series on how we are “Made for Rest.” For more about her Bible studies, and books go to www.biblestudyevangelista.com.

Use Sonja’s LOVE the Word Method to Pray with Sunday’s Gospel

Pray: Come, Holy Spirit, open my heart and mind to hear your word today. 

Listen: Prayerfully read Matthew 4: 1-4, savoring each word and listening for God’s word to you 

(Read it in your own Bible so you can make notes. Continue through verse 11 to pray with the entire gospel for the first Sunday of Lent)

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

Observe: Allow the Holy Spirit to shine a light on the events of your life. Where does this passage speak into your circumstance, relationships, or concerns? Where is your attention drawn? How is the Lord guiding or encouraging you through his word? 

Verbalize: Say to the Lord what you think he is saying to you. Talk to him freely about your thoughts and feelings. Write it all down, and ask him to confirm or deny what you believe he is saying.

Entrust: Once you have decided on some action with the Lord’s help and in his presence, you may be overwhelmed by his tenderness, patience, and generosity toward you. Resist words; remain silent and rest in him, entrust him with every outcome.