~~~
“In this context, I would like in particular to recall and recommend
the ancient tradition of lectio divina:
the diligent reading of Sacred Scripture accompanied by prayer brings about that intimate dialogue in which the person reading hears God who is speaking, and in praying, responds to him with trusting openness of heart (cf. Dei Verbum, n. 25).
If it is effectively promoted,
this practice will bring to the Church– I am convinced of it –
~Pope emeritus Benedict XVI
a new spiritual springtime.
As a strong point of biblical ministry, lectio divina should therefore be increasingly encouraged, also through the use of new methods, carefully thought through and in step with the times. It should never be forgotten that the Word of God is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path (cf. Ps 119[118]: 105).”
40th Anniversary “Dei Verbum” Address, 9/16/05
~~~
“It is especially necessary that listening to the Word of God
~St. Pope John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 39-40
should become a life-giving encounter,
in the ancient and ever valid tradition of
lectio divina,
which draws from the biblical text the living Word
which questions, directs and shapes our lives.
To nourish ourselves with the Word in order to be
‘servants of the Word’ in the work of evangelization: this is surely a priority for the Church at the dawn of the new millennium.”
~~~
“There is one particular way of listening
~Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, 152
to what the Lord wishes to tell us in his word
and of letting ourselves be transformed by the Spirit.
It is what we call lectio divina.
It consists of reading God’s word
in a moment of prayer and allowing it to enlighten and renew us.”
~~~
“The documents produced before and during the Synod mentioned a number of methods for a faith-filled and fruitful approach to sacred Scripture. Yet the greatest attention was paid to lectio divina, which is truly “capable of opening up to the faithful the treasures of God’s word, but also of bringing about an encounter with Christ, the living word of God”. I would like here to review the basic steps of this procedure. It opens with the reading (lectio) of a text, which leads to a desire to understand its true content: what does the biblical text say in itself? Without this, there is always a risk that the text will become a pretext for never moving beyond our own ideas. Next comes meditation (meditatio), which asks: what does the biblical text say to us? Here, each person, individually but also as a member of the community, must let himself or herself be moved and challenged. Following this comes prayer (oratio), which asks the question: what do we say to the Lord in response to his word? Prayer, as petition, intercession, thanksgiving and praise, is the primary way by which the word transforms us. Finally, lectio divina concludes with contemplation (contemplatio), during which we take up, as a gift from God, his own way of seeing and judging reality, and ask ourselves what conversion of mind, heart and life is the Lord asking of us? In the Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul tells us: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (12:2). Contemplation aims at creating within us a truly wise and discerning vision of reality, as God sees it, and at forming within us “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16). The word of God appears here as a criterion for discernment: it is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12). We do well also to remember that the process of lectio divina is not concluded until it arrives at action (actio), which moves the believer to make his or her life a gift for others in charity.
Verbum Domini 87
We find the supreme synthesis and fulfilment of this process in the Mother of God. For every member of the faithful Mary is the model of docile acceptance of God’s word, for she “kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19; cf. 2:51); she discovered the profound bond which unites, in God’s great plan, apparently disparate events, actions and things.
I would also like to echo what the Synod proposed about the importance of the personal reading of Scripture, also as a practice allowing for the possibility, in accordance with the Church’s usual conditions, of gaining an indulgence either for oneself or for the faithful departed. The practice of indulgences implies the doctrine of the infinite merits of Christ – which the Church, as the minister of the redemption, dispenses and applies, but it also implies that of the communion of saints, and it teaches us that “to whatever degree we are united in Christ, we are united to one another, and the supernatural life of each one can be useful for the others”. From this standpoint, the reading of the word of God sustains us on our journey of penance and conversion, enables us to deepen our sense of belonging to the Church, and helps us to grow in familiarity with God. As Saint Ambrose puts it, ‘When we take up the sacred Scriptures in faith and read them with the Church, we walk once more with God in the Garden’.“
~~~
“Stay where you are. Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering, and the lonely, right where you are — in your own homes and in your own families, in homes and in your workplaces and in your schools. You can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have eyes to see.”
St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
~~~
“To live in love is to sail forever, spreading seeds of joy and peace in hearts.”
St. Therese of Lisieux
~~~
“What great blessings God grants to a soul when He prepares it to love the practice of prayer.”
St. Teresa of Avila
~~~
“Listen and attend with the ear of your heart.”
St. Benedict of Nursia
~~~
“You can’t hear God speak to someone else,
Ludwig Wittgenstein
you can hear him only if you are being addressed.”
~~~
St. Cyprian
“Diligently practice prayer and lectio divina.
When you pray, you speak with God,
when you read, God speaks to you.”
~~~
“Learn to know the Heart of God in the Words of God.”
St. Gregory the Great
~~~
St. Teresa of Avila
“Do you suppose that because we cannot hear Him,
He is silent? He speaks clearly to the heart
when we beg Him from our heart to do so.”
~~~
“Ignorance of the Scriptures,
St. Jerome
is ignorance of Christ.”
~~~
St. Therese of Lisieux
“But above all it’s the Gospels that occupy my mind
when I’m at prayer;
my poor soul has so many needs, and yet this is the one thing needful.
I’m always finding fresh lights there, hidden and enthralling meanings.”
~~~
St. Jerome
“The soul is fed each day with lectio divina…”
~~~
St. Ambrose
“Intent on the food of lectio divina…”
~~~
Guigo the Carthusian
“One day when I was busy working with my hands I began to think about our spiritual work, and all at once four stages in spiritual exercise came into my mind: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation. These make a ladder for monks by which they are lifted up from earth to heaven. It has few rungs, yet its length is immense and wonderful, for its lower end rests upon the earth, but its top pierces the clouds and touches heavenly secrets.”
