Oasis Ministries

Personal Lectio Divina Process

Many people think of their personal devotional life consisting of reading the Bible—then saying their prayers. This is an exercise where the two come together: praying the scriptures. In the fifth century, Benedict gave us a simple method: lectio divina—the “divine” or “prayerful” reading of scriptures. Read a short text prayerfully—over and over, like a cow chewing her cud—until you are led to “delight in God.” In the twelfth century, Guigo II divided Benedict’s Lectio into a fourfold experience, beginning with silence:

Reading: Like a cow grazing, use a lectionary or other method to select and read a brief portion of scripture silently, aloud—or both ways.

Meditating: Like a cow chewing fresh grass, reread it, ponder the context—allow meanings and associations to come to mind.

Praying: Like a cow regurgitating its sour cud, ruminate on the text, let it get down in your gut and connect with your raw feelings.

Contemplating: Like the cow resting, digesting, allow the Word you need to get into your bloodstream.

Contemplation is what the Psalmist means by “Delight yourself in the Lord, and [God] will give you the desires of your heart” (37:4). It is Luke's image of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening. Speaking of prayer, John Calvin wrote that Jesus “taught us to seek a retreat that would help us to descend into our heart… That God…will be near to us in the affections of our hearts” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, III.20.29).

When you pray with scripture the Word becomes flesh in us embodied in service. Three options for praying with scripture have been passed down through the centuries:

a. Use the imagination to visualize a scene in a narrative text.

b. Converse with the various characters. (Reflect inwardly, or by using a journal).

c. Repeat a short phrase that lures you, like a centering prayer. Keep your journal and Bible with you during personal prayer times.

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© 2000 Kent Ira Groff, The Soul of Tomorrow’s Church: Weaving Spiritual Practices in Ministry Together (Nashville, Tenn.: Upper Room Books, 2000.) This resource may be duplicated for local one-time use, provided each use is dated along with proper citation of this book title, author, and publisher.