Lectio Divina in Our Catholic Life Today
How to Pray the Scriptures

by Fr. Scott A. Haynes, S.J.C.

Practicing Catholics are exposed to an enormous amount of Sacred Scripture at Holy Mass during the course of the Church year. In her Sacred Liturgy, Holy Mother Church sets forth the inspired Word of God as the “compass pointing out the road to follow.” [1] Sadly, this source of divine wisdom seems to have little effect in the life of most Catholics. Why is this, when the Word of God should shape our lives? [2]

As creatures made in the image and likeness of God, we have been endowed with both intellect and will. But these faculties of the mind and of the heart need proper formation. The psalmist directs us, “Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths” (Ps. 119:105). But if our intellect is deprived of the light of the divine Word, our wills will be weak and find it hard to pursue the virtuous life. Regrettably, many Catholics are poorly formed in the Tradition of the Church, which finds the Scriptures at its heart, and consequently, when they sincerely try to “live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world” (Tit. 2:12), they learn it is personally difficult to put those truths into action.

We must realize in all honesty that the culture of death has so infested American culture today, so that even the intellect and will of the average practicing Catholic is more influenced by the secularist, relativistic, and anti-life agenda of the news media than by the Scriptures, which reside in the heart of the Church’s Apostolic Tradition.

Knowing Jesus Through the Bible

In October, the Synod of Bishops addressed this situation, calling upon preachers to convert the intellect, imagination, and will of Catholics today. Cardinal Francis George said, “Too often the contemporary imagination has lost the image of God as actor in history. The contemporary intellect finds little consistency in the books of the Bible and is not informed by the regula fidei [rule of faith]. The contemporary heart has not been shaped by worship and the submission to God’s Word in the liturgical year.” [3]

So, in the midst of the “information age,” the Church has waged a battle against a formidable enemy—ignorance. The battle is centuries old. In the 4th century, St. Jerome stated that to ignore Scripture is to ignore Christ (“Ignoratio Scripturarum, ignoratio Christi est.”). In our own times, the Church is calling us to return to a practice of prayer, time-tested, that will help us peel back that veil of ignorance. That method is called lectio divina.

While everyone is familiar to some degree with liturgical prayer (i.e., the Mass and the Divine Office) and with devotional prayer (i.e., the Rosary, novenas, etc.), few Catholics today know the powerful method of prayer called lectio divina or divine reading. Lectio divina is a reading of a passage of Scripture, received as the word of God and leading, at the prompting of the Spirit, to meditation, prayer, and contemplation. [4] Because liturgical and devotional prayer is saturated with the Scriptures, lectio divina is an indispensable method of enriching the conversation we have begun in heaven (cf. Phil. 3:20).

Lectio divina nourishes the interior life of sanctifying grace in the heart of the baptized. It nurtures the Christian’s thirst for the solid food of faith, hope, and love. St. Jerome says, “We eat His Flesh and drink His Blood in the divine Eucharist, but also in the reading of Scripture.” [5] For the Word of God to be “living and active” (Heb. 4:12), there must be an invocation of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit descends upon us in lectio divina, we begin to experience what St. Paul knew when the scales fell from his eyes, for then we too begin to perceive the Truth—Jesus Christ.

Many today deny the Scriptures were composed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But for the Fathers of the Church this is simply unthinkable, because the Bride of Christ, possesses the Spirit that has dictated the Word. When the Spirit opens the Scriptures to the members of Christ’s Mystical Body, the Gospel becomes a window into divine reality, a “verbal icon of Christ.” [6]

The Monk’s Ladder

Whereas certain schools of Catholic spirituality [7] appeal to different personality types, lectio divina is suited to all, ideal for extraverts and introverts alike. Regardless of temperament, Catholics struggle to properly balance their intellect and will with their emotional life. In a juggling act, many Catholics fumble through their spiritual life because they give their emotions free reign. Ruled by emotions, they live on a roller coaster, exhibiting moral conduct inconsistent with their Profession of Faith. Surely, if emotions dominate, people will tend toward narcissism or sentimentality. On the other hand, if people deny emotions, keeping a stiff upper lip, like the stoics of antiquity, their personality can become arid, brittle, and inflexible, and will eventually snap. Lectio helps to integrate the intellect, will, and emotions and is, therefore, an indispensable aid to the spiritual life.

Various methods of lectio divina exist, but the traditional method was developed in monastic life. Nicknamed the “Monk’s Ladder,” [8] the monk climbed four rungs of lectio divina, drawn into contemplation of the divine things. But the “Monk’s Ladder” is not confined only to monasteries, neither to a remnant of pious faithful, nor to a “group of specialists in prayer.” [9] Lectio is for all Catholics. [10] So, as Catholics seek profound communion with the Word of God, “Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you will find: knock, and it will be opened to you” (Lk. 11:9).

