Have you ever thought of reading as prayer? Through Wilhelm Leibl’s Three Women in Church, we discover how sacred words and images can speak directly to the heart. Join Pastor Rob as he invites us to ruminate on scripture and art until we hear God’s quiet voice within.

Deuteronomy 11:18-21

Use this guide for prayer and contemplation. Read slowly, pausing as needed for silence and reflection.

Opening

Settle into a comfortable posture. Let your shoulders drop. Let your hands rest.

Take a slow breath in. And a slow breath out.

Remind yourself that God is present right now. Stay here a moment.

Reflection on Contemplative Prayer

Saint Jerome said, “When we pray, we speak to God. But when we read, God speaks to us.” In contemplative prayer, we are not only speaking. We are also listening. Let this be a time to spend with God in stillness, with an open heart. Listen.

In this practice, we return to a text more than once, letting the words sink in—until they begin to nourish prayer. We ask the Holy Spirit to illumine our minds and hearts, so we may approach what we read with reverential hearing. In the same way, we linger with an image—ruminating, as it were—receiving what may nourish our souls.

Open yourself to what God has for you today.

Scripture

Deuteronomy 11:18–21 (The Inclusive Bible)

Put my words in your heart and on your body. Tie them as a symbol on your hand and fix them as a symbol on your forehead. Instruct your children in these things, discussing them at home or on the road, before you go to bed and when you get up in the morning. Write beside the doors to your homes, carve them on your gates, so that your life and the lives of your children may grow long in the land that the Divine One promised to your ancestors, days as numerous as the days the heavens are above the earth.

Holy Spirit, illumine us as we listen.

As you hold these words close, notice how God’s voice meets you—in your home, on the road, at day’s beginning and day’s end.

Artwork for Prayerful Reflection

Three Women in Church — Wilhelm Leibl

As you gaze at this painting, let it become a doorway into prayer.

Notice the quiet presence of these women in church—two reading, one praying simply without a book.

Let their stillness invite you into your own: reading as a sacred act, and silence as love.

Spend time with the image. Return to it. Receive what nourishes you.

Reflection Questions

What do you notice first as you look at the three women?

Where do you see attention, patience, or weariness in their bodies and faces?

As you imagine yourself seated near them, what do you sense in the quiet of the room?

What place do reading and sacred texts hold in your life right now—daily, occasionally, longed for, resisted?

What words of faith—Scripture, prayer, or blessing—feel important enough to be “on your heart,” shaping your hands and your thoughts?

When you “pour over” a text or return to it again and again, what begins to rise in you—comfort, challenge, clarity, longing?

What is God saying to you today through these words and this image?

What in the painting deepens your understanding of what God is speaking—something you missed at first, something you cannot stop noticing?

What response is God leading you toward—one small practice, one conversation, one act of love?

As you name that next step, how do you want to speak with God about it—and how do you want to listen for God’s response?

Closing

Beloved God, let the words you have given us take root in our hearts and shape our lives. Help us remember what you have shared, and let it irrigate our days like holy and living water. Amen.