Handout with outline and resources* for

Lectio Divina
presented at the opening retreat of the 2003-4 Spiritual Formation Program,
revised and adapted for West Chester Friends Meeting, October 24, 2004

Lectio Divina (lectio) is a devotional practice associated with Benedictine monastics, though it is earlier than Benedict. Lectio Divina might be translated as spiritual reading. It starts with the reading of a text, typically from the Bible, particularly the Psalms. Other works may also be used and the Benedictine web site (cited below) can lead you to some of these.

The method is comprised of four steps:

1. Lectio (reading) is the reading of the text. After selecting a piece, we may read only a designated portion, a pericope, a chapter, that which is designated in the lectionary (see below), or we may read until we come to something that stops us, that speaks to our condition. Whatever we read we read it slowly, allowing it to sink in. Our reading may involve committing portions to memory, to be returned to throughout the day.
2. Meditatio (meditation) as in "thinking about." The word is confusing for those of us who associate meditation with eastern practices of calming or stilling the mind. In this case it is an active process and may involve one or more of the following ways of understanding:
   • literal
   • allegorical
   • moral
   • Anagogical
3. Oratio (prayer)
4. Contemplatio (contemplation) is where the prayer deepens and the words fall away, leaving nothing between us and God.

When I refer to this as a "method" I don't mean to imply this is something to be done mechanically. Each of the above should lead into the next. The reading will lead us into thinking about what was read, and that thinking may take one of the mentioned forms. Prayer should naturally arise out of that, and will be shaped by the text and what form the meditation took. As I said, contemplation is where the prayer deepens and the words fall away, leaving nothing between us and God.

One way of selecting a text is from the Common Lectionary which is a book used by many churches to assign texts to be read in services. I often use an Episcopal book Day by Day (based on the lectionary) which gives the readings each day with a brief meditation. We will illustrate the process using one of today's texts.

Works I have found useful

The Gethsemane Encounter (Continuum Publishing, 1999) is a compilation of essays by Buddhist and Christian contemplatives who came together in 1996 to discuss their practices. The essay by Mary Margaret Funk, OSB focuses on lectio divina

Pennington, M. Basil Seeking His Mind: 40 Meetings with Christ (Paraclete Press, 2002) with an introduction on lectio followed by meditations.

I hesitate to provide a web page with information on lectio divina because the whole idea of the web seems to me to be antithetical to the very contemplation to which lectio is to take us (as Marshal McLuhan said "The Medium is the message."). With that caution in mind you can find, a good description at Valyermo Benedictine web site. The home page of the Order of Saint Benedict has some valuable resources, as does that of Basil Pennington (known primarily for centering prayer).

* underlined words are links to web pages and are active on the URL at the bottom of this page.