Lectio Divina: a Living Program of Prayer

Seek in reading (lectio)
And you will find in meditation;
Knock in prayer,
And it will be opened to you in contemplation.
-- St. John of the Cross

READING

“Lectio (reading) has been called a ‘methodless method’ of prayer. The description alludes to the fact that it is less a learned way of prayer than one which spontaneously ‘flows’ toward contemplation as its destination…”[1]

The first step of Lectio Divina is reading, or more accurately listening to the Word of God. It is my active faith in the Spirit, present in the word and in me, which when brought to the reading and hearing of Scripture “in-spires” or “breathes into” it the living reality of the Speaker. A text is chosen, preferably a short one, and it is read slowly, listening to it interiorly with full attention, the text to “touch” the heart.

MEDITATION

“The word meditation refers to a discursive reasoning process in which words, events, etc., are prayerfully pondered and reflected on with the object of drawing from them some personal meaning or moral. It is basically an activity of the intellect and reason, aided by grace.”[2]

--for the intuitive person: “Savor” some insight or truth. Allow the words of Scripture to repeat and resonate in you.

--for the imaginative person: Imagine the scene in all its aspects. You may even identify yourself with some person in the text.

After reading the text, “identify with one of the onlookers and describe the action from his or her point of view. Do this as if the event were unfolding right now in front of your eyes. [Next], insert yourself into the event by identifying with one of the active participants in the scene. As you experience what is happening in the gospel scene, be aware of what you are thinking, sensing, and feeling—your entire subjective response.

The value of this approach is that it can plunge us so deeply into a Gospel mystery that we get caught up in a personal encounter with the Lord. As often happens in a play, there can come a time when…the artificiality of the put-on identity slips away and the Gospel character comes to life in us.”[3]

ORATIO: PRAYER OF THE HEART

Prayer of the heart is an interior longing for God, which is itself prayer. We allow ourselves to be vulnerable and to put aside our defenses and masks, standing before God in our naked need and creaturehood. Oratio is the active effort we make to keep our hearts open to him and to put ourselves at the disposal of His Spirit, preparing a way for God’s action to supersede our own. Over a long period of time we find ourselves moving between meditation and this prayer of the heart, but eventually a gradual simplification takes place.

CONTEMPLATION

Contemplation is variously described as a “resting in God,” or “a loving gaze” upon Him, or a “knowing beyond knowing” or “a rapt attention” to God. All such attempts at verbalizing the experience necessarily fail to express the reality, for the simple reason that contemplation transcends thinking and the reasoning of meditation, as well as transcending the emotions and “feelings” of the affective faculties. It is basically a prayer experience of pure faith.

“In His humanity, Jesus experienced the contemplation of His Father, and invites us, through the gift of His Spirit, to enter into that experience. It is available to us in the measure of our faith and love, which are the proximate means, in this life, or ‘seeing’ God, of touching and being touched by Him, i.e., of experiencing Him.”[4]

“The disposition which opens and readies us for the gift of contemplative prayer is already a response to a given desire to ‘see’ God and to be one with Him in love. But it is a desire which sets us on a painful path of emptying ourselves of the self-orientation which is the major obstacle of its fulfillment.”[5]

TO SUMMARIZE:
1. Receive, and place no obstacles to the Holy Spirit.
2. Follow any attraction to interior silence and remain in loving attentiveness.
3. Allow yourself to be drawn into the darkness of God’s love, and gently let go of worrying about yourself.
4. When it becomes possible to meditate again, do so until and unless interior silence becomes habitual.

[1] Thelma Hall R.C., TOO DEEP FOR WORDS Rediscovering Lectio Divina, (New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1980), p.9
[2] Ibid., p.9
[3] Willie Au, S.J., BY WAY OF THE HEART, (New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1989), p.100
[4] Thelma Hall R.C., TOO DEEP FOR WORDS Rediscovering Lectio Divina, (New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1988), p.13
[5] Ibid., p.14