For more than fifteen centuries, monks and saints have prayed the Scriptures through four unhurried movements. It turns reading into a living conversation with God.
Lectio divina, Latin for "divine reading," is a way of praying with Scripture that reaches back to the early monks and was shaped above all by St. Benedict in the sixth century. It is not so much a technique to be mastered as a posture of the heart: slow, attentive, and genuinely listening, rather than hurrying to extract a lesson.
The Catechism places it within the great tradition of Christian prayer, teaching that the reading of Sacred Scripture should be accompanied by prayer, so that a true conversation takes place between God and the one who reads (CCC 2653). Pope Benedict XVI believed that this practice, taken up faithfully, could bring the Church "a new spiritual springtime."
There are four movements. Walk through each below, and resist the temptation to rush.
Choose a short passage, perhaps the coming Sunday's Gospel or a single Psalm. Read it slowly, even aloud. Do not rush toward the end, nor strain to draw out a lesson. Read it twice, and let the words settle. You are not gathering information here, but listening for the voice of the One who speaks.
Take five to ten verses. Read once to hear the whole, then again slowly, noticing any word or phrase that seems to shine, to catch your attention, or to stir something within you.
This first reading awakens us to the presence of God in his Word (CCC 1177).
Take the word or phrase that caught your attention, and ponder it. Turn it over in mind and heart. Why this word? What is God saying to you, in the particulars of your life, through it? Christian meditation is not the emptying of the mind but the filling of it with the Word, letting Scripture read you even as you read it.
Repeat the phrase gently. Ask where it touches your life today, what memory, struggle, or hope it stirs. Let the passage become personal, a word spoken to you by name.
Our Lady is our model here, for she kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart (Luke 2:19). Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire, deepening our faith and converting the heart (CCC 2708).
Now respond. Speak to God in your own words about whatever has risen within you. This is the moment the reading becomes a true dialogue. Perhaps the passage moves you to praise, to sorrow for sin, to ask for help, or simply to give thanks. Whatever it stirs, offer it back to him honestly.
Do not search for eloquent words. Speak as a child speaks to a loving father. If the passage convicted you, ask pardon. If it consoled you, give thanks. If it confused you, ask for light.
Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God, the response of faith to his Word (CCC 2559, 2561).
Finally, rest. Having read, pondered, and responded, simply remain in the presence of God in loving silence. There is nothing further to accomplish and no words required. Like a friend content to sit beside a friend, you abide with the Lord and let his Word continue its quiet work within you.
Set aside thoughts and words. Be still. When the mind wanders, and it will, gently return to the presence of God. Even a minute or two of this loving silence is a profound prayer.
St. John Vianney once told of a parishioner who would sit before the tabernacle in silence; asked what he was doing, the man replied, "I look at him, and he looks at me." Contemplative prayer is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, a silence that is the symbol of the world to come (CCC 2715, 2717).
You need not wait until you feel ready. Here is a passage the Church has long loved for lectio divina. Read it twice, slowly, and let one phrase remain with you.