Practices: Lectio Divina

An important spiritual discipline is spiritual reading. Spiritual reading can include any literature that feeds the soul. A subset of spiritual reading is the practice of lectio divina (divine or sacred reading). Lectio divina refers specifically to reading the Bible but reading it as a resource for Christian spiritual formation.

The practice consists of four movement.

1. Lectio (reading).
2. Meditatio.
3. Oratio (praying)
4. Comtemplatio

Here is a quick explanation of each of these movements

Lectio (reading). Select a relatively short passage and read over it several times. Read to get the "feel" of the passage not so much to understand it.

Meditatio. Ponder a portion of the text that catches your eye. Allow the text to activate your imagination. Try to live in the phrase or portion of text that caught your attention. Allow the text to master you rather than trying to analyze it.

Oratio (praying). Pray the language of the text. Internalize the passage if appropriate. Some texts will leaving you wondering and may even confuse you. That is OK. Use it as a opportunity to ask God for clarity and discernment.

Comtemplatio. Now move beyond meditation and allow the text to open up the heavens for you. Be silent before the Holy One and ready for whatever God chooses to reveal of his presence and his glory. This step is not easy but seeks to bring the previous steps to a climax.

Like all the spiritual disciplines, this gets easier with practice and you will not always get a "good" feeling from the discipline, but if you are patient and you commit to this practice for a set period of time, God will begin to teach you himself through his word.

I would love to hear from others about their attempts at lectio divina.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Michael Hanegan on January 18, 2009 at 7:08pm: I have found this practice to be especially helpful in the Gospels. Sometimes we say that the church wasn't in the Gospels (technically this is true)...but those who read it first and saw themselves in those writings were the early church. Thanks for the info Stan!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by James Nored on January 23, 2009 at 1:14pm: Stanley, I know that this is a popular practice for Spiritual formation today. I struggle with this, however, due to my personality type. I find it hard to sit and contemplate. I am such an "Achiever" (Strengths Finder), that this is difficult for me.

Being a "P" in the Myers-Briggs, I do my best contemplating while doing something else or being in a stimulating environment. I pray driving down the road rather than alone in a room. I can think about God much better when surrounded by nature than in an office.

But I know that I work too much, and need to contemplate and pray more. This is a good practice.

Have you looked at this practice across personality types? A good book that I read on Spiritual Formation and personality types is Invitation to a Journey: A Roadmap for Spiritual Formation by Robert Mulholland.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Stanley N. Helton on January 23, 2009 at 2:23pm: James,

I have not done a lot of thinking about how personality types approach various activities of spiritual formation. I do know that Mulholland, whom you mention, uses it as does Boa in the textbook I mentioned elsewhere. But more open spiritual guides, such as Who is my God? An Innovative Guide to Finding Your Spiritual Identity (Woodstock, VT: Skylight Paths, 2000), which could care less which faith tradition is involved, uses the personality approach.

So I would want to know how Jungian psychology meshes with Christian theology before I would buy wholesale into using personality types as a basis for choosing spiritual disciplines. At this point, they are called disciplines because we have give focused attention to them and I think the more "practices" you have in your toolkit, the better you will be for them.

Tell more of what you are thinking. Like I said, I have not thought through what little I think I know.

James Nored said:
Stanley, I know that this is a popular practice for Spiritual formation today. I struggle with this, however, due to my personality type. I find it hard to sit and contemplate. I am such an "Achiever" (Strengths Finder), that this is difficult for me.

Being a "P" in the Myers-Briggs, I do my best contemplating while doing something else or being in a stimulating environment. I pray driving down the road rather than alone in a room. I can think about God much better when surrounded by nature than in an office.

But I know that I work too much, and need to contemplate and pray more. This is a good practice.

Have you looked at this practice across personality types? A good book that I read on Spiritual Formation and personality types is Invitation to a Journey: A Roadmap for Spiritual Formation by Robert Mulholland.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Stanley N. Helton on February 4, 2009 at 4:51pm: I was reading in M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993) today. I notice that in his treatment of lectio divina that he adds an introductory step and a concluding one to the model offered above. He believes these to be important for people who live in the kind of culture we do. His introductory step is called silencio, while the concluding one is called incarnatio.

By silencio, he refers to the need for us to slow down and disconnect for our highly plugged-in world. He describes this as an inner shift from control to receptivity, from information to formation, and from observation to obedience.

By incarnatio, Mulholland is pointing to need to incarnate the word we have heard in our sacred reading time. The shift involved here is from receiving the text to living the text. Here, he quotes John Wesley: "Whatever light you then receive should be used to the uttermost, and that immediately. Let there be no delay. Whatever you resolve begin to execute the first moment you can." Or, as Nike asserts, "Just do it!"

I found these words helpful today. I hope you do as well.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Debra on February 5, 2009 at 7:28pm: James I can definitey sympathize with you here. I often have my "best spiritual" moments when I'm on a walk or driving my car. If I try to sit and contemplate after reading, my mind wonders. However, I have become more aware of the idea of praying scripture or as stated above, praying the language of the text. This is powerful and causes the Word to become more alive for me. Also, last year a friend of mine gave me a very, very short little book from Beth Moore. It was designed in such a way that you read the same, very short lesson, every day for one week. No matter how tempting it was to read the next devo, you were to stay on the one devo for the week. Over the course of that week, as you read it more, different thoughts would come to mind of how that scripture or idea could be applied. It was a very powerful tool. God showed me things that I might have never seen had I just said, "Oh that's a good point" and just moved on to the next lesson. As a result of that experience, I do have a tendency to "see" certain ideas or even individual sentences that catch my attention and I will meditate and study on those things that week. Some of my devos have come from such meditations!

