Broken Body, Healing Spirit: Lectio Divina and Living with Illness [Paperback]

Mary C. Earle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

In the summer of 1995 Mary Earle returned from a vacation feeling refreshed and restored from her time away. A few days later, all that changed, when she was rushed to the emergency room with a case of acute and life-threatening pancreatitis. Being ill, she discovered, forces you to learn to live in whole new ways, ones often marked by limitation and fragility.

As a priest and spiritual director, Earle began to explore ways in which her own prayer life might help her build a different relationship with her illness. Using the Benedictine practice of lectio divina, or sacred reading, she began to "read" her own illness, and discovered a way of befriending and helping to heal--if not cure--her body and her life.

In Broken Body, Healing Spirit, Earle introduces this strategy to others who are hungry to find ways of living more fully despite chronic or serious illness or pain. Her practical, step-by-step approach to "reading the text of our illnesses," and learning to listen to what our bodies are trying to tell us will be of help to those who are currently suffering with disease or limitations, as well as to those who are caregivers and counselors.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mary C. Earle is a spiritual director, writer, and Episcopal priest who leads retreats and workshops. She is the co-author of Praying with the Celtic Saints, and her poetry has appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies. Mary is an adjunct faculty member in spirituality at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, and assistant rector at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in San Antonio.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Morehouse Publishing; 1 edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819219282
• ISBN-13: 978-0819219282
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #472,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The Rev. Mary C. Earle is an Episcopal priest, writer, retreat leader and spiritual director, who taught classes in spirituality for the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin until her recent retirement. A resident of San Antonio, Mary is also the Author-in-Residence at The Work+Shop, a ministry in partnership with St. Mark's Episcopal Church. Her most recently published book, Days of Grace: Meditations and Practices for Living with Illness, is also available as an audio CD. Currently she is working on a new book titled The Celtic Christian Tradition: Essential Writings for SkyLight Paths Publishing. She has also authored The Desert Mothers: Spiritual Practices from the Women of the Wilderness, Beginning Again: Benedictine Wisdom for Living with Illness, and Broken Body, Healing Spirit: Lectio Divina and Living with Illness. With Sylvia Maddox, she co-authored Holy Companions: Spiritual Practices from the Celtic Saints. Mary regularly teaches in a variety of settings in San Antonio, and online for the Seminary of the Southwest. As a member of the leadership team, she participated in the first ecumenical silent retreat at Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio. Mary and her husband Doug, also an Episcopal priest, live with three border collies and two cats, and enjoy growing organic vegetables. Their son Jason lives in New York and is a professor of French.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars bodily illness as sacred text, September 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Broken Body, Healing Spirit: Lectio Divina and Living with Illness (Paperback)

Reflecting on her own experience of serious physical illness, and using her long experience with the Benedictine practice of "lectio divina" (slow prayerful reading of scripture as a way of encountering God), author Mary Earle provides in this book an excellent guide, both compassionate and practical, for anyone living with serious illness.

In fact, this book presents a clear and thoughtful way for any of us, presently ill or not, to learn the language of our bodies, to see all experience (even when it is initially frightening and unwelcome) as sacred text full of meaning, to "read" our lives as ongoing gifts from God.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Renewing traditions, September 8, 2005

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Broken Body, Healing Spirit: Lectio Divina and Living with Illness (Paperback)

The tradition of Lectio Divina as a spiritual practice and the tradition of working through one's illness in a spiritual way are time honoured in Christian history. Many visionaries such as Julian of Norwich and Teresa of Avila have had physical ailments and diseases that rather than debilitate them instead inspired them on to new heights of awareness of God, humanity and creation. Mary C. Earle taps into that same kind of spiritual awareness in her brief text, 'Broken Body, Healing Spirit.'

Do not let the size of this text deceive - it has just over 100 pages of text, and relatively small pages at that, but this is a book that calls to be read in a slow, deliberate fashion, as one meditates on the points that are highlighted and lets them become part of one's body, mind and soul. She uses the practice of Lectio Divina as a principal way 'to listen to God through Scripture' and lets it become 'a regular way of praying'.

Lectio is a slow practice - in a fast-food culture, Earle states, we are not as accustomed to savouring food; in a fast-media culture, we have a drive to do and get through many things, often neglecting to take in deeper meanings that can only become present with focus and pondering, things which can not be done quickly. We also as a culture tend to neglect our bodies in different ways, and the practice of 'reading' our bodies, particularly in their illnesses, is something we can recover. Earle combines the more traditional practice of lectio with the idea of letting this become a practical exercise with application to one's own physical being.

Earle presents the five steps of lectio (silence, reading, meditating, praying, contemplating) as ways to work through one's practice - the first practical exercise she presents involves Psalm 139 ('Lord, you have searched me out and known me...') as one that can be helpful in both early and experienced lectio devotions. This then leads into a expanded conversation that deepens the practice.

Earle has written this text with the person suffering the illness in mind, but it is also useful for those who live with persons in illness (there is a section near the end for considering chronic and progressive illnesses). It is also a good text for those who are relatively healthy, as many of us fall into periods of sickness at different times in our lives, and being prepared can help both with coping and with recovery.

This is a small gem of a book, rooted in personal experience and spiritual depth.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compassionate and engaging, August 3, 2010

By 

Karen M. Clarke (Nebraska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Broken Body, Healing Spirit: Lectio Divina and Living with Illness (Paperback)

Mary Earle writes from her heart and experience with chronic illness. The text leads one deeper into lextio divina and its benefits for those struggling with pain and chronic illness. Even the beginner will find what he or she needs to begin a beneficial journey into dialog with God.