We talked earlier about the role of scripture in worship and how God's Word functions as a means of grace in that context. However, our use of scripture is not limited to corporate worship. Christians throughout the ages have been meeting God through the personal reading of scripture.
There are two ways that we can read the Bible.
First, we can read it to gather information. That is, to get a feel for the big picture -- to understand what God has done and is doing in history. If you use one of the reading plans that takes you through the Bible in a year or maybe two, you are probably reading for information. Much of what happens in Bible college is information centered. And that is okay. Learning to read for information is helpful. It keeps things in perspective.
Second, we can read it for formation. That is, we take smaller sections of the Bible and read them in a way that we can hear God speak through them again. This is what we are doing when we use the Daily Texts (usually two short verses!) and combine them with the TRIP prayer method. We are pondering those verses, listening to what God might be saying to us through them, and formulating prayers in response.
In the following article Ken Boa gives an historical overview of formative reading (our spiritual ancestors have been doing this for centuries!) and some additional suggestions for reading, mediating, praying and contemplating through scripture. I do not expect you to understand everything in this article. There is much in here that I do not yet understand. It is kind of like standing at the bottom of a big waterfall and trying to drink it all in. But just because it is beyond us does not mean that we shouldn't start to grapple with it or that we can't get something from it. Ask God to give you some new insights about ways to read the Bible!
The ancient art of sacred reading (lectio divina) was introduced to the West by the Eastern desert father John Cassian early in the fifth century. The sixth-century Rule of St Benedict that guided Benedictine and Cistercian monastic practice ever since, prescribed daily periods for sacred reading. In spite of the simplicity and power of this method of praying through sacred Scripture, it gradually fell into disuse and obscurity.See, I told you that there is a lot of depth in this article. I am guessing that you understand the basic ideas but that you do not totally understand how it all fits together or works. This is an area in which understanding comes through years of practice and discipline. I am suggesting that you save this article and return to it again and again after the semester is over. I suspect that more and more of it will make sense to you over time. And that is alright. For spiritual depth requires time.
Unfortunately, by the end of the Middle Ages it came to be seen as a method that should be restricted to the spiritually elite. As time passed, even monastics lost the simplicity of sacred reading as it was replaced by more complicated systems and forms of "mental prayer."
In recent decades, however, this ancient practice has been revitalized, especially by those in the Cistercian tradition. Writers like Thomas Merton (Contemplative Prayer, New Seeds of Contemplation, Spiritual Direction & Meditation), Thomas Keating (Intimacy with God, Open Mind, Open Heart), Michael Casey (Sacred Reading, Toward God, The Undivided Heart), and Thelma Hall (Too Deep for Words) have been promoting sacred reading in Catholic circles, and Protestants are now being exposed to this approach as well. Lectio divina involves a progression through the four movements of reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation.
Reading (Lectio)
In his study of monastic culture, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God, Jean Leclercq distinguished two distinct approaches to Scripture that were used in the Middle Ages. While Medieval universities were urban schools that prepared clerics for the active life, rural monasteries focused on spiritual formation within a liturgical framework to equip monks for the contemplative life.
The scholastics approached Scripture by focusing on the page of sacred text (sacra pagina) as an object to be studied and investigated by putting questions to the text (quaestio) and by questioning oneself with the subject matter (disputatio).
By contrast, the monastics approached Scripture through a personal orientation of meditation (meditatio) and prayer (oratio). While the scholastics sought science and knowledge in the text, the monastics sought wisdom and appreciation. Those in the schools were more oriented to the objective, the theological, and the cognitive; those in the cloisters were more oriented to the subjective, the devotional, and the affective.
Most contemporary approaches to Bible study have more in common with the scholastics than with the monastics. Recalling a distinction that was made in the first chapter, they are more concerned with informational reading than with formational reading. There is a legitimate need for both approaches, since an overemphasis on one or the other can lead to the extremes of cold intellectualism or mindless enthusiasm. But when evangelicals study Scripture, they typically look more for precepts and principles than for an encounter with God in the depths of their being. The practice of lectio divina can correct this lack of balance, because it stresses the reading of Scripture for spiritual formation through receptive openness to God's loving call of grace. Lectio is not an intellectual exercise that seeks to control and to gather information, but a voluntary immersion in the Word of God that seeks to receive and to respond. Spiritual reading melds revelation with experience. It is done in the spirit of the collect for the second Sunday in Advent in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer:
Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.
May we learn to hear the Holy Scriptures and to "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" them.
Suggestions for Reading
- Choose a special place (preferably away from your desk and other areas of activity) that is suitable for this purpose. Sanctify this space by reserving it as a regular meeting place with the Lord.
- Choose a special time in which you can be alert and consistent. Invite God to lead you to rearrange your life to allow more time with Him. This will be more a matter of making time rather than finding time. Making time for this purpose is a response to God's calling in a world of constant external demands. Although this will not work for everyone, I recommend exchanging the last hour of the night for an extra hour in the morning. (Most of us could redeem a significant amount of time by reducing and being more selective in our intake of television.) Whenever it is, give God your best time, when you are least sluggish, and when you can be quiet, still, and unpressured by outward hindrances.
- Consistency is critical, since there will be many temptations to postpone and neglect sacred reading. The benefits of lectio are attained gradually over a long-term process.
- Since lectio divina engages the whole person, your bodily posture is important. A seated position that is erect but not tense or slouched is best for the four movements of lectio. It is good to be fully attentive and alert without sitting in a way that will eventually impede your circulation or breathing.
- Try to be systematic in the way you select your Scripture texts. They can emerge from a daily Bible reading program or through the use of a lectionary that gives you daily Old Testament, gospel, and epistle readings. Or your passages can come out of a devotional guide (I often use my Handbook to Prayer and Handbook to Renewal for this purpose).
- To avoid distraction in sacred reading, it is better to use a Bible without study notes. Use an accurate translation rather than a paraphrase (I use the Updated Edition of the NASB) for lectio divina.
- If Bible teachers and ministers did both sacra pagina (Scripture study) and lectio divina on the texts they select, it would greatly enhance their teaching and preaching.
- Keep the passage brief-do not confuse quantity with quality.
- It is also helpful to apply this method of slow, deliberate, and prayerful reading to other resources such as the creeds, traditional and patristic texts, and classic spiritual books. Samples of some of these resources are available in Devotional Classics, edited by Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith. Older literature has a way of challenging the biases of our modern presuppositions, if we will let it seep into us.
- Begin with a prayer of preparation: for example, "Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law" (Psalm 119:18) or, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer" (Psalm 19:14). Start with a clear intention to know God's will for your life with a fixed resolution in advance to do it.
- Slowly read the text again and again until it is in your short-term memory. Try making your first readings audible, since this will make them slower and more deliberate (bear in mind that in antiquity, reading always meant reading aloud).
- Seek the meaning of the text; ask questions. But come more as a disciple than as a collector of information. See Scripture as iconographic; that is, a verbal window into the reality of life that turns your perspective around.
- Listen to the words in humility accompanied by a willingness to obey. Hearing the Word must be united by faith (Hebrews 4:2) with an intention to apply it in practice (James 1:22). Open yourself to be addressed by the Word in your atti-tudes, habits, choices, and emotions. There will be times when you resist a penetrating living encounter with God, and these generally have to do with areas of disobedience. Thus, it is wise to examine your being and doing in the light of the text by asking, "Lord, what are You saying to me in this passage?"
- Remember that unlike ordinary reading, in lectio you are seeking to be more shaped by the Word than informed by the Word. This first step of reading prepares you for the remaining three movements of meditation, prayer, and contemplation. But the whole process should be infused with a prayerful attitude.
- Seek to avoid the usual pragmatic reflex that seeks to "net out" some immediate nugget or benefit. Approach sacred reading with no conditions, demands, or expectations. The Word may not meet your perceived needs, but it will touch your real needs, even when you don't discern them.(1)
Meditation (Meditatio)
As you move from reading to meditation, you are seeking to saturate and immerse yourself in the Word, to luxuriate in its living waters, and to receive the words as an intimate and personal message from God. The purpose of meditation is to penetrate the Scriptures and to let them penetrate us through the loving gaze of the heart.
The term "mental prayer" is often associated with meditation, but this could be misleading, since lectio, meditatio, and oratio involve not only the mind, but also the heart. Meditation attunes the inward self to the Holy Spirit so that our hearts harmonize and resonate with His voice. Meditation is a spiritual work of holy desire and an interior invitation for the Spirit to pray and speak within us (Romans 8:26-27) in such a way that our whole being is transformed into greater conformity with Jesus Christ.
It is an intentional process of building our passion for Christ by meeting with Him and spending time with Him to know Him more clearly, to love Him more dearly, and to follow Him more nearly. By meditating on God's truth, we are inviting Christ to be formed in us (Galatians 4:19) by a deliberate dwelling on His words. Thus, mental prayer should not be seen as an abstract exercise but as a vital vehicle for the metamorphosis of the soul.
"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success" (Joshua 1:8). This familiar verse tells us that the path to success as God defines it is the habit of making space in our lives to meet with God in His holy Word with a heart intention to apply what He reveals through obedient action. Only those who delight in God's Word and habitually meditate on it (Psalm 1:2) will experience the fullness and stability of God's purpose and calling. May you be one of them.
Suggestions for Meditation- Since it is God's love for us that teaches us to love Him, we should not regard meditation as an objective method or technique, but as a person-specific process. It is good to experiment with different approaches until you find a pattern of meditation that resonates best with your soul.
- Acknowledge the holiness of the God you are approaching and the richness of the gift of faith that makes it possible for you to enjoy an encounter with Him through His Spirit.
- Meditation is a long-term process that builds upon itself. The more we absorb Scripture, the greater our mental storehouse becomes. As this process continues for months and years, we experience the phenomenon of reminiscence in which a word or phrase spontaneously evokes a wealth of imagery from other parts of Scripture. This can be an exciting and creative experience in which we see connections and rhythms we never perceived before. These chain reactions, the fruit of habitual meditation, develop "the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16) in us.
- Allow enough time to enjoy the text; to rush this process is like running through a great art gallery.
- Meditation on Scripture involves chewing or ruminating (ruminatio) on a word, phrase, passage, or story. To carry this analogy further, when we masticate the text in our minds, we release the full flavor as we assimilate its content.
- Don't force meditation or make impatient demands of immediate gratification and results. Meditation will do you little good if you try to control the outcome.
- When you encounter something that speaks particularly to you, you should note it so that you can reflect on it later. You may find it helpful to make written reminders that you can carry with you.
- It may also be beneficial to keep a journal of your personal reflections on the text. If you do this, you will need to be open and honest with yourself in the things you record. The advantage of a journal is the creation of a private record that can be reviewed from time to time.
- Personalize the words of the text and "realize" them; receive them as God speaking to you in the present moment. Try to hear the passage as though for the first time, personally addressed to you.
- When a passage speaks to you, consider meditating on the same text for several days before moving on to another.
- The millions of images we have been exposed to through television, movies, magazines, newspapers, etc. have not sharpened but dulled our creative imagination. More than ever, we need to develop and sanctify our imagination, because the truth of Scripture and spiritual experience is "impregnated with a mysterious light impossible to analyze" (Jean Leclercq). A sanctified imagination will enable us to grasp more than we can see, but we need the lifeline of Scripture to tether us to the truth.
- Many people have found it helpful to engage the five senses when meditating on biblical stories, especially the stories in the Gospels. This process makes the scene more present and real to us and it helps us transition from the cognitive, analytical level to the affective, feeling level of our being.
- In addition to the imaginative use of the senses, it can be illuminating to put yourself in the story. How would you have reacted, and what would you have thought and said if you were there?
- The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola incorporates these and other meditative techniques and has useful insights on contemplating the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. The various meditations and prayers prescribed in Introduction to the Devout Life by Francis de Sales (e.g., on our creation, the end for which we were created, sin, death, humility, God's love for us) are also valuable resources for many. But because of differing temperaments, not everyone will find such methodical meditation schemes to be of help. Most people are sensory, but some are more analytical, and others are more intuitive. Intuitives will benefit more from savoring the truths of a passage than from its imagery. "Pray as you can, not as you can't!" (Dom Chapman).
- Meditation on the Psalms (meditatio psalmorum) has edified the saints for thousands of years and should be a regular part of our spiritual diet. It is enormously beneficial in all seasons and conditions of life to savor and absorb the meaning of the Psalms in the depths of one's heart.
- Ideally, meditation should address the mind, the emotions, and the will. Ruminating on Scripture stimulates our thinking and understanding and it also elevates the affections of the heart. It reaches the will when we resolve to let the passage shape our actions. Intellect, imagination, and volition should not be divorced from one another.
- Accept the fact that you will often encounter problems with distraction and inattention. Do not be disturbed when your mind wanders, but gently and calmly return to the text before you. "It is much better to desire God without being able to think clearly of Him, than to have marvelous thoughts about Him without desiring to enter into union with His will" (Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation). Normally, it is best to resist the temptation to be distracted by practical concerns, but sometimes it can be helpful to turn these concerns into subjects of meditation in light of the truth of the text.
- Remember that meditation does not need to produce evident affection or consolation in order to be beneficial. The quest for moving experiences can lead to the self-deception of emotional melodrama and counterfeit mysticism.(2)
Prayer (Oratio)
The discipline of prayer is usually associated with a personal dialogue (colloquy) with God, though the majority of the prayers people offer appear to be petitionary monologues. In lectio divina, prayer is specifically related to the two prior movements of sacred reading and meditation on the text. Oratio is the fruit of meditatio, and it is the way in which we "interiorize" what God has spoken to us through the passage. The transition from meditation to prayer may be subtle or unnoticed, but it is a response of the heart to what has been largely occupying the mind. It is a movement from truth to implication, from hearing to acknowledgment, from understanding to obedience.
Depending on how the "living and active" word is shaping us (Hebrews 4:12), this period of prayer can be sweet and consoling, or it can be painful and revealing. The two-edged sword of the Spirit has a way of exposing the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and when our selfish, distorted, and manipulative strategies are "open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13), oratio becomes a time for compunction, confession, and repentance. When the soul is exposed and we see our interior and exterior lives more as God sees them, this experience can be both devastating (in light of God's holiness) and exhilarating (in light of God's forgiveness and compassion).
At other times, we may be gripped by the power of spiritual truth (e.g., the kindness and love of the Father, the grace and faithfulness of the Son, the fellowship and presence of the Spirit) and respond in adoration or thanksgiving. Oratio is a time for participation in the interpenetrating subjectivity of the Trinity through prolonged mutual presence and growing identification with the life of Christ.
Suggestions for Prayer- Allow enough time so that you do not rush the process; you are not likely to listen to God when you are in a hurry.
- Avoid the rut of reducing this period of prayer to a technique or a routine.
- In lectio divina, there is a temptation to substitute reading for prayer. It is helpful to view your reading and meditation on the text as preparation for a personal prayerful response.
- Do not seek to control the content or outcome of your prayer.
- Remember that oratio is a time for heart response as you move from the mind to the will. Prayer embraces the practical consequences of the truth you have seen and endeavors to direct your life in accordance with it.
- Depending on your reading and meditation, your response can take a number of different forms, including adoration, confession, renewal, petition, intercession, affirmation, and thanksgiving. All of these are different ways of calling upon the Lord, but at one time a prayer of adoration may be appropriate, while at another time the Spirit may lead you in a prayer of confession or petition.
- When the Lord speaks to you in the text by way of exhortation or encouragement, it is good to "pray it through," that is, to take the time to internalize the message.
