As I have written about in other posts, Catholics have many opportunities to connect to God through the sacred Scriptures. We can connect to God when we listen to the readings proclaimed at Mass. We can connect to God when we set aside time to pray the Psalms, either by themselves or using the liturgy of the hours. And there is one more practice that can help us connect to God through the Scriptures. This ancient practice is known as lectio divina, or sacred reading.
What is Lectio Divina?
As its name suggests, lectio divina means reading the Scriptures in order to encounter God. When we devote our time and attention to lectio divina, our Bible reading becomes an occasion for developing a deeper awareness of God’s presence. We learn to perceive God’s presence in the events described in the Scriptures. We see how the people of the Bible – patriarchs, prophets, disciples – are invited by God to be part of the divine strategy for healing the world. But also, by discovering how God is at work in the Scriptures, we also learn how to recognize signs of God’s healing activity in our own experiences.
When we practice sacred reading, it’s like we’re reading two books at once. We read some part of the Bible. We grasp something of God’s style of acting, God’s habits for relating to people, or God’s character. Then we turn to “read” the events of our own lives, using what we read in the Scriptures for clues. The Bible teaches us how to find God in our everyday lives.
Reading Scripture Into Our Lives
As an example, things may not be as dramatic for us as they were for, say, Moses, when he encountered God in the burning bush on Mount Sinai (see Exodus 3). But most of us have experienced what it’s like to be asked to do more than we think we’re capable of. Many of us have had strange, wonderful, uncanny encounters with the God who inspires us to cast off our sandals and fall flat on our faces. Some of us might have even dared to ask God to reveal God’s divine name to us in the depth of our hearts. Toggling between the events of Scripture and the events of our own lives creates a kind of light. And this light illuminates truths about our lives, our tendencies, or our desires that we might not otherwise ever see. By practicing lectio divina, we increase our understanding of who God is and how God has acted in history. This, in turn, increases our understanding of who we are and how God is acting in our lives.
But there is another step in the unfolding process of sacred reading. Increasing our understanding and awareness of the fact of God’s presence is a vital element of the spiritual life. But in addition to recognizing God’s presence in the Scriptures and God’s presence in our lives, the practice of lectio divina can create a situation where we are drawn into God’s presence right here and now.
We carefully ponder Moses’s encounter on Sinai, and we examine our own lives for similar encounters. In the midst of our pondering, we might discover that we need to respond to God. Perhaps we use the words of the passage we have examined. Like Moses, we exclaim, “But I can’t do what you’re asking me to do!” Or, having discovered the traces of God’s mercy in our own stories, we might be moved to thank God for all the gifts we have been given. Our response will depend on what we read and what we discovered about ourselves. But lectio divina invites us to do the work of act.
Praying Scripture
Finally, once we put our own response to Scriptures into words, we might find that God has something to say to us. This might begin with the simple awareness that God is here, now, in our midst. The same God who spoke to Moses in the flames, and the same God who has accompanied our every step. If this happens, we put down both books, the book of the Bible and the book of our life. We let go of thinking about God or trying to have an experience of God or trying to tell God anything. Instead, we embrace an inner silence and attend to the God who has drawn us deliberately into the divine presence. We consent to let God inform our minds and hearts, however God wishes. And then, when the moment fades, as it always does, we can turn back to the text, or offer some additional words of thanks, or go about our day, whichever is most appropriate.
Traditionally, the sequence narrated above is divided into four parts: 1. Lectio, or reading; 2. Meditatio, or meditation; 3. Oratio, or oration; and 4. Contemplatio, or contemplation. In subsequent posts, I will talk more about these parts and how they are related, along with some practical tips on how to actually practice lectio divina.
Jon Stotts
Jon Stotts is a professional lay ecclesial minister in Nashville, Tennessee doing Christian initiation, ongoing conversion, and parish enrichment at Christ the King Catholic Church. He has a Ph.D in Religion from Vanderbilt University and a M.A. in Theology from Saint Meinrad School of Theology. Married and a father of four, he fills his free time with reading, baking bread, and dancing with his family.