James Nored said:
Stanley, I know that this is a popular practice for Spiritual formation today. I struggle with this, however, due to my personality type. I find it hard to sit and contemplate. I am such an "Achiever" (Strengths Finder), that this is difficult for me.

Being a "P" in the Myers-Briggs, I do my best contemplating while doing something else or being in a stimulating environment. I pray driving down the road rather than alone in a room. I can think about God much better when surrounded by nature than in an office.

But I know that I work too much, and need to contemplate and pray more. This is a good practice.

Have you looked at this practice across personality types? A good book that I read on Spiritual Formation and personality types is Invitation to a Journey: A Roadmap for Spiritual Formation by Robert Mulholland.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bret Wells on April 30, 2009 at 2:08pm: Stan,

I've been using Lectio in group settings for about 5 years now and I find it to be an incredibly valuable tool. When I took David Wray's spiritual formation class at ACU last year I discovered that what I do is similar to what some refer to as "African Bible Study."

I begin by inviting everyone to spend a moment in silent prayer as we prepare to hear the Word of God. In that prayer we ask God to speak through his Scriptures and if there is a word or phrase in the passage that we need to hear to make it stand out as we listen.

After a few moments in silence, I read the text aloud followed by another time of silence.

At this point I invite those participating to share the word or phrase that stood out. I ask that no one comments or gives explanation at this point and I remind them that if nothing stood out they don't need to feel compelled to say anything. This is actually a difficult and important part of the process when dealing with folks who've been around Sunday School/Bible Classes for any length of time. We have become accustomed to come up with something insightful and clever to say about the text - and that is not the point of Lectio. We are here to listen - so we seek to quiet our ego.

After everyone's had a chance to share a word or phrase, I let them know that we'll spend another period in silence followed by the reading again. This time, during our silence we simply ask God, "What about my life is this word or phrase speaking?" Then we sit and wait. There is no need to spend the whole period silently talking at God - a simple question and then a listening posture.

Following the reading and another moment or two of silence, I give folks a chance to share what it is about their life that the word or phrase is pointing to, highlighting or speaking in some way. Again, I urge them to simply describe that area of their life - only if they feel comfortable - without going into a long story or interpretation.

At this point I acknowledge that God does not merely dwell in the theoretical or informational but that instead He is the One who speaks universes into being and calls people to action. So, during the next period of silence we ask God, "What is it that I am called to do or be or to stop doing or being?" Then silence.

Following a final reading and period of silence I ask if anyone would like to share what it is they are called to. Sometimes no one shares anything at all - and then this has also led to a person choosing to be baptized into Christ.

In any case, I've found these times are extremely powerful. I also like this approach in our setting of house churches because even a relatively new disciple can lead a time of Lectio if someone will walk through it with them a few times.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Stanley N. Helton on May 1, 2009 at 11:33am: Brett,

Thanks for sharing.

Stan

Bret Wells said:
Stan,

I've been using Lectio in group settings for about 5 years now and I find it to be an incredibly valuable tool. When I took David Wray's spiritual formation class at ACU last year I discovered that what I do is similar to what some refer to as "African Bible Study."

I begin by inviting everyone to spend a moment in silent prayer as we prepare to hear the Word of God. In that prayer we ask God to speak through his Scriptures and if there is a word or phrase in the passage that we need to hear to make it stand out as we listen.

After a few moments in silence, I read the text aloud followed by another time of silence.

At this point I invite those participating to share the word or phrase that stood out. I ask that no one comments or gives explanation at this point and I remind them that if nothing stood out they don't need to feel compelled to say anything. This is actually a difficult and important part of the process when dealing with folks who've been around Sunday School/Bible Classes for any length of time. We have become accustomed to come up with something insightful and clever to say about the text - and that is not the point of Lectio. We are here to listen - so we seek to quiet our ego.

After everyone's had a chance to share a word or phrase, I let them know that we'll spend another period in silence followed by the reading again. This time, during our silence we simply ask God, "What about my life is this word or phrase speaking?" Then we sit and wait. There is no need to spend the whole period silently talking at God - a simple question and then a listening posture.

Following the reading and another moment or two of silence, I give folks a chance to share what it is about their life that the word or phrase is pointing to, highlighting or speaking in some way. Again, I urge them to simply describe that area of their life - only if they feel comfortable - without going into a long story or interpretation.

At this point I acknowledge that God does not merely dwell in the theoretical or informational but that instead He is the One who speaks universes into being and calls people to action. So, during the next period of silence we ask God, "What is it that I am called to do or be or to stop doing or being?" Then silence.

Following a final reading and period of silence I ask if anyone would like to share what it is they are called to. Sometimes no one shares anything at all - and then this has also led to a person choosing to be baptized into Christ.

In any case, I've found these times are extremely powerful. I also like this approach in our setting of house churches because even a relatively new disciple can lead a time of Lectio if someone will walk through it with them a few times.; ▶ Reply to This