It's never not a good time to add some spiritual
practices to our lives, whether it's Lent or the dog days
of summer. And so that's what we're going to attempt to do on this
episode of Compass.
Welcome to Compass, finding spirituality in the everyday. My name is Ryan
Dunn. Let's jump right in and learn about an
ancient contemplative spiritual practice that can help us
reflect a little bit more deeply and open an awareness
to the presence of the divine in our daily lives, which is what we're all
about on Compass. We're going to walk through the practice of Lectio
Divina. Lectio Divina simply means divine
reading. It's a way of interacting with sacred texts that
invite us into deep reflection and prayer.
Gregory of Nyssa, who lived about 330 to
395 CE, adapted the practice to Christian
spiritual groups. And then Benedict of Nursia, who lived about
480 to 547 CE, helped to
popularize the practice through its use in Benedictine
monastic communities. What is Lectio
Divina? Well, simply put, it's a way of developing a
closer relationship with God by reflecting prayerfully
on holy words. In Lectio Divina, the
chosen spiritual text is read several times,
giving an opportunity for us to think deeply about it and
then to respond thoughtfully to what we've heard or
read. When we practice Lectio Divina, we can imagine that we're
actually participating in the text, whether that be
through being a witness of the story— so maybe we have a gospel story,
Jesus in action, and we're there looking at it— or simply by
hearing something that may in this case be just
for us. There are generally 4 movements to
Lectio Divina. The first one is Lectio.
That's reading the Bible passage gently and slowly
several times. The passage itself is not really as important
as savoring of each portion of the reading.
We're constantly listening for the word or phrase that
somehow speaks to us. Think about reading the
text like running your hand over a piece of wood.
What pricks you? Where is the splinter that
sticks out to you? Or where is it particularly smooth and
your hand goes quickly? Or maybe you want to think about it this way: what
words or phrases shimmer for you, or
glimmer, or glisten in your mind's eye? You
read this with your own life and your own choices
in mind. Then the second movement is called
meditatio. This is reflecting on the passage
and thinking about how it applies to your own life. This is
considered to be a very personal reading of the scripture and
then a very personal application of the scripture.
And the key question to kind of keep in mind in this second movement, in
the meditatio movement, is why do you think that the
word or phrase was sticking out to you today?
Why is this at the forefront of your attention?
The third movement is called oratio. It's responding to the
passage by opening our heart to God. This opening can
take the form of prayer, so you might choose to journal through
this time or simply let yourself move into a prayerful
conversation with God in light of what you've experienced through the
first two movements. I get a sense that this might be the movement that provokes
anxiety because we feel like we need to be active in some
way. Release that, okay? Just let yourself respond
in some way, shape, or form. Finally, there's
contemplatio, a time of simply being with
God without prayer or agenda. This is a good time to
listen for any impression or to listen for God's
small, still voice. Most yoga
practices end with a time of corpse pose.
Contemplatio is the corpse pose moment
of this practice. Just rest. Take a
few moments. Don't plan. Don't feel like you need to accomplish
something during this time. Just let yourself be and
maybe just bask in the sense of divine presence. You
are in holy space, and you're free to hold on to that holy space for
a moment. Father Thomas Keating described that these
four stages of Lectio Divina as
compass points around a circle, with the Holy Spirit moving
seamlessly between them. These 4 points,
though, are not hard and fast rules, as
we'll learn through both doing this practice and then through exploring
some alternative forms of the practice. It's often useful to
improvise. In fact, just like in music or in comedy,
improvisation leads towards some deep,
impactful moments. So let yourself go there if you feel
so led. All right, I'm going to lead us through a passage
applying the 4 movements of Lectio Divina,
and One of the recommended readings for this weekend is
Romans 8:6-11. Let me read
it for you, and this time through we're reading it
just to hear. There's no heavy work to do here,
just hear the words of this sacred text.
This is again Romans 8:6-11.
