This post is part of a series on approaches to developing your awareness of the Holy Spirit.

What It Is

Lectio Divina (meaning “Divine Reading” in Latin) is an ancient approach, practiced by Christians as far back as Origin in the 3rd Century.

The Goal

Approaches like Lectio Divina invite what John Chrysostom called “philanthropic condescension” – God’s revelation of Himself in the details of the Bible, “…making it possible for even the simplest human to know God…”[1].

The Approach

Summary

You get to know a passage well, and then open yourself up to listening to Holy Spirit speak through the passage.

Details

Lectio Divina is usually thought of as having four steps:

• Read a passage. It’s best to read aloud at least twice[2] to allow the passage to penetrate. Read with a different emphasis each time. (Traditionally, this step is called “Lectio”.)
• Imagine the details. Now you know the passage, take yourself through the information again, imagining all the details. If it’s a story, think through each moment of the story chronologically, imagining the sounds, smells, textures, and voices.
  • Then, if you have time, take yourself through the story yet again imagining you are one of the characters. For example, in a gospel story, you might choose to walk through what you think would be the experiences of a disciple, a member of the crowd, or even Jesus himself. See in your mind’s eye what you think your chosen character would be experiencing and feeling, and imagine it is happening to you. (Traditionally, this step is called “Meditatio”.)
• Talk to God about what you noticed. (Traditionally, this is called, “Oratio”.)
• Let go. Traditionally called “Comtemplatio”, in Eastern Christianity, this literally meant to see God or have a vision of God, with the aim of union with God. It seems that this ancient approach is similar to what we’ve been talking about in this blog, with one small difference: Ancient and medieval writers frequently talk about seeing God as Light and desiring union with that Light[3], whereas the focus of this blog has been seeing the Holy Spirit within ourselves.

 

Advantages, Disadvantages and Modifications

Advantages

This approach:

• Is great way to introduce yourself to a passage you don’t know well
• Lends itself particularly well to stories

Disadvantages

• If you don’t have long (e. g. you’re only doing the exercise for 10 minutes) you may not have enough time to get to know the passage well enough for it to sink in and for God to do His work with it.

Busy-World Modification

• I get up early, before the rest of my family, and listen to my audio bible while eating breakfast. Sometimes I listen to the same book multiple times. Then, Bible-informed, I do the exercise.

Recommended Passages

As I’ve alluded to above, this approach is great with stories. I’ve done this, imagining I’m

• one of the disciples in the boat during the calming of the storm sequence (Mk4:35-41),
• Judas at the last supper (Jn13:21-30), and even
• a fly on Jesus’ shoulder during the transfiguration (Mk9:2-8).

Lectio Divina has been used to creatively allow Holy Spirit to speak to men and women of the church for thousands of years. When you approach God in this way, you are truly standing on incredible tradition.

[1] quote from Hauser, A. J. (2016). Biblical Interpretation, History of. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. Courtesy of Logos Bible Software

[2] The Benedictines used to read it four times, and probably still do in some places.

[3] My research thus far suggests this was influenced by Platonism.