What it is. Lectio Divina is a slow, prayerful reading of Scripture that moves through four movements toward rest in God, and then out into action. It is not study and it is not analysis. It is a listening: we let the text read us.

Where it comes from. The practice reaches back through Jewish prayer to Origen in the third century. St. Benedict of Nursia made it part of monastic life in his Rule in the sixth century. Guigo II, a twelfth-century Carthusian, named the classic four movements in The Ladder of Monks.

Before you begin

  • Choose a short passage, a few verses at most. The Sunday Gospel works well.
  • Find a quiet place and allow 20 to 30 minutes.
  • Settle for a moment. Offer an open mind and heart to God. 

The movements

Read the same passage four times, slowly, aloud if you can. Each reading asks a different question.

  1. Lectio (Reading). Read to take in the words. Notice which word or phrase catches you. Listen to the words, not to your own voice.   
  2. Meditatio (Reflecting). Read again. Stay with the word or phrase that caught you. What does it mean to you, today?
  3. Oratio (Responding). Read a third time. Let a prayer rise from what you have received: thanks, a question, a request, a confession.
  4. Contemplatio (Resting). Read a final time, then set the words down. Rest in God beyond the words. Nothing to do here but be.
  5. Operatio (Action). Often left out, but it is how the Gospel comes alive. Carry one thing from the prayer into your day: Gospel to life, and life to Gospel.

Gentle reminders

  • Imagine you are listening with your heart, and the words are oxygen feeding body and soul.
  • Each reading may say something different. That is fine.
  • If nothing seems to happen, that is fine too. Don’t force it; just be open.
  • This is feeling God, not gathering information about God.
  • In a group, no one has to share afterward. There is no pressure.

Try it: an example

The passage, Matthew 7:7–8:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Here is what a prayer with this passage might look like. Yours will be different.

  1. Reading. On the first slow reading, the word knock stands out. It sounds louder than the others.
  2. Reflecting. Knocking means standing outside a door, waiting, not sure who will answer. Where am I standing outside a door right now? Perhaps a conversation I have been avoiding.
  3. Responding. The prayer turns around. I am the one knocking, but I am also a door. A line from “Door of Mercy” rises: Can I be an open door, not discerning who can enter, keeping a light on. Lord, let me be that door today.
  4. Resting. The words fall away. Just the image of a door, slightly open, light coming through. Stay there.
  5. Action. Today, answer the one message I have been leaving unanswered.

Pray it now

Pray with today’s Gospel, a Gospel chosen for what you are carrying, or a surprise, alone or leading a group. The page walks you through each movement, with a time of silence after every reading. Leaders see a line of guidance at each movement and can print the whole session as a script.

Begin a Lectio Divina session

Going deeper

  • Pray with today’s Gospel and Readings (Prayers and Meditations)
  • Guigo II, The Ladder of Monks and Twelve Meditations (Cistercian Publications)
  • Michael Casey, Sacred Reading: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina (Triumph, 1996)
  • Thelma Hall, Too Deep for Words: Rediscovering Lectio Divina (Paulist, 1988)
  • Dan Riley, OFM, Franciscan Lectio Divina

Keep going

Michael J. Cunningham OFS