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What should I do?” The question came during the hour of lectio divina—prayerful reading of the Bible—that I have led for many years in the parish of San Martino, in Rome, where I live. The questioner was intense; she wanted an answer from us. She wanted an answer from God.
Our lectio that evening, from the Acts of the Apostles, had focused on the story of the traveling Ethiopian eunuch who is reading a passage from the prophet Isaiah and is struggling to understand its meaning. When Philip joins him in his chariot to explain how Isaiah’s words point to Jesus, the Ethiopian takes immediate action. “Look, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” he asks, ordering the chariot to halt. And so Philip baptizes him (Acts 8:26-39).
“That Ethiopian knew how to respond to the passage he had read, and he knew right away,” said the questioning parishioner. “But I am already baptized, and I don’t know how to respond. What should I do?” The experience of lectio divina had brought this woman to a place of deep openness to God’s word, just as it had done…
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