Fr John Kersten: Bible Meditations for Every Day

It is a very strange coincidence that I posted on 4//29 my intention to read this book and follow Fr John's recommendations for meditation just about an hour before I read of Pope Francis' recent teaching about meditation. I'm hoping others will comment on their meditation practices and whether they are considering changes.

Fr John has provided a short scripture and related commentary for each day, and has suggested brief, simple guidelines for a 15-20 minutes meditation. I have almost never managed a 15 minute meditation, and I think the few times I have it was because my mind subconsciously wandered off on its own.
I decided to try two meditations, one in sequence beginning 4/28, the day I started, and the second beginning 1/1, so I could consider the structure or possible logic for the topics and Scripture selected. The first passage is
1 Kings 19:9-12 describing God's Revelation to Elijah who was hiding in a cave from the Israelites.
Fr John's focus seems to be encountering God through the guidance of the Holy Spirit' rather than Pope Francis' emphasis on encountering Jesus. Since Jesus was and is God, this is perhaps not inconsistent but only a difference in emphasis.

I've been very consistent reading at least one of Fr John's meditations every day, and have learned a great deal, although I am frequently troubled by either the Scripture selection, or his comment, or both. The most important lessons, so far, are the concepts of Lectio and Contemplation, which Father John alludes to but seems to assume the reader knows them.
Does anyone know if there is a group at LT for Contemplatives, secular or religious?

So far I've found only two references by Fr John to Contemplation. In his Preface he writes: "Biblical meditations are discursive (through images, forms, and figures). When to abandon them and pass on to the state of Contemplation? St John of the Cross advises us to go on making discursive meditation as long as we can do so with satisfaction..." The source is The Ascent of Mount Carmel, which is at home and I'm at camp- more on this later.
His second reference is in his Sept 29 comment (I skipped ahead)on Eph 5:15-20, "Thomas Merton stresses the real purpose of Meditation/Contemplation (in Merton's book Contemplation in a World of Action)-the exploration and discovery of new dimensions in freedom, illumination and love, in deepening our awareness of our life in Christ..."
I have a couple other Merton books but not this one.