By Ashley Trethowan

Melbourne: The Media Team at the Australia-Pacific Salesian province released a new podcast – Audio Divina – a lectio divina (divine reading) inspired podcast that features high-quality, meticulously researched reflections provided by world-renowned biblical scholar Father Francis J. Moloney.

The podcast is updated every Wednesday with content related to the following Sunday’s gospel.

“Audio Divina brings the sacred texts alive through a medium that is easily accessible to all ages in the modern world offering a fantastic resource to those who are studying, or simply hunger for the gift that comes from listening and understanding the Word of God,” says Salesian Father Moloney.

Use this link to listen to the podcast. https://www.salesians.org.au/info/audiodivina

Fr Moloney has worked closely with the Gospel texts for many decades and has taught Biblical Studies in a range of settings, within Australia, Europe, Israel, South East Asia and the USA.

A senior fellow of Catholic Theological College Melbourne and member of the Department of Biblical Studies and co-opted member of the Senate of CTC, Fr Moloney is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

In 1992 he was made a member of the Order of Australia for services to religion.

Author of many books, both scholarly and popular, Father Moloney invites volunteers to be part of Audio Divina project.

“We are looking for people to read the gospel text for the podcast, all you need is a smart phone or a digital recording device and your voice. We will email you the instructions and the passage that need to be recorded,” says Father Moloney.

The Salesians of Don Bosco Australia-Pacific Province encompasses Australia, Samoa, Fiji and New Zealand.

Lectio Divina is a traditional Benedictine practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God’s Word. It does not treat Scripture as texts to be studied, but as the Living Word.

Traditionally, Lectio Divina has four separate steps: read; meditate; pray; contemplate. First a passage of Scripture is read, then its meaning is reflected upon. This is followed by prayer and contemplation on the Word of God.