In the Gospel for the coming Sunday, Matthew Jesus is teaching from a boat to a very large crowd. He is preaching about the Word of God. He goes on to explain it n a parable. Initially the parable looks quite straight forward. The Seed will grow and bear fruit where the soil is thick and rich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus does not leave it there. He takes it up a notch and that when I start to feel uncomfortable. I begin to identify with the incredulous crowds. He makes it very clear that many do not see with the eyes of faith, or hear with a listening ear or understand with a open heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s then that I look within: Is the word of God bearing fruit in my own life? More often than not my seeing, hearing and understanding is personal, privately reassuring and comfortably interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus concludes the lesson: But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s the challenge. Is the Word of God living in my life? Is it evident in how I listen and what I see and how deeply I understand the hearts of those I live with? As a wise woman once suggested to me, the Word of God is less a message and more an event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Virginia Ryan<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the Gospel for the coming Sunday, Matthew Jesus is teaching from a boat to a very large crowd. He is preaching about the Word of God. He goes on to explain it n a parable. Initially the parable looks quite straight forward. The Seed will grow and bear fruit where the soil is thick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[38,45,26,44,24,55,8,32,50,41,25,51,34,54,47,31,42,39,48,46,52,40,37,35,28,43,53,36,27,33,29],"class_list":["post-29005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter","tag-ancient-wisdom","tag-contemplative-prayer","tag-enlightenment","tag-guided-meditation","tag-inner-peace","tag-introspection","tag-lectio-divina","tag-lectio-divina-for-beginners","tag-life-transformation","tag-meditation-guide","tag-meditation-mastery","tag-meditation-tips","tag-mindfulness","tag-mindfulness-meditation","tag-mindfulness-practices","tag-mindfulness-techniques","tag-personal-development","tag-reflect-and-transform","tag-reflective-living","tag-sacred-reading","tag-self-discovery","tag-self-help","tag-soulful-journey","tag-soulful-living","tag-spiritual-awakening","tag-spiritual-growth","tag-spiritual-guide","tag-spiritual-insights","tag-spiritual-practice","tag-spiritual-reflection","tag-transformative-journey"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Van-Gogh-The-Sower.webp",246,251,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Van-Gogh-The-Sower-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Van-Gogh-The-Sower.webp",246,251,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Van-Gogh-The-Sower.webp",246,251,false],"large":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Van-Gogh-The-Sower.webp",246,251,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Van-Gogh-The-Sower.webp",246,251,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Van-Gogh-The-Sower.webp",246,251,false],"menu-24x24":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Van-Gogh-The-Sower-24x24.webp",24,24,true],"menu-36x36":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Van-Gogh-The-Sower-36x36.webp",36,36,true],"menu-48x48":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Van-Gogh-The-Sower-48x48.webp",48,48,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Virginia Ryan","author_link":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/?author=2"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"In the Gospel for the coming Sunday, Matthew Jesus is teaching from a boat to a very large crowd. He is preaching about the Word of God. He goes on to explain it n a parable. Initially the parable looks quite straight forward. The Seed will grow and bear fruit where the soil is thick…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29007,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29005\/revisions\/29007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}