Lectio Divina
Lectio is the practice of reading scripture over and over again, each time with space to reflect on the word and to meditate on what it might have to offer.
Lectio Divina refers in Latin to the practice of “divine reading.” This form of spiritual reading originated in the Benedictine tradition and involves a deeply personal and prayerful encounter with the presence of God through sacred scripture. Lectio invites us to listen to the word of God with our whole being and our longing to be touched, healed and transformed by the Holy Spirit.
Lectio is a great way to spend time with Psalms…
Step 1
Read the passage once in a prayerful and unhurried way.
Simply take in the passage during the first reading and allow it to “register.”
Pause for 2-5 minutes.
Step 2
Read through the passage again in an unhurried way.
As you do listen for a word or a phrase that “shimmers” or reverberates in you. What is the word that attracts, touches, or even disturbs?
Spend some time with that word or phrase.
If you’re doing it in a group or family you may want to spend some time sharing the word or phrase that shimmered in you.
You might allow for some time to paint, draw, mould the word.
Step 3
Read the passage a third time.
This time you are invited to attend to the way this text connects to your life at this moment.
Consider how it relates to what you have seen and heard this day/week?
How does it speak to what is happening at home, at work, in your leisure time, in their community, in the world?
After the reading take an extended time to explore this connection in thought, in journaling, in art, or in movement.
If you’re doing it in a group or family you may want to spend some time sharing your response.
Is God calling you individually or collectively to any particular response in your present situation?
Step 4
Read the passage a fourth time.
This time you’re invited to listen for an invitation in the text, to consider if there is something in the text that is inviting something of you.
Take an extended time to explore this connection in thought, in journaling, in art, or in movement.
BIf you’re doing it in a group or family you may want to spend some time sharing your response, what have you heard, what have you discovered?
Close with an extended time of silence, simply resting quietly in the presence of God.
A spoken prayer may complete the silence.