What is the Lectio Divina?

-
In order to not re-create the wheel unnecessarily, I am going to point you to Bible Gateway, one of my favorite Bible resources, for a high level understanding of this ancient practice of reading the Scriptures: Lectio Divina 



Life isn’t a race to the end but rather a gift given moment by moment. If we want to experience the abundant life God offers, we have to release our controlling, productivity-oriented approach to engaging faith and Scripture. So how do we give Scripture a spacious place to work in our lives? The answer lies in the ancient Christian practice of lectio divina.

In the early church of the 200s, some Christians chose to withdraw and seek God in the desert as a way of life. They lived an austere and simple existence, and it was in the desert that the ancient practice of lectio divina (Latin for “divine reading”) began. Lectio divina is an unhurried, contemplative reading of a portion of Scripture, and it can give us a great framework for experiencing God through Scripture, meditation, prayer, and contemplation. Practicing lectio divina begins when we withdraw to a quiet or still place, with no agenda, checklist, or anticipated outlook in mind.
Lectio (read), the first step, is a slow reading of a brief passage of Scripture while listening for God to speak through it. We read it with a listening heart and invite God to speak to us through it. As we slowly read repeatedly, we look for any word or phrase that draws our attention. When we identify this word or phrase, we begin to meditate upon it.
Meditatio (mediation) is a time of quiet reflection in God’s presence. Our goal is not to force ourselves into a mystical experience or even into deep insight, but to focus our affection and attention on God. We quietly read the words he’s led us to in Scripture and slowly chew them. We interact with them, invite them to shed light on our thoughts and experiences, and permit God to connect these truths to our lives. Through this process we allow it to become his personal Word to us, speaking directly to our issues, decisions, hopes, and dreams—and his will for us in all of it.
The third step is oratio (prayer). We respond to what God has spoken to us through Scripture. We often think of prayer as primarily talking to God, but what Scripture invites us to is conversational intimacy with God. We aren’t coming to God with demands and petitions; rather, we’re consecrating ourselves and asking that he take his Word into the deepest and most intimate places in our lives. We’re inviting Christ into the places he’s exposed or the moments he’s taken us back to so that he might heal us and set us free (Luke 4:18).
Finally we enter into contemplatio, or contemplation, a time of rest. Here we entrust ourselves to God as we reflect on what he has spoken. We listen for any other words he may want to speak. We remain as still and close as friends or lovers who do not have the frantic need to fill the space with words. In contemplatio we come to a place of reverence and silence once again as we are released to fulfill God’s purposes for us that day.
In practicing regular times of lectio divina, we not only allow the Holy Spirit to remind us of who we are and what our mission is; we also grow in intimacy with God. As this intimacy deepens, we become more like Christ.

Comments

  1. mikonJune 24, 2018 at 11:24 AM

    A Prezzie is the great area to make the best designs. You can make the best designs of your own taste with the help of this area. With the area of cheapest essay writing service you can also contact to this page and can get the idea about the Boroughbees.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Psychological Approach or Spiritual Approach?

-
Resting in the blend of  spirit, mind, emotions, and body that I dwell in, I come into contact with the edges of this question all the time.  It is easy to lean more fully on one or the other.  Most of us have a comfortable automatic bend toward finding solutions in spirit or material ways.  Robert Mulholland, a respected spiritual formation writer and trusted Christian theologian, expands an answer to this wondering that satisfies my soul.  I hope it illuminates for you as well: "We need to realize that not only is psychology not a substitute for spirituality, but spirituality is not a substitute for psychology. While most Christians would not tend to make the first assertion, many would and do tend to make the second. As we have already noted, spiritual formation is often seen as the answer to all problems.  Often, profound, deep-seated psychological problems are met with demands for deeper faith, more rigorous obedience, more vital spirituality. ...
Read more

Finding your Cremaster

-
Image
How do you begin this cocoon business?  You have to find your Spiritual Cremaster. What in the world is that? It’s the place you start. It’s your anchor.   I’ll just let Sue tell you : “When the caterpillar begins to spin its chrysalis, it forms a spiny little protuberance at the end of its abdomen called the cremaster. The cremaster is like a button or patch of Velcro that fastens the pupa in the cocoon and holds it in place.  It’s the anchor point, the place from which the caterpillar hangs “ The still point is our cremaster. Without it, there’s no dance of transformation. It’s the place where all cocoon making starts.  We need to find the point in our soul where we go neither forward nor backward but are fastened in our waiting. We need to discover the “protuberance” from which our lives can silently hang and become new. What IS this still point?  It represents the Center, the quiet core where God’s Spirit dwells in us.  “Do you not k...
Read more

2023 Invitations of Advent

-
Image
  Let’s set aside a little time to slow down during advent and pay attention.  We are going to walk through the precious little book:  Silence and other Surprising Invitations of Advent by Enuma Okoro.  It is based on the unlikely story of Zachariah and Elizabeth and has true gems of how to integrate the whole of life into the sometimes lopsided season of Advent.  Meeting 4 Sundays for reflection on the weekly portions of the book, discussion questions for the live chat, guided Lectio Divina on a corresponding Scripture, a simple commemoration practice or ritual and lighting of the Advent candle. For this group offering, please feel invited to join with other Advent lovers for a private Facebook group with a private FB Live video every Sunday at 6PM EST 11/26, 12/3, 12/10, and 12/17.   It will be recorded if you can’t make it live.   It will include some don’t-miss points from the readings from the week. It will include a Lectio Divina readi...
Read more