Lectio Divina

I would like here to review the basic steps of this procedure. It opens with the reading (lectio) of a text, which leads to a desire to understand its true content: what does the biblical text say in itself? Without this, there is always a risk that the text will become a pretext for never moving beyond our own ideas.  Pope Benedict, Verbum Domini 87

What was read in the monasteries in ancient times?  Primarily the Scriptures, but also the Fathers of the Church and the great Spiritual Masters.  The reading is slow and attentive, concerned not with finding out facts or information but to hear the voice of God.  The quality of the reading is more important than the quantity.

What matters most is the manner in which we approach the Scriptures, the reverence given to the text.

“If we say the Bible is a book - which is like saying that the Eucharist is bread and wine - we need to add that it too is a sacrament, a place where grace is poured out, a means of communion with God, a revelation of the divine presence. Unless we approach this book in faith, as a true sign of the communication that is ongoing between God and humans, it will not yield grace or communion. When we have faith, and only then, the Bible releases “ the gospel… the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith…” (Romans 1:16) Enzo Bianchi, Lectio Divina, From God’s Word to our Lives, SPCK 2015.

Next comes meditation (meditatio), which asks: what does the biblical text say to us? Here, each person, individually but also as a member of the community, must let himself or herself be moved and challenged. Pope Benedict, Verbum Domini 87

Meditation is often the simple repetition of a phrase or passage that has been read. But people find their own ways to savour and take hold of the text. By whatever means try to allow the text to sink in so that we can carry it with us during the day, into our work, and prolong our period of reading. 

During our time with the Scriptures we often do no more than plant the seed, the seed of God’s word - a favourite image of Jesus.  And we tend it, and watch it and wait for something to happen:  often nothing seems to happen. But if we have planted it gently so that it has taken root, then the time will come for it to flower.  In other words do not be disappointed if nothing much seems to happen during lectio! It is not for a quick fix, but a prayer to sustain us over the long haul. The fruitfulness of lectio may not even come during the period of lectio, but if we have allowed the word to take root it is ready to flower and bear fruit later on.

“Read attentively a page, penetrate its meaning.  Don't content yourself to run quickly and superficially through the words, but feel them with all your intelligence, and treasure the sense of them in you; then reflect on what you have read.  Meditate and you will be inflamed with fervour.” Theolept of Philedelphia

BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. Book of Common Prayer

Following this comes prayer (oratio), which asks the question: what do we say to the Lord in response to his word? Prayer, as petition, intercession, thanksgiving and praise, is the primary way by which the word transforms us. Pope Benedict, Verbum Domini 87

We get caught up in the text and respond to what we have heard.  God has spoken to us, we now speak to Him.  It is a moment of praise, thanksgiving and intercession.

This basic principles for lectio was laid down long ago in one of the first Christian writings on prayer by St Cyprian (c.200 to 258) writing to a new convert to Christianity: “Never cease from praying and reading” he says, “For in prayer, you are speaking to God, and in reading God is speaking to you.” 

Later tradition says the same thing, but puts it in its logical order: Reading precedes prayer, for in the dialogue between God and man, the initiative lies with God. Lectio respects what prayer is: a Dialogue, an exchange between me and God. God speaks, we respond.

So far we have talked of receiving the word of God, but in doing so we feel called to respond in our own way. We respond to what we have heard. God has spoken to us, we now speak to Him. It may be a moment of praise or sorrow, thanksgiving or intercession. Whatever it is, it does not come from our own initiative, but a prompting of the Spirit to the word we have received.

For me prayer is a surge of the heart, it is a simple look towards Heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy. St Thérèse of Lisieux

Lectio Divina concludes with contemplation (contemplatio), during which we take up, as a gift from God, his own way of seeing and judging reality, and ask ourselves what conversion of mind, heart and life is the Lord asking of us? In the Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul tells us: ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect’ (12:2).

Contemplation aims at creating within us a truly wise and discerning vision of reality, as God sees it, and at forming within us ‘the mind of Christ’ (1 Corinthians 2:16). The word of God appears here as a criterion for discernment: it is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart’ (Hebrews 4:12).   Pope Benedict, Verbum Domini 87

There is no technique in lectio that can force God to touch our hearts. The most we can do is open them to whatever he gives. There is a time for speaking, there is a time for keeping silent.

writes Ecclesiastes. Contemplation cannot be forced through personal effort, but it can be received as a gift.

We should not think of contemplation as something extraordinary, but the grace of a deeper experience of God and his will. It may be a feeling of peace; it may be a moment of insight, forming within us the 'mind of Christ'; it may be a firm resolve to act in a certain way; it may simply be an experience of his love that wants to transform the dry bones of our lives and fill them with the Spirit of his resurrection. It is the "small, shy truth that arrives."

We struggle, we grow weary, we grow tired.  We are exhausted, we are distressed, we despair.  We give up, we fall down, we let go.  We cry.  We are empty, we grow calm, we are ready.  We wait quietly. 

A small, shy truth arrives.  Arrives from without and within.  Arrives and is born.  Simple, steady, clear.  Like a mirror, like a bell, like a flame.  Like rain in summer.  A precious truth arrives and is born within us.  Within our emptiness.

We accept it, we observe it, we absorb it.  We surrender to our bare truth.  We are nourished, we are changed.  We are blessed.  We rise up.  

For this we give thanks.

Michael Leunig A Common Prayer (Collins Dove, 1990)

We do well also to remember that the process of Lectio Divina is not concluded until it arrives at action (actio), which moves the believer to make his or her life a gift for others in charity.  

Pope Benedict, Verbum Domini 87

“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” writes St James in his Epistle (1:22). It is a clear reminder that we are live the word that we ponder, we are to put it into practice. So some have added a fifth stage to the traditional four steps: action - actio.

In St Luke's Gospel, Jesus himself is explicit on this point: "rather blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it" (11:28).  Blessedness is for those who "do" the Word. Jesus also compares those who listen to the word but do not put it into practise with those who build their house on sand, and those who do put what they have heard into practice to people who build on rock.

Does the end of our prayer make us more charitable? More easy to live with? More peaceful, patient and tolerant? If not, we might ask ourselves if we have been truly listening.

"Lectio Divina carries us to the practice of good actions. As the meditation of the word has as its end the memorizing of it, such that we remember the word meditated, so the meditation of the law, of the word of God inclines us and carries us to action."  St Ambrose.