Invitation to Lectio Divina

By Scott Ferrier, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. – Hebrews 4:12

Lectio divina is a concrete means of opening ourselves to the action of grace and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is a particular type of spiritual reading — some monastics have referred to it as ‘prayed reading.’ For the ancients, “Sacred scripture is the table of Christ … where we are fed, where we understand what we must love and what we must desire, and
to whom we must lift up our eyes;” “the source of living water;” “It is knowledge for life, capable of transforming our entire inner self and restoring strength to our heart.” The ancients’ view of the Bible was that “Christ is contained in the literal sense” — sacramentally veiled beneath the surface of Scripture.

Our contemporary culture does not lend itself well to learning the ancient monastic practice of lectio divina. We are generally almost obsessed with getting to the bottom line, short-cutting preliminaries when possible. Our approach to lectio divina must include the sense of commitment, opening ourselves to the text with the eyes of faith, ready to perceive the will of God and the action of God— by the God who always seeks me (a phrase often used by Saint Bernard). It is a dialogue with God. He speaks to us in the sacred text when we are present to Him and when we in faith believe in His Presence to us.

One well-known Benedictine commentator tells us, “For those who practice it, the experience of lectio divina sharpens perception, enriches understanding … orders life, corrects bad habits … awakens longing for Christ and the heavenly homeland. It must always be accompanied by prayer and intimately joined with it, for we are cleansed by prayer and taught by reading … Reading enables us to learn what we do not know, meditation enables us to retain what we have learned, and prayer enables us to live what we have retained.”

As Pope Benedict XVI says in Verbum Domini, 86: “The word of God is at the basis of all authentic Christian spirituality.” The Second Vatican Council “thus sought to re-appropriate the great patristic tradition which had always recommended approaching the Scripture in dialogue with God. As Saint Augustine puts it: When you read the Bible, God speaks to you; when you pray you speak to God.”