Oasis Ministries

Lectio Divina literally means simply “divine reading”;
it referred in the medieval monasteries to the daily meditative reading of Scripture.
The four steps are merely suggestions, not rules you must rigidly follow.

Preparation: Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed, and alot yourself sufficient time to spend prayerfully with the poem. Do whatever you do to deeply relax yourself. Say a short prayer, such as: God, may I know you better through this poem.

(1) lectio = Meeting the poem through your senses: This is where you experience the poem with your body -- your eyes and ears. Read the poem aloud, slowly, in the spirit of just letting it happen to you, like rain soaking into the ground. Notice any word or phrase that touches you.

(2) meditatio = Asking questions of the poem: This is where you experience the poem with your mind. Question the text, the poet, yourself: what moved you? why? how does the poet’s artistry affect you in certain images, punctuation, line breaks, rhythm? Look up words in a dictionary if it helps, but don’t feel you need to “understand” every bit; the art of poems is that they can communicate powerfully even if phrases or whole sections don’t disclose their meaning intellectually.

(3) oratio = Praying with the poem: This is where you let yourself experience the poem with your heart, responding personally to those things in the poem that have moved you. If it’s an image, let it dwell in your mind or visualize it or interact with it. This may evoke memories and other thoughts; follow them wherever they lead. You may be drawn to address the poet or God or yourself. Finally, you may find that you’re drawn to share the poem’s spiritual journey or to reject it.

(4) contemplatio = Absorbing, reflecting: Here you just sit and experience whatever remains with you. Maybe it will be a particular image from the poem or a memory or desire that the poem has evoked in you. Maybe it will be a sense of prayer or other communication with God. You can re-read lines of the poem at this point if they’ve become meaningful to you; or you can re-read the whole poem; or you can sit with your eyes closed.

Wrap-up ~ Journaling: Many people find that the process of journaling helps to focus their thoughts, and the journal remains a document of one’s spiritual growth. Questions you might address include: What in the poem did I find enjoyable, moving, frightening, amusing, beautiful, boring? As a result of reading this poem, do I hear God’s voice more clearly or have a better sense of God’s will for me?

Living Life’s Passages Poetically
a retreat with Peggy Rosenthal & David Impastato
537 Harvard St., Rochester, NY 14607
phone (703) 799-0278 fax (585) 442-6057 PoetryRetreats@juno.com
© 2002 by Peggy Rosenthal and David lmpastato

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