Contemporary Christians are expected to seek guidance in the word of God. To that purpose, they must take the time to listen to the Gospel and to test their lives against it. The liturgy offers us the opportunity to get to know large sections of the Old and the New Testament. Therefore, it is recommended to use those occasions to expand our knowledge of the Gospel. This knowledge may be supported by exegesis: studying the Bible.
However, to allow the word of God to make its way into our hearts, there is a traditional but very reliable method, i.e. Lectio Divina. It is a method rooted in the monastic world, but every Christian is capable of making that method his or her own. Allow me to dwell on it for a while.
- Lectio
The term ‘lectio’ indicates that we are talking about attentive reading of and listening to the Word of God, paying special attention to the Person who addresses His Word to us. This type of ‘lectio’ is an act of faith, for we believe that
God is alive and present in His Word. It is about hearing what God has to say to us.
A number of conditions need be fulfilled though, and these may seem difficult to fulfil today on account of our hectic lives. The first element that is required is faith in the fact that the word that we hear spoken is truly the Word of God. That remains condition no. 1: to believe that it is God who speaks to us through the Word. From that perspective, it is quite easy to understand how some tend to listen to the Word of God in a very special way. Vincent de Paul would read the Word of God sitting on his knees in order to show his profound faith and great respect. Our standing up when listening to the Gospel during the Eucharist is an indication of that same faith and respect.
A second condition is humility for we must listen to the Gospel humbly. We must be willing to really learn something. When we are convinced that we know everything about our lives and so have nothing more to learn, we tend to shut our eyes and our hearts to the Gospel. Here, we are called upon to empty ourselves so that the Word should enter us, enter our hearts. We must get rid of all that stops us from listening to the Gospel with our ears wide open.
So we must open our hearts to the Gospel. Openness is the third condition. We are not reading just any book, a text like so many others. No, we are meeting a person, a divine person. It is God himself who loves us and who has plans for us and who, through His Word, wants to explain those plans. So, we are talking about a meeting, a real meeting with the living God who offers us His love. It is a meeting with loving God.
Finally, we are expected to be loyal in our listening to the Gospel, always open to the Word so that it should inhabit us. An eloquent image that may be used in this respect is the robe of a Buddhist monk: the colour is orange and this robe, which was white originally, was dipped into yellow dye so many times until the robe had exactly the same colour as the dye. In a similar way, we must submerge ourselves time and again in the Gospel so that it should come to life in us and become reality. In order to really get to know the God who loves us, we must appear in front of Him every day anew and open up to His love, to His Word. For it is his Spirit, his Holy Spirit, that changes us, that divinizes our human nature. And this process requires time.
Through the Word of God, we receive answers to some of the most fundamental questions that we might ask, i.e. why do I exist, why did God create me, what is the true meaning of life? It is these existential questions that every man asks himself and the answers for which all of us are searching all our lives. In fact, the whole of our existence, the reason of our existence may be reduced to the love of God. It is in the mystery of the Holy Trinity that we find the most fundamental answer: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who, in total harmony with one another, experience a summit of happiness, celebrate life and love in an infinite way, and wish to share it with other people. It is about this kind of happiness to which Jesus referred several times in his farewell speech, begging his Father to allow all to partake in that joy and to make that joy complete (cf. Jn. 17).
That is what God has been communicating to man ever since the beginning of time through his Word, and in which context Jesus proved a unique means of communication. It is that Word that He still wishes to communicate to us today, so that we should live a full life.
- The Word of God
The Gospel according to John starts with a marvelous prologue: “In the beginning was the Word: The Word was with God and the Word was God” (Jn. 1, 1). Indeed, among Jews the Word of God occupied a central place. In the synagogue, a lamp would always burn as a sign that God was present in the Word. But in our parts too, since the Second Vatican Council, the liturgy of the Word is receiving additional attention. Attending an Orthodox Church service, you will notice how the New Testament is beautifully decorated in order to be venerated.
In the liturgy, certainly during solemn celebrations, the Gospel is brought up with candles and incense. And after the reading, it is lifted high to be worshipped by the faithful.
We should be happy with this innovation introduced after Vatican II, whereby the Word regained its rightful place in the liturgy and now stands closer to man. In many Churches, we notice the Gospel lying open on a lectern. In addition to the tabernacle in which the Lord is really present, the Gospel is the second place from which the Lord speaks to us. Tabernacle and Gospel: both deserve a central place in our churches and chapels. The liturgy offers us an excellent opportunity to get to know the Word of God. But there are still other ways of learning the Word of God.