To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind
on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason,
the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. It does
not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. And those
who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the
flesh. You are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells
in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does
not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, then the body is
dead because of sin. The Spirit is life because of
righteousness. In the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from
the dead, dwells in you. He who raised
Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal
bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in
you. Okay, I'm gonna take a moment to read
again, and this time deliberately, very
slowly. As I read it again this time, the invitation for
you is to listen for the word or phrase that is striking
you today. What shimmers? What pricks you? As we
read this. Again, this is Romans 8, verses 6
through 11. To set the
mind on the flesh is death, but
to set the mind on the Spirit is life and
peace. For this reason, the mind
that is set on the flesh is hostile to
God. It does not submit to God's law,
Indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot
please God. But you are not in
the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the
Spirit of God dwells in you.
Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ
does not belong to him. But if
Christ is in you, then the body is dead because
of sin; the Spirit is life because of
righteousness. If the
Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead
dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus
from the dead will give life to your mortal
bodies also through His Spirit that dwells
in you. It's time to
reflect. This is the meditatio time.
I'm actually going to read this passage again,
offering you another opportunity to reflect
on what has stood out to you, but also to reflect
on why this phrase or why
these words are pricking you or shimmering in
your mind's eye today.
Again, Romans 8:6-11: To set the mind
on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit
is life and peace. For this reason, the
mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.
It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot.
And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you
are not in the flesh. You are in the Spirit since the Spirit of God
dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit
of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ
is in you, then the body is dead because of sin. The
Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the
Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life
to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that
dwells in you.
As we move into the third movement of Lectio
Divina, the Oratio time, it's time for you to
respond in some way, whether through prayer, journaling,
maybe drawing or singing. Maybe you want to
pause here on this podcast and just do your own thing.
So I'll be back in 10 seconds
But again, you may want to hit pause and just allow yourself
some time to contemplate.
Okay, once you've concluded the oratio time, it's
time to rest in contemplatio. Listen
for that voice of the divine. Take time to
breathe without agenda. Right now, rest
is the thing. I'm going to get out of the way again, and
I'll come back in about 10 seconds. Again, you may want to hit
pause and take the time that you need, but I'll come back again in about
10 seconds to talk about other forms of
Lectio.
Let's talk about a few alternative forms of Lectio.
Lectio is merely an invitation to listen for the divine through
the ears of your heart, and there are so many ways
to engage in that. As a Christian, I do believe that
scripture is often the most direct way to encounter God's story,
and to get a look or glimpse or get a feel for God's
action in the world. But it's not exclusive. I often get a sense of
God's leading through music as it's a powerful
communal activity. It's sometimes
sacred songs or hymns are useful. Sometimes singing
together is useful. But I'll also admit that the
mundane music that we encounter daily can also offer
an opening to holy moments. I remember going on a
long run several years ago with a backing track of
classic rock songs, and Jackson
Browne's The Pretender struck me. As I relistened
to the words, I was struck by the struggle that this song
communicated. It was speaking to my own life about
the priorities and where true contentment lies.
And maybe, as Browne puts it, The struggle for the
legal tender was not the thing that led
to contentment. That's what I was struggling with at the time.
This contemplative exercise was a form of
lectio, and you could easily apply the four movements
to a song. You can also apply the four movements to artwork
or to photos. This is sometimes referred to as visio
divina. The use of icons is prevalent in the Eastern
Orthodox Church. Contemplating a holy image
reflects the movements of Lectio. So we can look at an
image and reflect on what stands out to us and
why we might be drawn to that on this particular
day. And poetry works with Lectio as well, even, even
full fiction books. There is a podcast called Harry Potter and
the Sacred Texts where they often apply Lectio Divina to
the Harry Potter books. In fact, they provide a description of Lectio
Divina in their first episode. I'll link that in the
episode notes. And speaking of
episode notes, you can find those and
more at umc.org/compass.
Other episodes that you may want to explore while you're there include
Contemplation is Resistance. That's episode
167. It's about how contemplative exercises
like 'Lexio Divina' help us resist the
sheer overwhelm of the current age. Episode
157, 'Soulful Practices for Healing and Belonging,'
is a good one too. It explores how contemplative spiritual
practices draw us together in community. If you've
never hit the subscribe button or dropped a rating and review
on Compass, now is the time. Hit the like
button, hit subscribe, or use your podcast
listening app to leave a review about what you appreciate about The
Compass Podcast. This has been a production of United
Methodist Communications. We release episodes every 2
weeks. I'm Ryan Dunn, and I'll be back with you then. In the meantime,
peace.