Lectio Divina

Praying Slowly with the Bible

“Bible study is an activity - something you do. You read a chapter, underline key verses and words, you make notes in the margins. Lectio begins with a word, a verse, a picture, a hint of God. Its goal is to move us from listening with the head to listening with the heart, from activity to receptivity.” (Duffy Robbins)

The aim of lectio divina is to avoid the trap of feeding our heads yet starving our hearts.

There are four stages to Lectio Divina, steps that can help us hear from and speak to (converse with) God through our reading: lectio, meditatio, oratio and contemplatio.

Lectio - Read

The first step is to read the passage in a way that is slow and unhurried, reading in a way that is fully focused on what is being read, with an awareness these are words from God himself and an expectancy that He could speak to us through them. This might involve reading two or three times slowly and prayerfully, and from this then being attentive to any word or phrase that stands out and then sitting with that.

You could ask God: Is there anything in particular you want to say to me today? and then linger to consider if anything seems to be ‘shimmering’ here in the passage before you …

Meditatio - Reflect

Reading flows into reflecting, where the emphasis is on taking the time to ‘chew it over’, to savour and meditate on what has stood out to you and to prayerfully think about where it connects to your life.

You could ask God: ‘Why has that particular word, picture, phrase or line stood out to me right now?’ Now, re-read the passage and consider it as a whole…

Oratio - Respond

You may have noticed that conversing with God pierces its way through all the stages. At this point it’s particularly about responding in prayer to what’s been experienced in the course of reading and reflecting.

You could pray to God about; Lord, I think I sense you drawing my attention to… Help me with this and help me to understand how to move forward with you.

Contemplation - Rest

Having read, thought and prayed about whatever it was that you connected with in the passage, now is a time to rest, to be still before God and to enjoy His presence as you would with a good friend.

When distractions come, you may find it helpful simply to repeat silently the word or phrase which has been catching your attention or to focus on a memory from the last few minutes you’ve spent interacting with God.

Some things that might help.

Our often loud and busy lives can make this way of reading the bible difficult. Two things worth considering that could help you with this are place and posture.

Place

A particular room in your house. A comfortable chair. An area in your garden or a place nearby to sit.

Where might there be an environment or place that would help you to settle and even counteract the loudness and busyness you may experience in life?

Posture

Even if you find a good place, you  may feel distracted. Taking a few moments to focus on your posture is worthwhile.

Try to get comfortable, focus on where you are and your breathing. You could repeat  “Be still and know I am God” (Psalm 46:10) or another verse or prayer as a way to aid settling.