There is the study of the Scripture, whereby the studying always involves reflection, meditation and wondering what the text says about our lives. Studying the Bible, alone or in a group, is very fructuous and also necessary in order to grasp the full meaning of the text. It is not without reason that exegetes always try to study the Bible in its original version, i.e. in the language in which it was written originally, in order to prevent themselves from using an erroneous translation. Every translation involves a certain degree of interpretation and, when we take a Bible translation of twenty years ago and compare it to the most recent one, you will notice certain shifts in the texts that make some people unhappy. The texts that are part of the treasure of prayers, especially the psalms and hymns from both the Old and the New Testament, often deviate from the literal meaning when the translation is of a more poetic nature.
Apart from studying the Gospel, there is another possibility: to read it with a more spiritual intention. That means that we really try to listen to what God tries to say to us through the Gospel. Spiritual reading does not exclude studying as studying may add an even deeper dimension to spiritual reading.
A very special form of reading the Bible with a spiritual intention is lectio divina. That means seeking God himself through reading and intense meditation. Lectio divina is praying, whereby we allow the Word of God to penetrate into our hearts. And, to that purpose, we take the Word itself that God offered us in the shape of the Bible. It is this form that we should like to discuss in more detail.
- Lectio Divina
In fact, it is a favour that we can take the time to allow the Word of God to come to us so that it should nourish us. For that is what the Lord means when He says that He is the Word of
Life: It is a Word that gives life, that brings life, invites us to live the one real life.In lectio divina everything is centered on the Word that God wishes to pass on to us, that one word that may be directive for our day and our life.
The question in this respect obviously is how we may receive that Word when God wants to give it to us.
Guerric of Igny (12th century) added comments to the story about the two women who arrived at Jesus’ grave early in the morning and found it empty.
“Some days, we start our lectio and it appears that the Lord is absent. We go to the liturgy and even there he seems absent. Both the grave and the altar seem empty. But as we walk into the garden, make our way to work, the Lord appears all of a sudden.” God takes his time to give us His Word. And this brings us to the first condition that must be fulfilled, if we want our lectio divina to be fructuous: we must take our time. We must reserve the best time of the day for our lectio, or as Cardinal Bernardin used to say: “Every day, I must consecrate the first and best hour of the day to the Lord, and to the Lord alone.”
It comes down to our growing silent within and taking the time to listen to the Word of God, and to allowing it to descend in our hearts. Once again we are talking about emptying ourselves as the first condition that needs be fulfilled in order to be open to the Lord. We must be capable of bringing calm into our lives, of no longer being a slave of our passions, emotions, and uncontrolled wishes. This is possible only when we build in regular periods of silence and loneliness. However, we must not only take the time, at the same time we must try to ban all thoughts, feelings, emotions, and desires. That is true asceticism: to rid oneself of the domination of our thoughts, passions, and desires; to free our minds for things of the Spirit. Look at the Desert Fathers!
For many years, they lived in isolation and bore witness to a much deeper, richer and happier life. It is the kind of life that God invites us to live: to live in His joy, in His total happiness, which has to do with the unending celebration of life and the joy that we take in the Holy Trinity.
“Speak your Word, Lord!” That ought to be our plea at the beginning of our prayer, at the beginning of our lectio divina. And to that purpose, we want to be in the right disposition, a disposition that we cannot reach ourselves, for which we must rely on the Lord. “God, come to my rescue. Lord, make haste to help me!” Those are the words with which the prayer of the Church starts.
Indeed, it is the first step of our prayer, so that the Lord should free our minds of all those thoughts and take us to that indispensable simplicity and openness to the Word that God wants to speak to us. If we apply ourselves to lectio divina, we take a path that ought to turn us into spiritual beings, whereby the weight that normally rests on our shoulders is shifted to God’s. Obviously, we are talking about a process of conversion.
In most cases, Lectio divina is captured in four words: lectio, meditation, oratio, conemplatio.
– Lectio
When we start our lectio, we pray to the Holy Spirit and ask for God’s presence. For we believe that it is the Spirit who prays within us. We read the text carefully and quietly. The text
may be selected from the liturgy of that day or as it is presented in the reading of the breviary.
We try to do this at a fixed moment of the day in order that it becomes a ritual, a wholesome routine. Spiritual life presupposes rituals and routine. In the day, we need certain fixed moments on which we refer to the Lord and open our minds and hearts for His Word. It is important to take the time, proper time. It is not enough to read a lot or to seek variation all the time. That is why respecting a schedule that was drawn up beforehand seems recommended.
We put ourselves in the presence of the Lord. We listen to Him so that we should hear what He has to say to us.
