Lectio Divina -- Spiritual Bible Reading

Lectio divina is a really useful and practical discipline for spiritual growth. Stock-still in ancient monasticism, the practice is a fourfold cycle: Reading, Meditation, Prayer, and Contemplation. In fact, the term itself means “sacred reading.”

Reading. Lectio divina begins with a “text,” whether that is the Bible, a spiritual classic, thing in nature, or even as another person. You must “take up and read.” But the reading is not done to acquire psychological feature or information, to master the text. Reading is done slowly, focusing on words and connections. In lectio divina, we are seeking to let the text master us.

I see through the Bible, a practice better-known as lectio continua, during my pious times. I used to see for information, and to get through a certain figure (say, four chapters every day), but now I see slowly, taking at most a chapter each day. As I read, I listen for how the Word of God is addressing me.

Meditation. Meditation is focused thought. In lectio divina, we are neither holding our mind run wild with thoughts nor holding it empty of all thoughts. Instead, we concentrate our focus on the words of the text, thinking simply about each one. Let each word resonate inside you.

Think of the meditation phase as although it were tea steeping. You are the hot water, and the tea bag is the Bible. As the tea bag steeps (reading), flavor is diffused throughout the hot water. This is meditation. It is the slow, cooking period wherever we digest the text and gain insight.

Prayer. The prayer phase takes the fruit of our meditation and offers it back to God. Mayhap a text led us to joy because of the gifts of God, or peradventure a passage exposed sin in our lives and the need for repentance. Prayer is once we offer these insights back to God.

Contemplation. Contemplation is the act of sitting in the presence of God with total attention and concentration on God. After a time of prayer, we simply sit with God.

If you preach or teach, you should use lectio divina as part of your preparation. Sit with the text away from analysis and exegesis, and let God speak to you through his word. A sermon or class could follow this four-part cycle.

For a sermon, the man of the cloth could see the passage, describe the paths he or she explored during meditation and the insights found, and offer a prayer to God based on the meditation. After, there could be a congregational period of silence for contemplation.

When I teach, I often use lectio divina as an outline. I see the passage from my Bible and ask two or three others to see the same passage, but from some translations. Then I help the class to “meditate”: I ask what words or pictures stricken them from the reading, what they detected or didn’t noticed, what feelings they had as they read, or what was most startling in the text. We follow these threads, learning from each other, and then conclude with prayer.

Lectio divina is a really helpful discipline for spiritual growth. If the reader practices lectio divina often, she wish begin to plumb the depths of her soul and her relationship with God. The single greatest facet of lectio divina is its ability to create a mental attitude that can really listen to and for God.

About The Author

Jeremy M. Hoover is a part-time minister and full-time writer, proofreader, and book reviewer in Windsor, Ontario. For rates on proofreading, or to request a review, contact Jeremy via email at jeremyhoover at gmail.com or at his website, Hoover Reviews (http://hooverreviews.blogspot.com).

Jeremy is the editor of two ezines--Diasporic Ruminations (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/diasporic_ruminations), featuring Christian reflection on church, culture, and faith, and The Dunwich Review (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dunwich_review), featuring writing in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft.