LECTIO DIVINA
Too Deep for Words: Rediscovering Lectio Divina by
Thelma Hall (New York: Paulist Press, 1988) gives an
excellent history, description, and overview of this
prayer form. It includes an extensive section of themes
and suggested scripture texts.
Basil Pennington has published a good beginning
text on Lectio Divina called Lectio Divina: Renewing
the Ancient Practice (New York: Crossroad, 1998)
Michael Casey has written a text on Lectio Divina
for those more advanced in its practice. It would be a
good book to read after you had practiced this method
for some time. The book is entitled Sacred Reading: The
Ancient Art of Lectio Divina (Liguori, MO: Triumph
Books, 1996)
LECTIO DIVINA
Lectio Divina is a Latin phrase that means sacred
reading. It is a method of prayer that primarily has to
do with praying scripture.
It is one of the oldest and most popular prayer
forms in our Catholic prayer tradition. It is commonly
associated today with St. Benedict and Benedictine
spirituality. At the beginning of the sixth century
when he wrote the Rule of St. Benedict, he made it a
primary prayer form for the monks and religious women
who followed his monastic rule.
The word reading does not do justice to what Lectio
Divina is all about. It is different from what we do
when we read a book for information or entertainment.
It is more than just reading the Bible. It is more than
just studying the Bible. It is more about hearing God
speaking to us in a unique and personal way through the
inspired Word. We go to lectio to come to know and to
love God by being with God through our sacred reading.
We depend on the Holy Spirit acting through the gifts
of the Spirit to bring us to this experience.
The method of Lectio Divina is most frequently
used to pray a selected passage from scripture. But it
can also be applied to spiritual reading. You can take
a book of spiritual reading and apply to it the method
of Lectio Divina. In this way, you pray a book rather
than just read it for information or inspiration.
Instead of reading large sections of a book, you would
limit yourself to reading a paragraph, or even a few
sentences from the book.
There are four simple parts to Lectio Divina.
Lectio, meditation, oratio and contemplatio.
1. The first part of this prayer form is called lectio
(reading). You begin by opening yourself up to God in
faith. You read the Word of God with prayerful
attentiveness, silently, aloud or in a whisper. Read
through the passage two times. Read it the first time
with your mind to know what it says, to understand it.
It might be helpful beforehand to have read a
commentary about the passage. Read it also with your
heart to get a sense of the emotional tone of the
passage. Read it a second time slowly and prayerfully.
In your reading, you make an act of faith that God will
guide you to the word, phrase or verse in the biblical
text through which God wants to speak to you or to
nourish you. As you read through the text a second
time, stop when you feel drawn or attracted to a given
word, phrase or verse in the sacred text. At this point
you move on to meditatio.
2. Meditatio (meditation): Stop at and stay with the
word, phrase, or verse that caught your attention.
Slowly repeat the word, phrase or verse. Savor it and
allow it to sink into your mind and heart. Welcome the
Word of God into your life. Let this Word that was
written long ago speak to you in terms of your own life
situation today. Hear this Word of God as if it were a
love letter written by God to you. Allow God to work
through your mind, your intellect, your reason to help
you personalize this word and apply it to your own life
situation. What does God want to say to you? Don't
force your prayer, but allow God to lead you to new
insights and meanings. Pay attention to your thoughts
and images. God may also want to speak more to your
heart than to your mind. What feelings are stirred
within you? Stay with this word as long as there is
feeling, insight and understanding. Be patient if
nothing seems to be happening. Let go of your agendas
about what this word has meant to you in the past. When
you feel like you have drawn all that you can from this
word, you are ready to move on to oratio.
3. Oratio (prayer response): In oratio you enter into a
spontaneous, loving dialogue with God. Talk to God as
you would talk to your closest and most intimate
friend. Be totally honest about what you are thinking
and feeling, no matter what it is. What do you want to
say to the God who loves you just the way you are? What
are your reactions to the insights and understandings
that you came to in your period of meditatio? Let your
response to God be expressed through praise,
thanksgiving, contrition or petition or through
decisions, resolutions or commitments. God is
interested in everything that you have to say and will
not judge you. You have listened to God speaking to you
through the words of Scripture, and now you make a
personal response to the Word of God as it has been
revealed to you. After you have dialogued with God, you
are ready to move on to contemplatio.
4. Contemplatio (contemplation): This is a time to be
quiet, to just rest with God without any need for words
or images. In our society, we say, “Don’t just sit
there, do something.” In contemplation, we say, “Don’t
just do something. Sit there.” In contemplatio, go back
to your word, phrase, or verse. Simply repeat it over
and over. Then rest for a time in loving silence. If
distracting thoughts or feelings come into your mind,
return to your word or phrase. Rest with God. Be
present to God just as you would be present to your
best friend. There is nothing you have to do or
accomplish. Invite God to simply be present with you in
the silence. Trust that God is working within you,
transforming you even though you may not feel like
anything is happening. Humbly accept whatever happens
in this time of prayer - light or darkness, richness or
dryness. Even if it does not seem like anything is
happening, make an act of faith that God is doing God's
work in you in God's own time and way.
After completing the four steps, you can stop and
end your prayer. You can also continue reading on in
the scriptural text until you find yourself drawn to
the next word, phrase, or verse. You then repeat the
process. You can continue through your text in this way
as long as you feel drawn to do so.
Thomas Keating says that Lectio Divina is the most
traditional way of cultivating friendship with Christ.
It is a way of listening to the texts of Scripture as
if you were in conversation with Christ, and he were
suggesting the topics of conversation.
St. John of the Cross paraphrased Luke 11:9 to
describe Lectio Divina in this way: Reading, you should
seek. Meditating, you will find. Praying, you shall
call. Contemplating, the door will be opened to you.
