Lectio Divina

As we enter into June, let's spend this month practicing lectio divina together. I was first introduced to this practice in the fall of 2016. The speaker of the event I participated in stood before the group and read a passage of Scripture. She then gave some instructions for listening & experiencing these verses.   She read the verses aloud several times, and each time, her instructions were a little different than the time before. The intent was to invite each of us to pay attention to the verse she was reading and to notice what the Holy Spirit might bring to our awareness in those moments.  

After participating in that event, I wanted to know more about lectio divina, so I did some reading on the topic. Lectio Divina is Latin and means divine reading. This way of prayerfully engaging with Scripture has been happening for as long as we've had Scriptures to ponder.  

In Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer, David Benner writes, "In the third century, Origen used the Greek phrase thea anagnosis (divine reading) to describe a way of approaching Scriptures for the purpose of finding a personal message from God. This practice became more widespread when the desert fathers and mothers made the Word of God the basis of their prayer lives, and shortly after this Saint Benedict made the practice of lectio divina central to Western monasticism." 

I recently discovered that there are two approaches to lectio divina: the monastic and the scholastic.

I thought it might be helpful to visualize these two approaches.  

The monastic approach came along first. It was focused on an individual listening to a Scripture as it was spoken aloud and then spending time in quiet reflection—noticing what words or phrases seemed to stand out to them that day, asking the Holy Spirit to show them what might be important to notice, talking to God about what they were noticing, and resting in God's presence.

I thought this image of a circle might help visualize the monastic approach. A circle is fluid. It has no beginning or ending. As the Scripture is read aloud, you might weave in and out of any one of these ways of praying. You might experience all four in a particular setting or linger on one. It isn't about accomplishing a specific goal but about being present with the Holy Spirit as you prayerfully consider the Scripture you've heard or read. 

The scholastic approach came later, around the 12th century, when Guigo II wrote about contemplative life and described lectio divina as a ladder with rungs that build upon each other, one rung leading to the next. He used the Latin terms lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio.  

Here, we can see the staircase imagery as we imagine moving up the ladder from step 1 to step 4. The scholastic model, like the monastic model, invites us to experience all of these various forms of prayer with Scripture, but for some, it might feel like a task to complete rather than an invitation to be with Jesus.   

You will likely notice that the words for both approaches are essentially interchangeable. Both approaches focus on slowing down, paying attention to what you have read or heard, making space to notice what the Holy Spirit is bringing to your awareness at that moment, and being with Jesus.  

I think it is common for us to experience a monastic approach to lectio divina in our personal times of reading and interacting with Scripture, a space where we can ebb and flow as the Holy Spirit meets us and where we have more control over the amount of time we are available to sit in these moments of prayer with Scripture.  

My experience with the scholastic approach has predominantly been in group settings. This approach allows one person to facilitate a group of any size, whether they are new to lectio divina or have experience with it. The facilitator can help the group move through the various movements of prayerfully reading the Scripture passage while also being mindful of any time constraints.   

I think the heart behind both approaches, even if presented in different ways, is the invitation to read Scripture and to meet Jesus while prayerfully engaging with the text and the Holy Spirit.  

I'd love to know if lectio divina is a familiar practice for you, and if so, I'm curious if you've experienced one or both approaches.  


~  Melissa