Lectio Divina for Chapter One

[pobble_reads]

So for reading The Worst Witch I've decided to alternate between Lectio Divina and PaRDes for each chapter - and to do a whole book Florilegia at the end. I'm choose a sentence for the four step reading practice that's different from the sparklet I choose for Florilegia but something that jumps out at me as being interesting and juicy. I did thing about choosing a sentence to do Lectio or PaRDeS randomly but can't work out a good way to do that.

For this chapter I'm going to be looking at the sentence: You could rely on Mildred to have her hat on back-to-front or her bootlaces trailing along the floor

it appeals to me because it's very much how I was a not-yet-diagnosed-with-dyspraxia schoolchild (although our uniforms didn't include hats they did have ties from the age of 5 which I think would be challenge even for an averagely well coordinated Small!)

As a quick reminder because I've not be posting here in ages Lectio Divina is a four step Practice:
Lectio - the literal reading and narrative
Mediatio - the allegory, symbols and metaphors
Oratio - reflection - how is this text connected with my own life?
Contemplatio - the invitation - what action is this text prompting me to take?

I’ll put my thoughts in the comments. Please do join in

Comments

Lectio

[pobble_reads]

What is the literal meaning of the sentence and what's happening in the narrative?

This sentence is in the first paragraph that introduces us to Mildred after about a page (I think - it's hard to tell when I'm reading on a Kindle what the original print edition would have looked like) setting the scene of the whole school more generally. We learn that Mildred is a first year and that she is almost always in trouble, even though she doesn't mean to be. Her dishevelled and disorganised appearance is given as one of the reasons that she gets in trouble with the teachers. But we also find out that she has quite a lot of friends and that Maud is her best friend. The other thing that we learn about Mildred's appearance is that, in contrast to Maud, she is tall and thin with long plaits which she often chewed absent-mindedly (another thing she was told off about and that (unlike Maud) she doesn't have glasses. Later in the chapter we find out about the black-and-grey striped pyjamas that Mildred wears to bed but there isn't a huge amount of physical description of the girls. There are Jill Murphy's lovely illustrations throughout the book which show us what Maud and Mildred look like but this is our main word-picture.
Mildred is noticeable (her height likely adds to that), she's either careless or clumsy or both (obviously I see her as probably having dyspraxia and maybe attention issues as well). She's not deliberately naughty but her appearance and inability to conform to uniform standards irritates teachers. She doesn't look like like a model pupil of Cackle's Academy.