Skip to content

Course 3 · Lesson 3.1

Lectio divina: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation

9 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 3 outline

Module 1: The Idea of a Rule

  1. What a rule of life is, and what it is for
  2. Pachomius and the first written rule
  3. Basil of Caesarea and his Rules
  4. Benedict: the Rule as a school of the Lord’s service
  5. Adapting a monastic rule for ordinary life

Module 2: The Hours and the Psalms

  1. Origins of fixed-hour prayer in Jewish and early Christian practice
  2. The Divine Office in the West and the hours in the East
  3. How to pray the Psalms: lament, praise, trust, wisdom and imprecation
  4. Building a simple office for one person

Module 3: Scripture and the Prayer of the Heart

  1. Lectio divina: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation
  2. Meditative reading compared with study and with Ignatian imaginative prayer
  3. The Jesus Prayer: its words, its history and its Eastern setting
  4. Practicing the prayer of the heart, with its cautions

Module 4: Fasting, Giving, Rest and the Year

  1. Fasting in Scripture and tradition, and its safe limits
  2. Almsgiving and care for the poor
  3. Sabbath rest and the Lord’s Day: how traditions differ
  4. The church year: Advent to Pentecost and the ordinary weeks

Module 5: Conscience, Confession and Worship Alone

  1. Examination of conscience: methods old and new
  2. Confession in the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions
  3. Repentance, confession to God and to a trusted person when no minister is available
  4. What worship alone can include: prayer, Scripture, song, the hours
  5. What the traditions say requires a church or ordained minister

Module 6: Seasons and Ordinary Duties

  1. Silence as a discipline and its dangers
  2. Planning a day, a weekend and a longer retreat
  3. Work as part of the rule: ora et labora
  4. Hospitality, family and neighbor

Module 7: Dryness, Perseverance and Review

  1. Dryness and the dark night: what the tradition teaches
  2. Acedia: Evagrius, Cassian and the noonday demon
  3. Doubt and perseverance
  4. Accountability for a rule of life
  5. Reviewing and revising a rule at thirty days, ninety days and one year

All courses

Program / Course 3: The Rule of Life / Lesson 3.1

What you will learn

  • Define lectio divina and name its four traditional movements.
  • Trace the practice from the early church and Benedict to Guigo II.
  • Carry out a simple lectio divina on a short passage of Scripture.
  • Describe the cautions the traditions give about it.

The big idea

Lectio divina is Latin for divine reading. It is a slow, prayerful way of reading Scripture in which the reader listens for how God speaks through the text. The classical description names four movements: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation. The practice is old, found in the early church and in Benedict’s Rule, and was set out in a famous short treatise by the twelfth-century monk Guigo II. It does not replace study. It asks a different question of the passage.

Key terms

Lectio divina
Latin for sacred or divine reading: slow reading of Scripture as prayer.
Lectio
The first movement: reading a short passage slowly and attentively.
Meditatio
The second movement: thinking over the words, turning them in the mind.
Oratio
The third movement: speaking to God in response to the text.
Contemplatio
The fourth movement: resting in God’s presence without many words.
Guigo II
A prior of the Carthusian monastery of the Grande Chartreuse in the twelfth century, who wrote a short work on the four steps of the monastic reading.

Background

Christians have always read Scripture for more than information. Psalm 1:2 describes the one who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night, and Joshua 1:8 gives a similar command. The church fathers, including Origen, Ambrose and Augustine, taught that Scripture is to be chewed and digested, not just scanned. The Rule of Benedict calls sacred reading lectio divina and sets aside hours for it each day (chapter 48).

The four-part scheme is usually credited to Guigo II, who wrote in the late twelfth century. He described a ladder with four rungs: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation. He compared reading to taking solid food into the mouth, meditation to chewing it, prayer to tasting it and contemplation to the sweetness that follows. The image is memorable, and the scheme became a classic in Western Christianity. It is not a technique that produces results, but a description of how attentive reading can deepen.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Preparation and reading

Choose a short passage, perhaps five to fifteen verses, from the Gospels or the Psalms. Sit quietly for a minute. Ask God to speak, and ask for an open mind. Then read the passage slowly, preferably aloud, and then read it again. The aim is not to master the text but to hear it. Notice a word or phrase that stands out.

Do not rush to analyze. The first movement belongs to the text. A person who has studied the passage before may find it hard not to explain it, and may need to put study aside for this time.

Step 2: Meditation

Meditation in the Christian sense is not emptying the mind. It means thinking over the words. Repeat the phrase that stood out. Ask what it means, why it was given, what it says about God and what it says about the reader. Link it to other Scripture that comes to mind. The older writers speak of ruminating, as a cow chews the cud.

The reader may find it helpful to write a few lines. The purpose is not to produce a polished insight but to stay with the text long enough to receive from it.

Step 3: Prayer and contemplation

Prayer is the response. The reader speaks to God out of the text: thanking, confessing, asking, praising or simply saying what is on the heart. The text becomes a conversation. A line in Psalm 51 might lead to confession. A line in the Gospel of John might lead to thanks.

