Contemplative theologian Beverly Lanzetta offers instructions for the monastic practice of lectio divina which today can be practiced by all. The first stage is lectio or reading:
Reading at a slow pace, with a contemplative state of mind, nourishes the inner path and opens us to become aware of the movement of spirit. We do not rush through the text to gain details or knowledge but seek instead through words the Divine presence and action in our lives. A gentle, prayerful attitude opens the door and unlocks the text, so that we may pass over to our journey into the sacred….
Unlike reading for content, lectio divina approaches the text as a form of prayer, guiding us closer to union with the Holy One. At its simplest, lectio is not reading intellectually to gather information or instruction, but with the intention that the reader be formed in the divine likeness. In and through text, one comes face-to-face with Spirit. Through slowly reading, we allow words to penetrate our hearts and fill us with wisdom and love. Sometimes we are pulled clean out of our ordinary state of mind. We may awaken to new truths or insights, suffer compunction or shame, or be forgiven and bathed in light. By whatever means, when we read with meditative attention, communion occurs through surrender and rest. We do not hurry reading, trying to find the thesis, underlying cause, or doing critical analysis. We stop. We remain still in the presence of mystery….
Three additional stages are practiced. Meditation, meditatio, is reflective engagement with a text. For example, let’s say you read the passage from the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” [Matthew 5:39]. During the day, you carry the passage with you, ruminate on it as you are walking, at work, or running errands. It becomes your meditatio, as you listen for the Divine speaking through Scripture and learn how the passage relates to your life.
From conscious engagement with the text, we shift to a mode of receiving or simply being with God:
Prayer or oratio gives over to God the wisdom gained in meditation. Thus, one prays to be led to truth and virtue, to practice the principles discerned from the day’s reading, and to express praise and thanksgiving. Ultimately, oratio moves into contemplatio, or contemplation. Here you are not “doing” anything but opening yourself to receive and rest in God. You can move into a passive or receptive form of knowing, where you may experience the text coming directly from the divine mind and heart into your being.
Of course, from the slow reading of a text there is no need to curtail how the spirit moves you from one stage to the next. You can remain in any of these stages for the duration of the practice, and you can move spontaneously, and not linearly, from reading to meditation, prayer, or contemplation.
Reference:
Beverly Lanzetta, A New Silence: Spiritual Practices and Formation for the Monk Within (Blue Sapphire, 2020), 246, 247–249.
Image credit and inspiration: Annie Spratt, untitled (detail), 2018, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Through the stillness of our witnessing, word and image become thresholds—stirring the unseen and inviting Spirit to speak through the quiet bloom of our attention.
Story from Our Community:
Julian of Norwich’s writings on non-dualism have drawn me to an image of God as nonbinary and/or transgender. I see so much hatred and fear surrounding our LGBTQ loved ones in our society today. My youngest child is non-binary, and I have not found a more compassionate, loving, non-judgmental soul on this planet. We learn love from each other—as I have learned love from my own child. How would we love each other differently if we thought of God as non-binary?
—Mary D.