~~~
St. Augustine
“When we pray, we speak to God;
when we read Scripture, God speaks to us.”
~~~
St. Teresa of Avila
“The important thing in mental prayer is not to think much but to love much.”
~~~
St. Gregory the Great
“The biblical Scriptures are letters from the Almighty God to His Creatures.
The LORD of all has sent you His letters for your life’s advantage—
and yet you neglect to read them eagerly.
Study them, I beg you,
and meditate daily on the words of your Creator.
Learn the heart of God in the words of God”
~~~
St. Ambrose
“When you pick up the Scriptures, God speaks to you.”
~~~
Dei Verbum 21
“In the sacred books,
the Father who is in heaven
comes lovingly to meet his children,
and talks with them.”
~~~
2653 The Church “forcefully and specially exhorts all the Christian faithful . . . to learn ‘the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ’ (Phil 3:8) by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. . . . Let them remember, however, that prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that a dialogue takes place between God and man. For ‘we speak to him when we pray; we listen to him when we read the divine oracles.”‘2654 The spiritual writers, paraphrasing Matthew 7:7, summarize in this way the dispositions of the heart nourished by the word of God in prayer “Seek in reading and you will find in meditating; knock in mental prayer and it will be opened to you by contemplation.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church
~~~
Prompted St. Augustine’s Conversion
“Tolle Lege, Tolle Lege”
(“Take and Read, Take and Read”)
~~~
St. John Paul II
“The Word of God is the first source of all Christian spirituality. It gives rise to a personal relationship with the living God and with His saving and sanctifying will. It is for this reason that from the very beginning…what is called lectio divina has been held in the highest regard. By means of it the Word of God is brought to bear on life, on which it projects the light of that wisdom which is a gift of the Spirit.”
~~~
Guigo the Carthusian
“Reading is the careful study of the Scripture, concentrating all one’s powers on it. Meditation is the busy application of the mind to seek with the help of one’s own reason for knowledge of hidden truth. Prayer is the heart’s devoted turning to God to drive away evil and obtain what is good. Contemplation is when the mind is in some sort lifted up to God and held above itself, so that it tastes the joys of everlasting sweetness.”
~~~
St. Jerome
“The LORD’s flesh is real food and His blood real drink; this is our true good in this present life: to nourish ourselves with His flesh and to drink His blood in not only the Eucharist but also the reading of Sacred Scriptures, is real food and real drink.”
~~~
Dei Verbum 25; CCC 2653
“The Church forcefully and specially exhorts all the Christian faithful…to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ (Phil 3:8) by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures…Let them remember, however, that prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that a dialogue takes place between God and man.”
~~~
Guigo the Carthusian
“This is the ladder Jacob saw, in Genesis, that stood on the earth and reached into heaven, on which he saw heavenly angels ascending and descending, with God leaning upon the ladder. From the ascending and descending of the angels is understood that the heavenly angels delight us with much spiritual comforting and carry our prayers up to our Lord in heaven, where he sits on high, and bring back down from him the desire of our hearts, as is proved by Daniel. By God’s supporting the ladder is understood that he is always ready to help all who by these four rungs of this ladder will climb wisely, not fearing nor doubting that such a ladder will really help us…Reading seeks, meditation finds, prayer asks, contemplation feels. Vnde querite et accipietis: pulsate et aperietur vobis. That is to say ‘Seek and you shall find: knock and the door will be opened for you’. That means also, seek through reading, and you will find holy meditation in your thinking; and knock through praying, and the doors shall be opened to you to enter through heavenly contemplation to feel what you desire. Reading puts as it were whole food into your mouth; meditation chews it and breaks it down; prayer finds its savour; contemplation is the sweetness that so delights and strengthens. Reading is like the bark, the shell; meditation like the pith, the nut; prayer is in the desiring asking; and contemplation is in the delight of the great sweetness. Reading is the first ground that that precedes and leads one into meditation; meditation seeks busily, and also with deep thought digs and delves deeply to find that treasure; and because it cannot be attained by itself alone, then he sends us into prayer that is mighty and strong. And so prayer rises to God, and there one finds the treasure one so fervently desires, that is the sweetness and delight of contemplation. And then contemplation comes and yields the harvest of the labour of the other three through a sweet heavenly dew, that the soul drinks in delight and joy.”
~~~
2706 To meditate on what we read helps us to make it our own by confronting it with ourselves. Here, another book is opened: the book of life. We pass from thoughts to reality. To the extent that we are humble and faithful, we discover in meditation the movements that stir the heart and we are able to discern them. It is a question of acting truthfully in order to come into the light: “Lord, what do you want me to do?”2707 There are as many and varied methods of meditation as there are spiritual masters. Christians owe it to themselves to develop the desire to meditate regularly, lest they come to resemble the three first kinds of soil in the parable of the sower. But a method is only a guide; the important thing is to advance, with the Holy Spirit, along the one way of prayer: Christ Jesus.
2708 Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary. This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
~~~
Origen, Epistola ad Gregorium, 3: PG 11, 92; Requoted in Verbum Domini 86
“Devote yourself to the lectio of the divine Scriptures; apply yourself to this with perseverance. Do your reading with the intent of believing in and pleasing God. If during the lectio you encounter a closed door, knock and it will be opened to you by that guardian of whom Jesus said, ‘The gatekeeper will open it for him’. By applying yourself in this way to lectio divina, search diligently and with unshakable trust in God for the meaning of the divine Scriptures, which is hidden in great fullness within. You ought not, however, to be satisfied merely with knocking and seeking: to understand the things of God, what is absolutely necessary is oratio. For this reason, the Saviour told us not only: ‘Seek and you will find’, and ‘Knock and it shall be opened to you’, but also added, ‘Ask and you shall receive’.”