Lectio Divina
Posted on 04. May, 2009 by Jeremy in Lectio Divina Defined, Meditation
Lectio Divina is Latin for “Divine/Holy Reading”. It’s a method of scripture reading that gives the Bible an opportunity to speak to you through a step-by-step process that has been honed and perfected for over 1500 years. The basic concept has been around since at least the fifth century, but the format that we will be looking to primarily, dates back to the 12th century and was developed by a monk named Guigo II. In a letter written by Guigo, he describes a 4-rung ladder that is used as a metaphor for the four-part process in which he called “The Stairway to Heaven” (and you don’t even need an out of tune guitar or backmasking translator).
The process takes a small portion of scripture and invites the Holy Spirit to highlight a word or phrase that He would like to use to speak through. Although a proper hermeneutic and understanding of scripture is ideal, deep bible study, referencing commentaries, parsing verbs and the mining out of truth is not the goal. Of course you hear from God when you do this, but study is not the point here, meditation is the goal. Richard Foster, writer of The Celebration of Discipline, champions a balance of the two- study and meditation.
A short blog entry can’t do lectio divina justice, but the point is simply this- allowing the living, breathing Word of God to expose who we are and who we are created to be. We are not to fit this revelation into our lives, but to fit our lives into this revelation.
This entry is continued in “Lectio Divina Pt.2” (creative title huh?)
Phil: Paragraph 1 | Outwitting Wormwood
May 4th, 2009
[...] participate with me and comment on your exercise. If you need a refresher on the exercise see: Lectio Divina Pt.1 and Lectio Divina [...]
coach honolulu
Nov 20th, 2009
This is a really good entry! I really enjoyed reading about it. Its a very hard hitting entry by the wy but very true.