Reflection This Week
LECTIO, MEDITATIO, ORATIO, CONTEMPLATIO

   Having surgery (major, my wife calls it) enables one (forces one?) to slow down for a while. What one does with this now-available time other than the physical therapy the surgeon ordered is up to the individual. I have been able to do some reading that I have been putting off for too long a time.

   One of the articles I read appeared in the Sewanee Theological Review this past summer. It quoted the late Cistercian priest Basil Pennington on the four stages of the process known as lectio divina, which is the spiritual practice of taking Scripture and making it part of who we are as a person. The four stages, also in Latin, are lectio, meditatio, oratio and contemplation.

   Lectio: we first have to read Scripture, sit down with the Bible, open it and read what we find there. We will never know what Scripture says to us if we do not first open the book. We can also read what others who have opened that book found there for themselves. My library shelves are lined with the scriptural reflections of others. Reading the word, hearing the word is the first step.

   The second step is called meditatio. We next have to take time to reflect on what we have just read or heard. One of the Sunday Collects says that we are to “inwardly digest” the words of Scripture. The old monastics called it “chewing the cud”. My old spiritual director used to admonish us seminarians to “Chew on that for a while.” The “for a while” was important because so often it takes three or four or more readings to even begin to understand what we just read.

   Then and only then can we, should we, enter into prayer – oratio. We respond to what we have just read and finally digested by giving thanks to God for this new understanding, by asking for more insight, by requesting strength to put into practice what we have just learned. That is only for starters. It is so easy to pray without knowing either why we are praying or what we are praying for. We say words that have little or no meaning. The admonition to “be sure you know what are praying for” applies to any one of us who jumps into prayer without first meditating.

   The fourth stage is called contemplatio. It is at this point where what we have read and meditated on and prayed about becomes part of who we are. We understand what Scripture is saying to us, for us, about us and know how we are now to make it a part of who we are. We are a changed person.

   Would that this happen every time we hear the word of God spoken or read, but it does not. It does not because we have not taken enough time to meditate on the words and thus not truly understood their implications for our very lives. If we have not taken that time, then our prayers will be spoken but not truly sincere. If our prayers are not sincere, then there is little likelihood that we will ever make what we read a part of who we are.

   Following the lectio divina can be, will be, is life changing. That can be frightening. No, it is frightening. Let’s be honest about that. Perhaps that is also the reason why we consciously or unconsciously avoid making such a spiritual practice a part of our lives.    WJP