Lectio divina: Spiritual practice spotlight.
There are many ways we can read Scripture, and many of them are good. Often, we tend read the Bible with the intention to study it and understand it like it like we would an ordinary text—we want to hear what it really says. But we can also approach it with a desire to hear through it, namely, God speaking through the Bible to us.
We call this kind of practice lectio divina.
What is lectio divina?
Lectio divina is Latin for “divine reading,” sometimes called “sacred reading.” We can think of it as simply prayerful reading or reading as a prayer. Like many ancient prayer exercises, there are many ways we can practice it—formal and informal—but there are two main characteristics we can notice.
We read the passage s-l-w-o-l-y.
We read the passage multiple times.
The main idea is that, where we might typically read Scripture straight through like an article or a story, lectio divina is more like savoring a poem or soaking in a favorite song on repeat or poring over a love letter. What it says is still what it says. But here, we also want to take an opportunity to notice how God might be speaking to us using these words, behind these words, beneath these words, to address us in the place where we are.
How to practice lectio divina.
Traditionally, lectio divina has five stages—but these stages can help us see the big picture of how lectio works. And whatever helps accomplish this in us is a perfectly OK way to practice it.
Lectio (“reading”)
Meditatio (“meditation”)
Oratio (“speech” or “prayer”)
Contemplatio (“contemplation”)
However exactly we make a lectio exercise, we want to start by finding a space (a time and a place) where we can quiet ourselves and become still. Lectio bears fruit for us when we can give it room to breathe, and hurrying into it in order to “accomplish” it may prove less helpful. One way to check our hurry is to wait until we’re perfectly still in a comfortable position and then take a great deep breath, in and all the way out, and then pause. Now we’re ready to begin.
1. Read.
“What’s there?”
First, we take a small section of Scripture to read. It can be a psalm, a gospel story or anything else—probably not more than one or two dozen verses, certainly no more than a chapter. And we read it slowly so that we can pay attention to each word.
Here, we’re just receiving the words of the text as they are. What does the passage say? What’s happening in the psalm or the story or the teaching? We take in the big picture, and if anything jumps out at me especially, I simply notice this.
What words strike me especially?
What images stand out?
What am I drawn to, or what do I notice something in me reacting to?
If you find you got distracted or are having difficulty grasping what’s happening on the face of the passage, you might just read it again or revisit the part that’s hazy. The important thing isn’t doing lectio perfectly or understanding everything; it’s enough merely to be aware the words and their general sense.
2. Reflect.
“What do I notice about what’s there?”
Lectio is sometimes practiced by reading the passage again for each step, and you can do this, or you can simply read it as many times as you find helpful while following the larger movement of the steps. This movement continues at this point from reading to reflecting—from what’s there to what you notice about what’s there.
In other words, what thoughts or feelings can I notice stirring up in me? Perhaps I feel moved or inspired or convicted. This might resonate with something in my life presently, or I might find myself drawn more and more to an idea or an image. If there’s something in me feeling friction with something in the passage, this is also wonderful to notice and spend a little time with. It’s enough just to notice, to be aware and to let my awareness remain in that place where God may seem to be drawing it.
3. Respond.
“How do I want to respond?”
While all the steps and process of lectio is prayer in the truest sense, this step is more like the prayer we may be used to. What do I want to say or ask? We might talk to God about what we’ve noticed, what’s stirred in us, and what’s emerged in our mind or heart. This can be a relaxed conversation with Jesus as with a friend, just as much as it can be a monologue, pouring out our thoughts and feelings.
If we find that words fail us, that’s OK; we can respond just as well by giving a particular gaze toward God (a grateful, contented smile or soft, pleading eyes) or by imagining we’re holding out the messy, tangled, wordless contents of our heart for God to receive and understand in ways that even we ourselves cannot.
4. Rest.
“What is here for me, now?”
Finally, we notice how God responds to us. Lectio, and all prayer with it, has as its main end a shared intimacy with God. The fourth traditional step (contemplatio or what I’m calling “rest”) is truly what all the previous steps are gearing us toward. This is the part of the lectio prayer where we can let go entirely of the words of the text, even our own words—and even any words we might hope to hear from God. We can let go of these and just listen, just be.
Perhaps God says nothing. Perhaps we have no particular impressions or images from God. But if we can find ourselves seen by God, the God who has heard our response, and imagine that God’s response is to come near to us in attentive and unhurried love, we can receive many gifts in this quiet shared space. We need not be able to name or number them for us to receive the graces of God’s love gently making its impression on us, like two people spending many, many hours together and becoming ever more alike.
This is where all of our prayer drives.
Try it out.
However you might like to try out a lectio exercise, the important thing is simply this movement from exterior to interior, deeper and deeper—words to meaning to response to being with God. Whatever you find helps you follow this journey inward, to where God would like to meet with you, is desirable.
You only need start somewhere. Consider a short piece of Scripture that’s already meaningful or evocative to you. Or, you can select an image or object that stirs you. A similar practice to lectio divina, visio divina, invites you to use a work of visual art to follow the descent from exterior to interior toward God’s nearness with you. There’s also no reason you couldn’t try this with music or anything else you might meditate on.
As always, find what seems to bear fruit for you, and allow what doesn’t to guide you toward what does.