Lectio Divina
A Grace-filled path to resting in God
By Thomas Keating
(Page 1 of 2)
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 The ancient practice of Lectio Divina--the prayerful
reading of the Bible, the book Christians believe to be divinely inspired--is
being rediscovered and renewed. We need to distinguish Lectio from Bible study,
which provides a solid conceptual background for the practice of Lectio but
should be done at another time. Lectio is also not the same as praying the
scriptures in common, a contemporary development that is sometimes identified
with Lectio. The ancient practice of Lectio was done in private and consisted in
following the movement of the Holy Spirit in regard to the time one might devote
to each step or stage of the process, as well as passing from one stage to
another during the same period of prayer.
 The practice of Lectio can be divided into two
forms: the monastic and the scholastic. The scholastic form divides the process
into stages in a hierarchical pattern. Following the reading of a passage of
scripture, the first stage was to allow a phrase or word to arise out of the
text and to focus on it. This stage was called Lectio. The second stage was the
reflective and emphasized pondering upon the words of the sacred text, and was
called meditatio, "meditation." The spontaneous movement of the will in response
to these reflections was called oratio, "affective prayer", and constituted the
third stage. As these reflections and acts of will simplified, one moved to a
fourth and final stage, the interior state of resting in God, and that was
called contemplatio, "contemplation." This way of doing Lectio developed in the
Middle Ages at the beginning of the scholastic period with its tendency to
compartmentalize the spiritual life as well as theology. It organized spiritual
practices in a hierarchical order and relied on rational analysis more than the
spontaneity of the Spirit.
The monastic form of Lectio was practiced by the
Mothers and Fathers of the Desert in the fourth Century and later in monasteries
both East and West. It is oriented more toward contemplative prayer than the
scholastic form, especially when the latter developed into what we call today
"discursive meditation", which is moving from one thought to another. That
method is a good way of praying provided you don't get stuck there and fail to
move on to contemplative prayer. Most Christians are trained to reflect and to
multiply particular acts of the will in order to go to God and find it hard to
imagine praying without a lot of words.
In the monastic way of doing Lectio we listen to God
addressing us in a particular text of scripture. From this perspective there are
no steps or stages, but rather four focal points or moments along the
circumference of a circle. All the moments of the circle are joined to each
other in a horizontal and interrelated manner as well as to the center, which is
the Spirit of God speaking to us through the text and in our hearts. To pay
attention to any one of the four moments is to be in direct relationship to all
the others. In this perspective, one may begin one's prayer at any moment along
the circle, as well as move easily from one moment to another, according to the
inspiration of the Spirit.
Saint Paul writes, "Know you not that your bodies
are the temples of God and that the Spirit of God dwells within you?" (1
Cor.3:16). Suppose you were intrigued by that question and felt nudged to let
your attention linger over those words and to savor them. The early monks chose
such a phrase or sentence that impressed them. They would sit with that phrase
or sentence without thinking of stages or following some predetermined schema,
but just listening, repeating occasionally the same short text. This receptive
disposition enabled the Spirit to expand their capacity to listen. As they
listened, they might perceive a new depth of meaning to the text. A particular
insight might also be singularly appropriate for guidance in their immediate
life situation. According to scripture, the Spirit speaks to us every day. "If
today you hear his voice, harden not your heart" (Psalm 95). The monks listened,
not to conceptualize or analyze the text, but just to hear it. And to hear it
without any preconceived purpose of what they were going to do with it.
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