SCRIPTURE/PRAYER

Praying the Scriptures: Lectio Divina

Background

The term lectio divina refers to spiritual reading. This form of spiritual reading, which arises from the monastic movement of the fourth and fifth centuries, has very little to do with what we ordinarily think of as spiritual reading.

In the Middle Ages, when this method of praying the Scriptures especially thrived, people read with the eyes, the lips (pronouncing what they saw), and the ears (listening to the word pronounced, hearing the "voice of the pages"). Reading was an activity in the Middle Ages requiring participation of the whole body, of the whole mind. People then actually thought it strange to see others read without speaking the words.

Lectio divina is a reading the Scriptures out loud. In lectio divina, one ruminates on a text, like a cow on the cud. In this method of prayer, one attaches oneself to the sentence being read. One repeats the words again and again out loud, in order to reflect on them and to remember them. It is very much like the process we would use to memorize a text. In lectio, one weighs all the words with eyes, lips, ears, and emotions in order to sound the depths of their full meaning and release for reflection the full flavor of the text. And one carefully attends to this exercise. The purpose of lectio divina is to bring the text into your very own being, fixing it in mind and heart, understanding its meaning, and stimulating in mind and heart the desire to put the text into practice.

Now let me suggest how to do it.

The Lectio Divina Method

Before Praying:

1. Carefully prepare for prayer by recollecting yourself in quiet, breathing slowly in and out for a couple of moments.

Within the Praying:

2. Begin the prayer time with a brief and quiet overview of the whole text which you intend to pray – a psalm, a gospel story, a chapter from Paul, etc.
   
3. Slowly, out loud, pronounce the first words, then the first line of the text. If a word or phrase strikes you, repeat it. Weigh the words and phrases, sound them out, milk their meaning. Try repeating the text with various emotions. Continue the repetition until:

a. Something strikes in your mind and heart that leads you to speak directly with God.

- about the text
- about something the text calls to mind

b. Repeat it until you fall to silence

c. or until you simply feel like moving on.

4. Then, move on to the next words or lines of the text, repeating them in the same fashion as above.
   
5. Continue in this pattern until the time (at least fifteen minutes ideally) comes to an end.

After Praying:

6. Spend some time reflecting:

• What was the experience like for you affectively (your emotional response, your deepmost inner movement)?
• What does your affective movement reveal to you?
• What insights came to you as you prayed?

Some Tips

As you pray, if you find yourself getting hooked on a word or phrase, stay there as long as it is fruitful. Try to stay with repeating the text and not going off. Try. But stay fluid with the method. Second, especially enjoy the affectivity, the emotional side, of the experience. Repeat the text, or portions of it, with various emotional tones. Note how the text changes with different emotional tones. Third, don't be afraid of the silence to which the reading might lead. Stay in the silence if that comes. Rejoice in it. God is speaking to you in the silence far beyond words.

Remember, that the Scriptures are God's half of the dialogue with us. Use the praying time to give yourself over to your half of the dialogue by working the words and phrases and giving yourself to the silence that comes for as long as it comes.