– Meditatio
Through meditation we allow the Word that we read or listened to, seep into our minds via our hearts. We listen to the Word, while we are aware of the reality surrounding us, both mentally and affectively.
In fact, meditation is not an active process, but rather a receptive process in the course of which we allow the Word to erupt within us. In the past meditation was considered as an activity of the spirit, a method whereby we tried to imagine and grasp what the true meaning of the text was.
Naturally, it is not a strictly passive process either, for we must contribute to the interiorization. Maybe we had better use a very plastic image: cows who slowly and repeatedly ruminate the food that they have eaten until it is ready to be swollen and digested completely. Meditation is a process that requires time. What we have collected during the lectio must be processed and digested slowly, not only during formal prayer moments, but throughout the day. Our meditation does not end when the time for lectio divina has come to an end. It may, and must even, influence our daytime activities and thoughts. Hence the importance of planning the lectio divina in the morning, as is done in most abbeys. Hopefully, during meditation, one word will stick in our minds as the ultimate Word spoken by God: one word, a sentence, that will colour all other prayers recited during the day.
We are ready for the next step when we have been given that word, and we want to write it with a capital: The Word.
– Oratio
Almost logically and without interruption, meditation becomes oration: our response to the gift of the Word: a response of gratitude, praise, prayer for pardon, adoration. It is the moment on which we wish to address ourselves to God: we pray, we perform an act of love before God.
Oratio is, indeed, a way of giving thanks to God for his gift, for his love which He offers us so gratuitously, even though we sometimes do not deserve it. It is our loving response to God’s love, and that we wish to take with us too for the rest of the day. To that idea “God is Love” we wish to respond with our own love, with a kind of love that is given to us by God as well. It may become the start of our uninterrupted praying, which causes us to approach everything and everyone starting from the love of God. It is walking through the day on the hand of our loving God, doing our work, going to meetings with Him on our sides. Henceforth we know that we are not alone: God is walking by our sides.
– Contemplatio
One day, the parish priest of Ars found an old farmer in his church. He had been coming there every day and sat for hours in the back of the Church. When the holy priest of Ars asked him what he was doing there every day, the latter answered: “He looks at me, and I look at Him.” I cannot think of a better definition of contemplation. Once I lived through a similar situation. One day, a Congolese, with whom I had been corresponding for some time, came into my room in Kananga and asked me whether he could sit beside me for a while. He was so glad about my visit that only to look at me, filled him with joy. He remained seated on the sofa for half an hour while I was writing. I did not find it disturbing, nor did I find it awkward. Elderly people demonstrate what contemplation is through enjoying one another’s company in silence: there is no longer a need for words to be spoken, everything is said, just being together is enough.
Again contemplation must not be restricted to the duration of our prayer, it must last all day, although we must provide moments during which we just dwell in the presence of the Lord, are aware of Him, and elevate our hearts to Him, in silence, wordlessly. That is walking through the day with the Lord by our side. We worship Him in oratio and contemplate Him during contemplatio. It is finding peace with the Lord, in the Lord, without any word being spoken, only love. That is the pure gift of God, grace, not the result of our own activities.
In this context, it is fitting to mention the Jesus Prayer that is prayed regularly in the Orthodox Churches and has become quite popular of late in catholic circles as well. Through the repetition of the same word, a mantra, this word becomes alive in our hearts and will remain so, even when our mouth no longer produces any sound. During lectio divina a word is given to us for the duration of one day, as we recite the Jesus Prayer we constantly choose the same word. In most cases, those words are: “Lord Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us, sinners!”
To these four words, we might add two more: compassio and operatio.
– Compassio
As we pray, we open our hearts, in which God is present, for the brokenness of the Creation, for the suffering of our fellow man. Compassion is an important intermediate step between love and mercy, which combination is caritas or Christian charity. Compassion involves that we allow ourselves to be moved by the lives of other people, their suffering to become our own.
Mother Theresa said the following about compassion: “When we help a poor person or a dying person starting from the Word that was given to us by the Lord, we look to the world and help Christ himself in that poor person, in that dying person. At the end of the day, I can say: ‘Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of serving you in that poor dying person, anywhere in this world.’”
– Operatio
And this brings us to operatio, concrete action that results from our compassion, charity being a concretization of love.
Real contemplation leads us into the world, to our fellow man and invites us to share the love that was given to us and that lives within. It is entering the world full of love, in imitation of Jesus. Real spirituality will always generate greater humanity, within ourselves, in our actions, and in the world.
And this operatio will incite us to start praying again, to start our lectio divina all over again.
