Ampleforth Abbey

Lectio Divina

‘Lectio Divina’ is a prayerful way of reading the Scriptures. The intention and the method are different from other ways of reading. Here, we are not trying to obtain information, or to find an intellectual understanding of the text, or to define a point of view in a debate. Instead, we are allowing the Word of God to work on us through faith so that it illuminates and guides us not just in our mind, but in our heart and soul also.

The Holy Spirit that inspired the Word, is also alive and active in the Christian through his or her baptism and personal faith. The Spirit, then, can bring together God’s truth and our thirst for it in a marvellous way.

And this has happened in the lives of the Saints so many times. For instance, the text, “Sell what you have and give the money to the poor” rang through the heart of Saint Antony of Egypt and began his wholehearted turning to God in the desert. When St Augustine heard a child in a garden chanting: “Pick up! Read!”, he opened the New Testament and the words of St Paul ended all his doubts and hesitations.

But you don’t have to be a Saint to do lectio divina! It is so simple, it is not even, strictly speaking, a method of prayer. It requires an openness, a simple faith, a belief that the Lord uses the Scriptures to teach and touch the lives of men and women who open themselves to it. I read not in order to learn something, or to find something to say about the text, or to see if I agree with it. I read in order to hear what the ‘still, small voice’ of God is saying to me through these words today.

It is a patient, slow reading. The words can be chewed over not just at that moment, but throughout the day, until they begin to yield a message we understand. Sometimes it is consolation, at other times a rebuke. We may find it is encouragement, or a challenge. It is, by its nature, personal and intimate, not a matter of generalities or principles. And always it leaves us humble and at peace.

For those who fear that prayer is a one way conversation with God, Lectio Divina is how God breaks his silence and replies to us. It is also possible to do Shared Lectio.

Here are some ‘lectio’ starters to help you begin…

What does the Lord your God require of you? Only this: to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah)

Jesus cried out: "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who elieves in me drink. As the scripture has said,"Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water."' (John)

The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians)