Lectio
Divina
What
is Lectio Divina?
Lectio
Divina in Latin means, Divine reading,
or reading the Word of God. Traditionally,
all reading was done orally but for our purposes today
Lectio Divina refers to
reading of the scriptures, either privately or communally, for the
purpose of meditating on the text itself.
The sense of reading is really one of attending or listening. 
In
our world today we spend more of our time “hearing” than listening.
The difference between hearing and listening may be narrowed down
to silence and solitude. When
we are simply hearing something we only need to be somewhat quiet.
When we are truly listening our whole being requires a kind of
stillness that requires solitude and ushers us into a posture of
interior attention and readiness. Lectio
Divina is a process of praying that prepares us to open ourselves to
truly attend to the Word of God as we are called to do in Deuteronomy
6:4-5. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, and with all your might.”
And Jesus added to this commandment; “and your shall love your
neighbor as your self.” (Mt 22:34-40)
As
Americans we are greatly concerned with diet and exercise.
Incorporating Lectio Divina
into our lives will soften our hardened hearts,
as indicated in the excerpt below.
The
nature of water is soft, that of stone is hard;
but if a bottle is hung above the stone,
allowing the water to fall drop by drop, it wears away the stone.
So it is with the word of God;
it is soft and our heart is hard,
but the one who hears the word of God often, opens her heart to the
fear of God.
Desert
Fathers and Mothers
(from
the nccl website)
Some
websites that may be helpful for you in learning Lection Divina
are:
www.wau.org
- The WORD Among us
http://wau.org/resources/article/the_practice_of_lectio_divina/
This
site has a good article by Stephen J. Binz on how to do Lectio Divina
www.valyermo.com
- click on Lectio Divina on the left of the screen
This
is the website for the monks of St. Andrew’s Abbey
in
Valyermo California
http://www.ocarm.org/eng/index.php
This website is run by the Carmelite order and assists the reader in
doing Lectio Divina online using the Sunday readings.
Contemplative
Outreach. Brief article. List of resources. Spanish language
resources as well. Chicago
Chapter website.
If
you find any useful Lectio Divina resources on the Internet, please send
the hyperlinks to us.
