Lectio Divina

A couple of years ago, I was introduced to the practice of "lectio divina," an ancient way of reading and meditating upon Scripture, both personally and in a group setting. I later found out that Christians--including Benedictine monks--have been reading Scripture using this technique since the 3rd century, which I found amazing since I'd never heard of lectio divina before.

Also, it's pronounced "leck-zee-oh di-vee-nah," which I was also not aware of, apparently.

Anyway, every time I've had the opportunity to participate in lectio divina in a group setting, it's been an amazing experience. I wanted to share this way of praying through Scripture with you guys, since we are a sphere devoted to prayer and Scripture.

Lectio divina is simply Latin for "divine reading." It is a four-fold method to read passages of scripture according to the following parts: lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio. (And yes, for this part of the blog, I've shamelessly ripped off of Wikipedia). Lectio is simply reading the passage slowly, several times over, and allowing certain words to jump out at us, paying attention to those that do. Meditatio is reading through and seeking God's presence in the text and discovering how He reveals Himself in the text. Oratio is actually praying through the Scripture and seeking how the self relates personally and individually to God. We search for the truth on how this passage can break us, move us, transform us. Contemplatio is simply resting in His presence and adoring Him through what we see/hear in the Scripture.

Lectio divina is also something that can be practiced in our own private, daily readings of Scripture, as the same principles apply. And in the group setting, it can be particularly powerful. Every time I've participated in lectio divina in a group setting, I've been amazed at how quickly the usual distractions fade away and how the passage seems to come alive. Usually a leader reads the passage aloud to the group and they must simply listen to the spoken word, as Christians did for the first millenia and a half of Christianity (until that dude Martin Luther came along and jacked up the system;). In our current postmodern society where we rapidly scan blogs, update our facebook statuses, and tweet and tumble in relentless ADD fashion, I've found that it's a beautiful thing to hear the words with our ears, rather than let our eyes distract us.

I've realized this week that lectio divina is something that cannot be rushed. Even today, I was trying to squeeze in my required reading of Acts and I realized that I cannot rush through His Word, in a hurried attempt to simply to meet my goal each day. I have to learn to savor the Word and really wrestle through it and pray through its implications if I am going to really meet with God and be transformed by what I find in Scripture.

Anyway I encourage you guys, if you haven't heard of/tried out lectio divina, maybe give it a shot this week? See what God does...

-Mel