Sunday, January 08, 2023

Lectio Divina

 Lectio Divina (Divine Reading) is "...a traditional monastic practice of Scripture reading, meditation, and prayer intended to promote communion with God and increase the knowledge of God's word" (source). The roots of the practice reach back into the 3rd Century A.D..  It fell a bit off the during the 16th century and following (although recommended by both Catholic and Protestant preachers on a piecemeal basis) but was brought back to the fore (in Catholic circles) as part of Vatican II.

The thought behind Lectio Divina is that God's word is, in fact, God's Word:  what God has to say on a subject or subjects (to use Francis Schaeffer's analogy, it is true truth from God, but not necessarily all truth as mortals cannot comprehend the full thoughts of God).  The impetus is both that the believer should come to see Christ in the Scriptures as well as to understand what the Bible directly says, rather than what any person - clergy or lay - says what the Bible says.

Guigo II, a Carthusian Monk of the 12th Century (flourit 1174-1180), formalized the practice in his book Ladder of Monks  He divided the practice into four parts:

- Lectio (Read)
- Meditatio (Meditation)
- Oratio (Prayer)
- Contemplatio (Contemplation)

The thing I am finding when I am trying to practice this is that it takes time:  time to read, time to meditate, time to pray, time to contemplate. It is a thing that cannot be rushed.  At the same time, I am finding it a useful practice.  Every day I use a form of lectionary (mine is Russian Orthodox, as that is what I have on my phone), which has a Gospel Passage as well as an additional New Testament passage.  Every day without fail, one line, one verse, has leapt out at me as something I need to add to my own life or consider deeply.

I am finding it a great place to start trying to get some depth into my relationship with God.


8 comments:

  1. I would be interested in understanding the difference between meditation and contemplation. Maybe a future blog post?

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    1. Thanks for question Leigh! I have an idea, but it would be reasonable to do more research.

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  2. Anonymous7:47 AM

    Leigh -

    For me anyway...

    Meditation: Using any of a variety of techniques (I prefer deep breathing) to clear the mind of everything so as to just be immersed in "now". The setting for such an exercise requires me to be alone, in a low distraction environment.

    Contemplation: A gentle focusing of the active mind to focus on understanding some particular idea. For me, that is generally whatever line has poked me in the eye in my morning readings of Scripture....a sure sign that I need to consider it more deeply. I can do contemplation almost anywhere as long as I do not have to engage in social interaction.

    YMMV...

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    1. Thanks very much for your input! This is similar to what I understand (my thought is to provide an example next week).

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  3. Those concepts were hammered into me by my mentors as a young Christian. We are to have a two way conversation with God the Father. How can that work??

    I read His Word, that's His communication to me.
    I pray, that's my communication to Him.
    I remember what I've read, that's memorization.
    I ponder on what I've memorized, that's meditation.

    It is simple in explanation. Those few people I know that do that, are the Godliest people I know. It's hard to find them. The time invested is not small. Even pastors are "too busy" to spend the necessary time. My first mentor, Lillie Belle, memorized entire books of the bible while riding the street car to and from her job at a defense plant during WW2. I memorized verses using the Bible Memory Association materials during my commute to and from college. I think I memorized 96 verses that semester. I still "think on these things" that I've memorized. I've tried to memorize Romans 6,7,8 since I was in my 20's. I never finished that. Probably time to restart the effort!

    "If you are too busy to do that, you are too busy." (R. G. LeTourneau) (Originally speaking about skipping church for work. It fits here, too.)

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    1. STxAR, that is not a bad way to think about it.

      I, too, have fallen off on my memorization. I used to memorize verses on my walks during lunch. Like you, I need to restart the effort!

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    2. Me too. It's been on my mind lately that I need to get back to it. I found it interesting that memorization isn't on Guigo II's list.

      I'm already looking forward to your future blog post TB!

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    3. Thanks Leigh! It is sort of implied, but not quite in the way we in the West have come to understand it. I suspect the thought is that we should, through this process, become so familiar with it that "memorization" as a separate practice is not required.

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