BOSTON COLLEGE | THE CHURCH IN THE 21ST CENTURY CENTER
LECTIO DIVINA by Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM
A rich practice of biblical spirituality, or transformative engagement with the Word, that is ancient but is enjoying a renaissance in our own time is lectio divina. The practice is described in the episode in Acts 8:26–39 in which the Ethiopian court official of Queen Candace is reading and meditating on the Servant Song of Isaiah (cf. 53: 7–8), which he does not understand. He appeals to Philip for enlightenment. Philip’s teaching results in the official’s conversion and subsequent baptism. The origin of the practice of lectio divina among Christians can be traced back to the desert fathers and mothers whose spirituality consisted primarily of prayerful rumination on biblical texts. Later, in the Benedictine monasteries organized around the Rule of St. Benedict (c. 540), the practice was both legislated and to some extent formalized. The Carthusian Guigo II (d. ca. 1188) finally supplied a carefully articulated “method” for the practice of lectio divina in his spiritual classic, Ladder of Monks, which has been adapted by contemporary spiritual teachers for our own times.
mind to the meaning of the passage. The purpose of meditatio is deepened understanding of the text’s meaning in the context of the person’s own life and experience. Because the text is engaged in experiential terms, the meditation gives rise to prayer (oratio) or response to God, who speaks in and through the text. Prayer of thanksgiving, adoration, praise, sorrow, repentance, resolve, petition, indeed all the kinds of prayer one experiences in the Psalms, are elicited as response to the Word. Finally, fervent prayer may reach that degree of interiority and union with God that the great masters of the spiritual life have called contemplation (contemplatio). Contemplation has acquired many meanings in the history of Christian spirituality, but in this context it indicates the full flowering of prayer in imageless and wordless union with God in the Spirit.
Lectio divina is a form of biblical spirituality in practice that, over time, can transform a person into the image of Christ encountered in scripture. I have found that many people who have never heard of lectio divina practice this kind of prayer on a daily basis using Lectio divina is a four-step process that begins with the New Testament, the daily lectionary, a collection the slow, leisurely, attentive reading (lectio) and of biblical texts, the Psalms, or even biblically based re-reading of a biblical text. Often the text is commit- music. In other words, even though the term “biblical ted to memory in the process. By internalizing the text spirituality” may be unfamiliar to many people, the in its verbal form, one passes on to a rumination or reality of biblical spirituality as a practice is not. meditation on its meaning (meditatio). The medieval commentaries on scripture bear witness to both the Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM, is Professor of New Tesspiritual depth and the imaginative breadth to which tament Studies and Christian Spirituality at the Jesuit this process could lead. School of Theology/Graduate Theological Union. Today this second step might involve study of the text through consultation of commentaries, or reading of the text in the context of the liturgy and thus of other biblical texts from both testaments that the church sees as related, or other forms of study that open the
Excerpted from Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, Vol. 56 No. 2; republished in Catholic Spiritual Practices: A Treasury of Old and New, Paraclete Press, 2012. FAITH FEEDS PRAYER RESOURCES - LECTIO DIVINA | 1
BOSTON COLLEGE | THE CHURCH IN THE 21ST CENTURY CENTER
LECTIO DIVINA “Lectio Divina is an opportunity to slow down and experience God’s Word deeply. An opportunity to savor the words of Scripture, to sit at God’s table, to be nourished, fed and refreshed. An invitation to be fully present with our holy God.” —Cindee Snider Re, Finding Purpose Summary
Sandra Schneiders, IHM, provides an insight into lectio divina as a practice of biblical spirituality. In lectio the practicioner explores the transformative influence of scripture through four different movements of prayer of reading, meditating, speaking, and contemplating. Although each experience of lectio may not include each of these movements, over time lectio “can transform a person into the image of Christ encountered in scripture.”
Questions for Conversation
1. H ow have you used scripture in your prayer life? Do you have a practice of reading scripture alone, with others, or in liturgical settings? How have those experiences helped shape you? 2. What does it mean to be transformed “into the image of Christ in scripture”? How can a practice of spiritual reading help us to know this person called “Christ”? 3. We often learn through and become ourselves through the many narratives we hear throughout our lives. What narratives have helped you become who you are today? How might a biblical spirituality enrich your formation through narrative?
FAITH FEEDS PRAYER RESOURCES - LECTIO DIVINA | 2