The How-To of Lectio Divina

Traditionally, lectio divina consists of these four stages:

• Seek
  Lectio—Reading as a receptive hearing of Sacred Scripture
• Find
  Meditatio—Meditation as a pursuit of truth according to reason
• Knock
  Oratio—Prayer as an approach to God, knocking on the doors of God’s heart
• And the door will be opened unto you
  Contemplatio—Contemplation as tasting the sweet joys of God’s presence

Seek. Climbing the “Monk’s Ladder,” we must learn to listen to God in a spirit of reverence. In the preface to his Rule, St. Benedict instructs us to listen to the Word of God “with the ear of our hearts.” Only in silence can we hear the “still small voice" of God (1 Kings 19:12). Perceiving God’s Word, we learn that “the Word has a face; it is a person, Christ.” [11]

Reading the Scriptures in this elevated way surpasses mere literary phenomenon. Benedict XVI teaches that just reading the Bible “does not mean necessarily that we have truly understood the Word of God. The danger is that we only see the human words and do not find the true actor within, the Holy Spirit.” [12] If we invoke the presence of the Holy Spirit, our lectio becomes a sacred moment, and that veil of ignorance covering our intellect is parted in two by the finger of God. When the divine touch of the Holy Spirit rends that veil from top to bottom, He sheds divine light upon our very existence and integrates our minds with “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6).

Find. As we continue our ascent, we place our foot firmly on the second rung of this ladder—Meditatio. In our meditation on the inspired Word, we are led to discover “the great truth of God,” [13] rich in heavenly wisdom. Divine wisdom, by putting everything in focus, helps us to see as God sees. But “worldly wisdom,” which is passing away, is foolishness because it embraces evil under the false appearance of the good. [14]

Thus St. Jerome states, “He who does not know Scriptures does not know the power of God nor his wisdom.” [15] In lectio, one is led to discover some Biblical passage that resounds in his soul. And thus, one must ponder it just as the Blessed Virgin Mary “kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk. 2:19).

Knock. The third rung of the “Monk’s Ladder” consists of a prayerful conversation with God. Before our “Abba, Father,” [16] we make a personal offering and consecration of our entire life. In our encounter with the divine presence, we reveal the cancer of our sins in all humility, begging Him to heal these with His grace. In our prayer we reach up to heaven like Moses and cry out with full-throat, “Show me your glory!” (Ex. 33:18)

And the door will be opened to you. At last, God bends down and pulls us to the top of the “Monk’s Ladder” so that we might rest “in the shade of the Almighty” (Ps. 91:1). Coming into God’s awesome presence, our tongues fall silent as our minds contemplate His glory. Peeking into heaven, St. Paul reports, “'What no eye has seen, nor ear hears, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him,' God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God” (1 Cor. 2:9–10).

Lectio Divina and Sacred Art

The fruits of lectio divina are manifold, but one interesting realization of lectio is in the area of sacred art. If we consider the Catholic art of the Middle Ages, for example, we could find countless depictions of Biblical scenes that demonstrate how the artist’s meditations on the Scripture are realized artistically. In medieval renditions of the Annunciation, it is not uncommon to depict the Virgin kneeling, reading Isaiah’s prophecy before King Ahaz [17] when the Archangel Gabriel arrives to exclaim, “Hail, full of grace.”

The Scriptures do not tell us what Mary is doing at the moment of the Annunciation, but the minds of medieval artists pondered on this passage through lectio divina, and they could well imagine Mary reading Isaiah’s prophecy about the coming of the Messiah—they found this a compelling insight, believing Mary was already steeped in the Word of God before the Word became flesh in her very womb.

This Advent, if we truly desire to seek God’s presence in our life (Lectio), we will find (Meditatio) that if we knock (Oratio) at the door of Mary, she will open to us the door of the Holy Spirit (Contemplatio), and we will feast on the fruit of her womb—Jesus.

Fr. Scott A. Haynes, S.J.C., is a member of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius. For more information about this order and its ministries, visit www.cantius.org, www.societycantius.org, or www.sanctamissa.org.

[1] Pope Benedict XVI, Message for the 21st World Youth Day (Feb. 22, 2006): L’Osservatore Romano: Weekly Edition in English, 01.03.2006, p. 3.
[2] Pope John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, no. 39.
[3] Vatican, Oct. 9, 2008 (www.catholicculture.org).
[4] Pontifical Biblical Commission, L’interprétation de la Bible dans l’Église (15.04.1993), IV, C 2: Enchiridion Vaticanum 13, EDB, Bologna 1995, p. 1718.
[5] In Eccles., 3, 13.
[6] Leonid Alexandrovich Ouspensky, quoted in Charles H. Talbert, Reading the Sermon on the Mount: Character Formation and Decision Making in Matthew 5–7 (University of South Carolina Press, 2004), p. 72.
[7] Various schools of spirituality include, for example, Carmelite, Dominican, Ignatian, Augustinian, etc.
[8] Guigo II (d. 1193), Scala claustralium.
[9] Instrumentum Laboris, XII Ordinary General Synod of Bishops, no. 38.
[10] When Catholic laity of his day claimed that lectio divina was something only for monks, St. John Chrysostom vigorously responded: “Your mistake is in believing that the reading of the Scriptures concerns only monks, because for you it is still more necessary since you are in the midst of the world.” Hom. in Matth., 2, 5.
[11] Benedict XVI, Comments at XII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, October 6, 2008.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid.
[14] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Pt. I-II, Q. 77, Art. 2.
[15] Prologue to the commentary on the prophet Isaiah: PL 24,17
[16] Abba is the Aramaic personalized and affectionate word for "father" (i.e. “daddy”) used in the New Testament: Mk. 14:36; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6. For more information, visit www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/bible/tarazi_name_of_god.htm.
[17] “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive,and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel” (Is. 7:14).

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