- See this time as an opportunity to a move away from your false self (the flesh) toward your true self in Christ.
- Scripture is God-breathed and "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). Invite the Spirit to search, teach, encourage, comfort, and correct you. Let Him reveal and dispel your illusions, pride, self-centeredness, stubbornness, ungodly attitudes and habits, stinginess, lack of gratitude, manipulation and control, and so forth.
- Prayer can occur at any time during the lectio process, and you may find your-self alternating between reading, meditation, and prayer. Lectio divina is not a lock-step 1-2-3-4 movement.
- When you are distracted, simply return to the text to refocus your attention. Teresa of Avila used an image of prayer as a small fire that occasionally needs to be fed by adding a twig or two. A twig is a few words from Scripture, but too many words become branches that could extinguish the fire.
- Bear in mind that in lectio divina, prayer is part of the path that leads to contemplation.
Contemplation (Contemplatio)
Some who use the term lectio divina limit it primarily to slow, careful, and prayerful reading of a biblical passage, book, or other spiritual text rather than the whole movement from reading to meditation to prayer to contemplation. As I see it, however, the process of lectio divina should begin with reading and culminate in contemplation. Contemplation is often confused with meditation, but as we will see, they are not synonymous.
Meditation and the prayer that flows out of it bring us into communication with the living and transcendent Lord, and as such, they prepare us for contemplation. Meditative prayer should be more than an intellectual exercise; when it is accompanied by affective intention it leads to the love and communion of contemplative prayer. Because of its very nature, it is notoriously difficult to communicate the characteristics of contemplative prayer. It is a mysterious territory in which the language is silence and the action is receptivity. True contemplation is a theological grace that cannot be reduced to logical, psychological, or aesthetic categories. Perhaps these general contrasts between meditative and contemplative prayer will help:
When he witnessed the miracle of the transfiguration of Jesus on the holy mountain, the awe-struck Peter inappropriately broke into speech and was silenced by the voice out of the cloud that said, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!" (Matthew 17:4-5). When we enter into the numinous territory of contemplation, it is best for us to stop talking and "listen to Him" in simple and loving attentiveness. In this strange and holy land we must remove the sandals of our ideas, constructs, and inclinations, and quietly listen for the voice of God. Periods of contemplation can be little "dark nights of faith." During these times, God may seem absent and silent, but His presence and speech is on a deeper level than what we can feel or understand. By preparing a peaceful place in the soul we learn to "Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him" (Psalm 37:7).
A number of people have been exposed to aspects of contemplative prayer through "centering prayer," a practice that was recently revived and updated by three Cistercian monks, Thomas Keating, William Meninger, and Basil Pennington. This method of prayer is based on the 14th century classic of mystical theology, The Cloud of Unknowing. Another approach to contemplative prayer is the "prayer of the heart" that is described in the Philokalia, an anthology of quotations from Eastern monastic Fathers from the third century to the Middle Ages. In this tradition, the invocation of the name of the Lord Jesus is used to create a state of receptivity and interior recollection of the presence of God.(3)
SECTION #24 NOTES
(1) www.kenboa.org/text_resources/teaching_letters/kens_teaching_letter/2395
(2) www.kenboa.org/text_resources/teaching_letters/kens_teaching_letter/2396
(3) www.kenboa.org/text_resources/teaching_letters/kens_teaching_letter/2397
SECTION #24 ASSIGNMENTS
1) What are the four sections of sacred reading that Dr Boa describes? List and define them. (20 points possible)
2) What is your understanding of lectio divina? Have you ever practiced it without knowing that it was called such? If so, how? (10 points possible)
3) Have you ever engaged in the practice of contemplation (contemplatio) as it is described here? What might prevent you from pursuing this ancient practice? (10 points possible)
Again, email your answers to me at bboydston@piu.edu. Write your answers in the email itself -- or if you use a word processor, copy and paste the answers into the email. Make sure that your name, the name which you used to register for this class, appears at the top of the work.
I will respond to you as soon as possible. Do not wait for a response from me before you start working on your next assignment.
