Some Examples of the Practice of Lectio Divina

Introduction

This home page represents approximately twenty-five years of reflections upon Scripture and the Church Fathers with periodic references to St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Bernard of Clairvaux, two Christian authors of special personal interest. Also included are quotations from various books and articles which have caught my attention during this period of time, and which I had deemed relevant to sustaining my ongoing practice of lectio divina. This Latin phrase, difficult to translate into English, literally means :"divine" or "sacred reading."

Lectio divina is ordinarily confined to the slow perusal of sacred Scripture, both the Old and New Testaments; it is undertaken not with the intention of gaining information but of using the texts as an aide to contact the living God. Basic to this practice is the eventual union with God in faith which, in turn, finds continued nourishment and development in further reading. There is no special program or technique to this procedure, nor is the amount of material to be covered crucial for its success; a person can linger over even a single word or phrase for an indefinite period of time after which one moves on to further slow and careful reflection. Thus one of the attractive features to lectio divina is that it is open-ended and subject to continued growth.

The following pages represent a product or sampling of this ancient exercise practiced not just in monastic communities but in more recent years has gained acceptance by a growing number of laypersons. In many instances people became interested in lectio divina after having been initiated into one form or another of traditional contemplative prayer which is now enjoying a certain popularity. They discovered that such prayer requires a verification, as it were, of their practice, and the best locus for those raised in the Judeo-Christian heritage is found in both the Old and New Testaments. Prayer enables one to penetrate beyond the letter of text and to see how the Holy Spirit is speaking to us through these inspired words here and now.

The character of reflections in this Home Page are unique in that they rely heavily upon the biblical texts composed in the original Hebrew, Syriac, Greek and Latin languages. Despite frequent references to these original texts, I wish to avoid a purely etymological or "scholarly" approach. That is to say, I do not wish to present them as "bits of information" but as the fruit of Christian contemplative prayer which must remain primary to any subsequent reflections. While some readers may find the transliterations wearing and somewhat dense, my constant appeal to the original texts forms an integral part of most reflections within this Home Page. Ideally, these notes should be read with that same slow, thoughtful attitude essential to lectio divina. I have tried to make these notes more palatable by a simple yet thorough explanation of the transliterated terms.

To the best of my knowledge, examples of lectio divina per se are quite limited; that is to say, I have rarely encountered them except through writings or diaries kept by monks or nuns, few of which have been made available to the general public let alone are circulated within their respective communities or religious Orders. On the other hand, there are numerous articles and books on the subject. Such material assumes either a "how to" approach or presents historical, theological or philosophical background material, all valuable in their own respect but not representative of lectio practice in and by itself.

A leading authority on the subject of lectio divina, Jean Leclerq, osb, has noted that this slow, ruminative reading developed its own stamp, the florilegium. Such florilegia "grew out of spiritual reading. The monk would copy out texts he had enjoyed so as to savor them at leisure and use them anew as subjects for private meditation. The monastic florilegium not only originated in the monk=s spiritual reading but always remained closely associated with it."⁽¹⁾ Leclerq's emphasis upon savoring the Word of God is integral to the Cistercian tradition which is perhaps why I make frequent reference within this Home Page to Psalm 34.8: "Taste and see that the Lord is good!" Much of the exegesis here centers around this them of tasting Scripture which, of course, suggests ingestion and therefore assimilation.

Right away I wish to stress that these reflections are personal by nature, yet they based on objective, scholarly material; while not strictly following this latter path, I have taken liberty to make associations between words and concepts which can only achieve greater meaning within the context of Christian contemplative prayer. More likely than not, someone schooled in the literal or historical sense of Scripture may disagree with the nature of these reflections. I freely offer them to the reader with this important caveat in mind.

In my opinion, the best demonstration of lectio divina is to present a personal sampling just as it is. I ask forbearance because there is no strict logical order to these excerpts; they were assembled over twenty years mostly as reflections centered around the liturgical cycle of the Church which lays out a yearly plan of celebrating the mysteries of the Christian faith. Since the liturgical cycle is essential for the Church's identity, I ask the reader to keep in mind this general framework. One may find a given theme represented in several parts of this Home Page, but they do differ significantly. Again, these reflections derived from lectio divina are personal, originally composed with no intention to make them public, and I apologize in advance for lack of organization in the traditional sense. This lack of schematization which one may expect in such a document is not due to laziness; scrutiny of medieval monastic documents, for example, reveal that monks jotted down their thoughts is a more or less unsystematic fashion.

It is not my intent to discourse upon the nature of lectio divina per se; many excellent books exist for this purpose as well as references on the Internet which may be consulted. For the time being, I submit these texts just as they are much like a series of snap-shots with the intention of adding or altering them on occasion. It is possible at a later time to group the notes under more specific categories. Such is the advantage of the electronic medium! Any comments or questions may be addressed to me either through my e-mail address, fax or in writing. If someone makes suggestions with regard to their presentation or content, I would be most happy to seriously consider them for future incorporation into the Home Page.

For the sake of convenience I have divided this Home Page into four sections; the first three are more or less arbitrary, keeping in mind those of you with more limited or slower computer access. The fourth and last section consists of several articles and form a somewhat independent category.

On a personal note, I belong to a monastic order (Cistercians of the Strict Observance commonly known as Trappists) of the Roman Catholic Church where this ancient and venerable tradition of lectio divina is very much alive today. Some years ago the noted scholar, Jean Leclerq, osb, visited my monastery during which time I submitted a sampling of these notes when I first became in involved with lectio divina. I include his letter at the end of this Home Page which presents some brief remarks with regard to the style I have adopted.

All quotations from the Old and New Testaments are from the Revised Standard Edition. Occasionally one will find the abbreviations, PG or PL, which stand for J.P. Migne's Patroliga Graecae and Patrologia Latinae. These references are often associated with texts from patristic sources; critical references are also noted, for example, the letter AJ followed by a page number refers to the critical edition of Gregory of Nyssa's works by Werner Jaeger, published by E.J. Brill.

It may be of general interest that I have created a Home Page on the Internet devoted to the works of St. Gregory of Nyssa (fourth century) who is an important figure in the development of both Christian theology as well as mysticism. This Home Page also contains an extensive list of scriptural references in the Song Commentaries by three noted Fathers of the Church, Origen, St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Perhaps the reader may find this particular document useful to see how each of these authors composed their respective commentaries in the spirit of lectio divina. One may recreate, as it were, the Commentaries by focusing upon the scriptural references alone.

The Gregory of Nyssa Home Page
David Salomon at the University of Connecticut (Storrs campus) is responsible for maintaining this Home Page as well as the current one related to lectio divina. His e-mail address: das93006@uconnvm.uconn.edu.

Richard McCambly, ocso St. Joseph's Abbey 167 North Spencer Road Spencer, Massachusetts, 01562 USA

e-mail: rmccambly@holycross.edu

fax: 508-885-8701

telephone: 508-885-8700, extension 537

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1. The Love of Learning and the Desire for God (New York, 1988 reprint), p.182.