Contemplation is the rest that may follow. After words have run out, the reader remains in silence, aware of God. Some writers say it is a gift that cannot be forced. A beginner may find that this movement is very short or does not happen. That is normal. Some traditions add a fifth movement, action, in which the reader decides what to do in response.

Step 4: Cautions

The practice has risks. One is subjectivity: a reader may take a private impression as the voice of God, and the traditions teach that the Spirit does not contradict Scripture or the church’s wider witness. Lectio therefore sits beside study and, for those who belong to a church, beside the teaching of the church. A second risk is seeking experiences and treating contemplation as a feeling to be achieved. A third is neglecting hard passages and choosing only comforting ones. Reading a book in order helps guard against that.

Finally, lectio divina is not suited to every mood. A person who is exhausted or in great distress may do better to pray a psalm aloud than to attempt a long reading. The practice serves the person’s growth in love, and it should not be turned into another task to fail.

  1. Which passage of Scripture would I like to read slowly for a week?
  2. Do I tend to rush through readings or to read them thoughtfully?
  3. What phrase from Scripture has stayed with me longest, and why?
  4. How do I distinguish between my own thoughts and a prompting I would call from God?
  5. What guards could protect me from reading my wishes into the text?
  6. What would I do differently if I treated Scripture as a letter addressed to me?

Examples

Lectio on a Gospel verse

A man reads Luke 10:41-42, the words of Jesus to Martha. The phrase careful and troubled about many things stays with him. He thinks about his own schedule. He prays honestly about his worry. He sits quietly for two minutes. He decides to leave one task undone that evening. (A constructed example.)

Lectio on a psalm

A woman reads Psalm 23 daily for a week, a verse at a time, and spends the last minute in silence. By the end of the week she notices that she has stopped skimming it. (A constructed example.)

Different perspectives

The Catholic view

The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum) recommend prayerful reading of Scripture, and Pope Benedict XVI promoted lectio divina in 2005. The Church teaches that Scripture should be read in the light of the Church’s tradition.

The Orthodox view

Orthodox Christians read Scripture in the context of liturgy and the fathers. Meditative reading is encouraged, but the term lectio divina is Western. Orthodox teachers warn against private reading that departs from the church’s understanding.

The Protestant view

Protestants hold Scripture as the primary authority and value personal reading. Luther described a method of prayer, meditation and trial as the way to understand Scripture, and Puritan writers taught meditation. Some Protestants prefer the language of devotional reading or quiet time, and some worry about contemplative practices when they depart from the text.

The scholarly view

Historians of spirituality note that the four-step scheme is a medieval summary of earlier practice, and that older writers speak of reading and meditation as a unity. They also note that Guigo’s treatise was addressed to monks and was adapted later for wider use.

Why it matters

Many people who read Scripture treat it as a source of information or a set of rules. Lectio divina offers a way of reading that expects to be addressed. It slows the reader and makes room for prayer. It also fits a short daily rule, since five to fifteen minutes with one passage is enough.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Lectio divina is a Catholic technique that Protestants cannot use.

Correction: Its roots are in the early church and its form is medieval, but many Protestants read Scripture meditatively. The method is a way of reading and can be adapted by those who hold the authority of the text.

Misunderstanding: Meditation means emptying the mind.

Correction: In Christian use it means thinking over the words of Scripture and talking to God about them. Emptying the mind is a different practice.

Misunderstanding: Whatever comes to mind during lectio is a message from God.

Correction: The traditions teach testing: the impression must agree with Scripture and the faith of the church, and should be checked with a trusted person.

Knowledge check

What are the four movements of lectio divina?

Lectio, slow reading of a short passage; meditatio, thinking over its words; oratio, speaking to God in response; and contemplatio, resting in God’s presence. Some traditions add a fifth, action, in which the reader decides how to respond in daily life.

Who was Guigo II, and what did he contribute?

Guigo II was a twelfth-century prior of the Carthusian house at the Grande Chartreuse. He wrote a short treatise describing a ladder of four steps: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation. His scheme became the classic description of lectio divina in the West.

How does lectio divina differ from study?

Study asks what the text meant, how it fits the larger picture and what the original words are. Lectio divina listens for how the text addresses the reader in prayer. The two work together and neither replaces the other.

Name two cautions about the practice.

One is subjectivity, taking a private impression as God’s voice without testing it against Scripture and the wider church. Another is treating contemplation as an experience to be produced. Others include avoiding hard passages and using the method when too tired or distressed.

Think it through

  1. What is the difference between reading a letter from a friend and reading a manual?
  2. How would you test an impression that came to you during prayer?
  3. What passage would you be afraid to read slowly?

Independent assignment

One passage, five days

In your notebook, write 300 to 450 words. Choose one short Gospel passage. For five days, read it using the four movements, ten minutes a day. After each day write two lines: the word or phrase that stood out, and what you said to God. At the end write a paragraph on whether the practice changed how you read the passage. Do not post it.

Further study