Illustration by Leticia Plate

A very ancient art, practiced at one time by all Christians, is the technique known as lectio divina—a slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures that enables the Word of God to become a means of union with God. This ancient practice has been kept alive in the Christian monastic tradition and is one of the precious treasures of Benedictine monastics and oblates. Together with the liturgy and daily manual labor, time set aside for lectio divina enables us to discover in our daily life an underlying spiritual rhythm. Within this rhythm, we also discover an increasing ability to offer more of ourselves and our relationships to the Father and to accept the embrace that God is continuously extending to us in the person of His Son Jesus Christ.

The practice of lectio divina consists of four stages.

Lectio: Reading and Listening

The art of lectio divina begins with cultivating the ability to listen deeply, to hear "with the ear of our hearts" as St. Benedict encourages us. When we read the Scriptures, we should allow ourselves to become women and men who listen for the still, small voice of God (1 K. 19:12, KJV): the faint murmuring sound that is God's word for us, God's voice touching our hearts. This gentle listening is an "atunement" to the presence of God in that special part of God's creation that is the Scriptures.

The cry of the prophets to ancient Israel was the joy-filled command to listen: "Hear, O Israel!" (Dt. 6:4). In lectio divina, we, too, heed that command and turn to the Scriptures, knowing that we must listen to the voice of God, which often speaks very softly.

In order to hear someone speaking softly, we must learn to be silent. We must learn to love silence. If we are constantly speaking, or if we are surrounded with noise, we cannot hear gentle sounds. The practice of lectio divina, therefore, requires that we first quiet down in order to hear God's word to us. This is the first step of lectio divina, appropriately called lectio, reading.

This reading or listening is very different from the speed reading that modern Christians apply to newspapers, books, and even the Bible. In lectio, we read slowly and attentively, gently listening to hear a word or phrase that is God's word for us this day.

Meditatio: Meditation

Once we have found a word or a passage in the Scriptures that speaks to us in a personal way, we must take it in and "ruminate" on it. The image of the ruminant animal quietly chewing its cud was used in antiquity as a symbol of the Christian pondering the Word of God. Christians have always seen a scriptural invitation to lectio divina in the example of Mary "pondering in her heart" what she saw and heard of Christ (Lk. 2:19).

For us today, these images are a reminder that we must take in the Word—that is, memorize it—and while gently repeating it to ourselves, allow it to interact with our thoughts, our hopes, our memories, our desires.

This is the second step or stage in lectio divina: meditatio. In meditatio we allow God's Word to become His word for us, a word that touches us and affects us at our deepest levels.

Oratio: Prayer

The third step in lectio divina is oratio, prayer. Prayer should be understood both as dialogue with God—as loving conversation with the one who has invited us into His embrace—and as consecration, the priestly offering to God of parts of ourselves that we have not previously believed God wants. In this consecration prayer we allow the Word that we have taken in, and on which we are pondering, to touch and change our deepest selves.

In lectio divina God invites us to hold up our most difficult and pain-filled experiences to Him and to gently recite over them the healing word or phrase He has given us in our lectio and meditatio.

Contemplatio: Contemplation

Finally, we simply rest in the presence of the one who has used His Word as a means of inviting us to accept His transforming embrace. No one who has ever been in love needs to be reminded that there are moments in loving relationships when words are unnecessary. It is the same in our relationship with God. Wordless, quiet rest in the presence of the one who loves us has a name in the Christian tradition: contemplatio, contemplation. Once again we practice silence, letting go of our own words and this time simply enjoying the experience of being in the presence of God.

Practicing Lectio Divina

Choose a text of the Scriptures that you wish to pray. Many Christians use one of the readings from the Eucharistic liturgy for the day; others prefer to work slowly through a particular book of the Bible. It makes no difference which text is chosen as long as one has no set goal of covering a certain amount of text; the amount of text covered is in God's hands, not yours.

Place yourself in a comfortable position and allow yourself to become silent. Some Christians have a beloved prayer they recite in order to become interiorly silent. Find a method for quieting yourself, and enjoy silence for a few moments.

Read the text slowly. Savor each portion of the reading, constantly listening for the "still, small voice" of a word or phrase that somehow says, "I am for you today." Do not expect lightning or ecstasies. In lectio divina, God is teaching us to listen to Him, to seek Him in silence. He does not reach out and grab us; rather, He gently invites us ever more deeply into His presence.

Take the word or phrase into yourself. Memorize it and slowly repeat it to yourself, allowing it to interact with your inner world of concerns, memories, and ideas. Do not be afraid of "distractions." Memories or thoughts are simply parts of yourself that, when they rise up during lectio divina, are asking to be given to God along with the rest of your inner self. Allow this inner pondering, this rumination, to invite you into dialogue with God.

Speak to God. Whether you use words or ideas or images or all three is not important. Interact with God as you would with one who you know loves and accepts you. Give to Him what you have discovered in yourself during your experience of meditatio. Experience yourself as the priest that you are. Experience God using the word or phrase that He has given you as a means of blessing, of transforming the ideas and memories that your pondering on His Word has awakened. Give to God what you have found within your heart.

Rest in God's embrace. Learn to use words when they are helpful, and to let go of words when they no longer are necessary. Rejoice in the knowledge that God is with you in both words and silence, in spiritual activity and inner receptivity.

Sometimes in lectio divina, one will return several times to the printed text, either to savor the literary context of the word or phrase that God has given or to seek a new word or phrase to ponder. At other times, only a single word or phrase will fill the whole time set aside. It is not necessary to anxiously assess the quality of one's lectio divina as if one were performing or seeking some goal. Lectio divina has no goal other than that of being in the presence of God by praying the Scriptures.

Lectio divina is a way of allowing the Scriptures to become again what God intended they should be: a means of uniting us to Himself. In His Word we experience ourselves as personally loved by God, as the recipients of a word He gives uniquely to each of us when we turn to Him in the Scriptures.

Finally, lectio divina teaches us about ourselves. We discover that there is no place in our hearts, no interior corner or closet, that cannot be opened and offered to God. God teaches us in lectio divina what it means to be members of His royal priesthood—a people called to consecrate all of our memories, hopes, and dreams to Christ.

Fr. Luke Dysinger is a Benedictine monk at Saint Andrew's Abbey in Valyermo, California. This article was first published in the Spring 1990 (Vol. 1, No. 1) edition of Valyermo Benedictine. It was reprinted as "Appendix 2" in The Art and Vocation of Caring for People in Pain by Karl A. Schultz (Paulist Press). Used by permission. All rights reserved.