A rural southern minister described it in this
way: I reads myself full; I thinks myself clear; I
prays myself hot; I lets myself cool
Dom Marmiom, a 20th century spiritual writer,
describes it in this way: We read (lectio) under the
eye of God (meditatio) until the heart is touched
(oratio) and leaps to flame (contemplatio).
When doing Lectio Divina, it is suggested that
there is value in writing out the passage that you are
going to pray. It can give you a new insight into the
passage.
In Lectio Divina, the point is not to read large
passages of scripture or to get through an entire
gospel or book of the Bible. Less is more. It is far
better to meander, to savor, to reread, to repeat, to
mull over a few words. Our point is not progress or
achievement but spiritual nourishment.
It is suggested that you create a Lectio Divina
journal in which you write down the words, phrases,
scenes that you were drawn to in your lectio. In
reading back over them over a period of time, you might
discover themes or patterns or ways in which God might
want to be present to you.
The four steps of Lectio Divina can be used
interchangeably. You may spend more time one day with
one of the steps and the next day be drawn to spend
more time with a different one of the steps. Trust your
instincts, and stay where you find fruit.
Michael Casey in his book The Undivided Heart
writes this of Lectio Divina: "It is wrong to think of
Lectio Divina as being like a quick trip to the
refrigerator. It is more like the regular meals which
constitute life's basic source of energy. It is quite
important that we are convinced that it is impossible
for us to remain genuine followers of Christ without
continued contact with his Word."
The impact of this
prayer is finished. God
help you experience and
Spirit. You may find as
are thinking and living
prayer often comes after the
may work outside the prayer to
live out of fruits of the
you use this prayer that you
differently.
How might you go about choosing passages to read for
your lectio?
1. One method could be what I call scriptural roulette.
You simply open the text at random and begin reading.
This was the inspiration for St. Augustine – take and
read.
2. Another approach would be to pray the daily
lectionary, either the first reading or the gospel.
This way your lectio is broken up into small, workable
passages.
3. Another approach would be to take a gospel or a book
of the Bible that you feel drawn to and to pray it from
beginning to end over a longer period of time.
4. Thelma Hall in her book To Deep for Words offers a
thematic approach to using lectio. She offers in the
back of her book fifty scripture themes for prayer.
This would allow you to explore a specific theme
through different books in the Bible.
With regard to our choice of scripture passages,
we should not simply pray those passages that please
us, the warm and fuzzy passages of Scripture. It is
also important that we be willing to wrestle with and
be open to the "hard sayings" of the scriptures. It
might be important for us to dialogue with God when we
find something in the text that disturbs or challenges
us.
WHY DO I LIKE THIS WAY OF PRAYER?
It is versatile:
A. It fits with all personality and temperament types.
B. It can be used to pray scripture or spiritual
reading.
C. It makes use of all styles of prayer: vocal prayer,
mental prayer and contemplative prayer.
LECTIO DIVINA (SARCED READING)
1. The first part of this prayer form is called lectio (reading). You begin by
opening yourself up to God in faith. You read the Word of God with prayerful
attentiveness, silently, aloud, or in a whisper. Read through the passage two
times. Read it the first time to understand it and its historical context. It might be
helpful beforehand to have read a commentary about the passage. Read it a
second time slowly and prayerfully. In your reading, you make an act of faith that
God will guide you to the word, phrase or verse in the biblical text through which
God wants to speak to you or to nourish you. As you read through the text a
second time, stop when you feel drawn or attracted to a given word, phrase, or
verse in the sacred text. At this point you move on to meditatio.
2. Meditatio (meditation): Stop at and stay with the word, phrase or verse that
caught your attention. Slowly repeat the word, phrase or verse. Savor it and allow
it to sink into your mind and heart. Welcome the Word of God into your life. Let
this Word that was written long ago speak to you in terms of your own life
situation today. Hear this Word of God as if it were a love letter written by God to
you. Allow God to work through your mind, your intellect, your reason to help you
personalize this word and apply it to your own life situation. What does God want
to say to you? Don't force your prayer, but allow God to lead you to new insights
and meanings. Pay attention to your thoughts and images. God may also want to
speak more to your heart than to your mind. What feelings are stirred within you?
Stay with this word as long as there is feeling, insight and understanding. Be
patient if nothing seems to be happening. Let go of your agendas about what this
word has meant to you in the past. When you feel like you have drawn all that
you can from this word, you are ready to move on to oratio.
3. Oratio (prayer response): In oratio you enter into a spontaneous, loving
dialogue with God. Talk to God as you would talk to your closest and most
intimate friend. Be totally honest about what you are thinking and feeling, no
matter what it is. What do you want to say to the God who loves you just the way
you are? What are your reactions to the insights and understandings that you
came to in your period of meditatio? Let your response to God be expressed
through praise, thanksgiving, contrition, or petition or through decisions,
resolutions or commitments. God is interested in everything that you have to say
and will not judge you. You have listened to God speaking to you through the
words of Scripture, and now you make a personal response to the Word of God
as it has been revealed to you. After you have dialogued with God, you are ready
to move on to contemplatio.
4. Contemplatio (contemplation): This is a time to be quiet, to just rest with God
without any need for words or images. In contemplatio, go back to your word,
phrase or verse. Simply repeat it over and over. Then rest for a time in loving
silence. If distracting thoughts or feelings come into your mind, return to your
word or phrase. Rest with God. Be present to God just as you would be present
to your best friend. There is nothing you have to do or accomplish. Invite God to
give you new insights or to simply be present with you in the silence. Trust that
God is working within you, transforming you even though you may not feel like
anything is happening. Humbly accept whatever happens in this time of prayer light or darkness, richness or dryness. Even if it does not seem like anything is
happening, make an act of faith that God is doing God's work in you in God's
own time and way.