Prayer Part II: Praying with Something: Lectio Divina

You will probably have heard people say that they pray with scripture or that they pray the Psalms. Finding guidance and insight in Scripture is a common and effective practice. Lectio Divina, however, is a more specific way to pray with Scripture and this method is what I want to share with you today. Lectio Divina is a powerful and personal method of prayer. It is at once both structured and open-ended, and it boasts a long and respectable provenance.

Literally, "divine reading" has been around a long time. I won't make this a history lesson, but Lectio Divina is traceable back to the 3rd Century cleric Origen and was adopted and later adapted by Saints Ambrose and Augustine. Saint Benedict established it for his monks in the 6th Century, and it was formulated into a four step process in the 12th Century by Guigi II, a Carthusian monk. 

In Lectio Divina you are praying with Scripture. It is not Bible study. It is not looking for answers in the Bible. It is not hermeneutics. Neither is it literary interpretation. Resist the temptation to intellectualize the selected passage. There is a time and place for that, of course, but this is not it. Lection Divina is prayer that recognizes that our Holy Book is the Word of God.

I am indebted to The Benedictine sister, Macrina Wiederkehr’s wonderful A Tree Full of Angels for finally spelling this process out for me. Basically it is this:

First, take a passage of scripture. It shouldn't be any longer than about twenty verses and can be much shorter. Make a specific intention to read this passage with an open heart and in a prayerful way. In other words, ask God for help. Read and re-read it (aloud if at all possible) until you come to a phrase or even a word that strikes you as particularly meaningful, that speaks to your heart. Stop there. Even if your well-trained scholarly self frowns at you for not completing your assignment, stop.

Second, close your book and let the phrase inhabit you. Allow its deeper meaning to unfold within you. Try not to think too much here. Certainly repeat the phrase or word as many times as you like. Long-ish spaces of nothing are fine. Don’t try to close down your thoughts but neither should you over-think it. What does the phrase say to you? What ideas do you associate with it?

Third, speak to God from your heart about the passage and the phrase. Your praying doesn't have to be articulate or literary, just a word or two - or no words. Direct your heart to God with the passage at your side, so to speak. You may go off track. That’s fine but keep the thread alive that ties you back to the phrase.

Fourth, let the phrase go. Let the passage go. Just be whoever you are at this moment with God and know that you have prayed.

Don’t be discouraged if no phrase presents itself to you. This happens often. You still have prayed. You still have opened the Scripture and asked God’s help. You have prayed with the Scripture. You have also prayed with God.

I have found it helpful to write in a journal after the final step, maybe right away or maybe later in the day. Remind yourself of the phrase throughout the day. It will grow in meaning as the time goes by.

Wiederkher compares lection divina with eating. You look at food, inhale its aroma delight the sight of it. You take a bite. It’s yours. You claim it. You savor its taste and texture, its temperature and flavor. You swallow it and digest it. Your body works it without your awareness. Then it becomes part of you. So it is with the line of Scripture that spoke to your heart.

Let me offer one example from my own Lectio. A few months ago, I was reading a series of Easter passages in an attempt to open the mystery of the Resurrection. In 1^st Corinthians, I came to 15:6 “…after that he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters…” The words “brothers and sisters” immediately struck me.

Seeing the Christian community as brothers and sisters was nothing new to me, nor was thinking of all of us on this planet as brothers and sisters. On an ordinary day, I would consider the phrase a bit over-used, a cliche. It didn't seem at all trite this time, though. Moreover, the point of the passage was not the Body of Christ as the Church but the fact that Jesus’ Resurrection was witnessed by many. Nevertheless, it was “brothers and sisters” that caught me and kept me for a day.

So what meaning did I find in this very common phrase? Partly, it was Paul’s extravagant inclusion of all these unknown people; partly it was the realization that these early Christians are my own brothers and sisters now, even after two thousand years. I became aware of these holy people and all holy people in a new and very immediate way. Maybe the web that connects us to each other and to Christ is stronger than blood or proximity or friendship.

But that phrase became a part of me in a new way and that was God teaching me a particular truth. That was prayer.