The following guidelines might be helpful in developing a practice of Lectio Divina.
-
Reading - Read a short passage of scripture as if it was the first time you ever read it(less than 10 verses is ideal). Quiet your mind and try to listen for a word or phrase that bubbles up. The passage can be read a second time for this first reading if needed. Read slowly and wait on the Lord to reveal what he has for you in this passage.
-
Meditation - After the second reading ponder what Christ, through his Sprirt that lives in you, might be trying to communicate to you through the word or phrase that he has given you.
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Prayer of the heart - we enter into a unique and spontaneous prayer to God which reaches out to him in ardent love. This prayer is more a prayer of relationship than of petition, though petition is by no means forbidden.
-
Contemplation - We sit in silence before God and allow him to work within us as he desires. If our thoughts come at us to try and disrupt this silence, we can gently repeat the word or phrase given during the reading to re-center us.
Luke 11:9 might be
paraphrased in the following way to describe Lectio Divina:
Seek in READING,
and you will find in
MEDITATION;
knock in
PRAYER
and it will be opened to
you
in
CONTEMPLATION.
Passages for further
Lectio:
James 5:13-20, Matt 6:9-15, Luke
9:46-50, John 10:9-15, John 6:44-47, Luke 22:24-27, John 14:16-19, Matt
25:14-30, Rev 7:13-17, Luke 7:11-17, Luke 8: 40-56, Matt 15:1-20, I Cor
1:25-31, Luke 12:4-12
Much of this material came from the
book by Thelma Hall, Too Deep for Words.
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