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Lectio Divina:
A Practice for Reconnecting to God’s Word

Douglas S. Hardy

If I have heard it once, I have heard it a hundred times. It is a common concern expressed by preachers who have been at it for a while and goes something like this: “My Bible reading has become almost exclusively utilitarian—to prepare for preaching and teaching. I rarely read Scripture devotionally, for my own personal, spiritual growth. I am afraid that I am losing touch with it as God’s Word for me.”

There is a personal history behind this concern. The minister recalls an earlier time, perhaps before officially entering the ministry or at least in the early days of service, when reading the Bible was a highly personal practice, a rich time of feeding the spirit with insights that were experienced as the Word of God applied to the particularities of one’s life. But then a shift occurred. With Sunday preaching coming around, it seemed, every few days, plus teaching and giving “devotionals” to various groups within the church throughout the week, Bible reading quickly shifted from a personal “feeding” practice to a pragmatic “harvesting” practice, with the leading questions becoming: Is there a sermon outline in this text? How could I develop this Scripture story into a devotional for Wednesday night? What biblical book might best serve as the foundation for the class I want to teach next month?

These are not bad questions. Asking them is an indispensable part of the pastoral task. Nonetheless, it may feel like something important got lost in the asking. This brings us to the gist of the preacher’s concern: somehow my relationship with God is taking a hit because of the work of preaching-teaching ministry. Is it? Perhaps. The concern is legitimate and points to an all-too common hazard of the profession. Ministers do neglect their personal (and family) lives as they throw themselves into the work of “serving” others. Ministers do begin to “use” the Bible as a tool to be managed and manipulated for getting tasks done efficiently, rather than allowing Scripture to be used by the Spirit of God to challenge and transform their attitudes and behaviors.

Disconnections from the Bible as God’s Word

So here is a truth that must be acknowledged: in the course of the work of preaching-teaching ministry, my relationship to Scripture as God’s Word can become distorted. Just because I read the Bible does not necessarily mean I am hearing and being transformed by God’s Word. Even if I come up with clever ways to proclaim Scripture truths, I may fail to recognize and respond to the Spirit who is speaking through the Word. In short, there are ways of reading Scripture that may hinder rather than help it to be a spiritually formative practice. Consider, for example:

Grazing or proof-text hunting for biblical “support” of a preaching-teaching agenda I have already established.

Assessing the value of a portion of Scripture based on the insights or feelings it generates (or fails to generate) in me.

Reading the Bible only when I feel a perceived need to get something out of it.

Bringing a time of Scripture reading to a close because an insight has emerged or a particular feeling has been generated.

Engaging my full critical faculties in examining a biblical text, but not praying with that text.

As preachers, we may find ourselves engaging Scripture in one or more of these ways, recognizing that something of a previous more-dynamic engagement with God’s Word has died. To the extent that this reflects a sense of loss in the quality of our relationship with God (and God’s Word), this is bad news. However, from a Christian perspective on shifts and changes in our lives, when something dies, there is always the possibility of something new emerging in the form of resurrection. Loss always points to a potential new gain: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24, nrsv).

A Foundational Practice for Re-Connection

So, the good news is that the very conundrum you are experiencing as a preacher may contain a seed of potential for new life in relation to God’s Word. The concern, even dissatisfaction you feel may be readying you for something new and different, a spiritually formative way of reading that:

Centers on your relationship with God and God’s relationship to God’s people,

Combines thoughtful study and prayerful contemplation,

Eliminates a sharp divide between your personal use of the Bible and your professional, ministerial use of the Bible,

Provides a solid foundation for holding together your Christian discipleship and your Christian ministry.

Such an approach is found in a practice known by its Latin name, lectio divina. It means “sacred reading” of Scripture and its roots are with the Benedictines, a religious order founded by St. Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century c.e. It is still a vital presence throughout the world today. You may already be familiar with this classic Christian practice, or at least heard of it. It has become quite popular in evangelical circles of late, especially with youth.1

As with all classic Christian practices that are “re-discovered” and “brought forward” for use in a contemporary context, lectio divina is not just another spiritual technology that can be easily learned and applied. Fortunately, there are a number of good, accessible resources to help one understand the history, theology, and methodology of the practice.2 My objective in this article is more modest: to highlight some ways that the multi-dimensional practice of lectio divina can help you to enter into a more God-centered engagement with the Bible as God’s Word.

Traditionally, lectio divina is described as a process that includes a series of prayer dynamics.3 Together they move the reader of Scripture to a deep level of engagement with the text and with the Spirit that enlivens the text. Consider how each of these dynamics might help you to reconnect the reading of the Bible with transforming prayer.

Silencio

Silence. As a young person in the Church of the Nazarene during the 1970s, I was encouraged, as were most young evangelicals at the time, to set aside a “quiet time” each day (preferably in the morning) for Bible reading and prayer. I am not sure who came up with the phrase, but it is a pretty good one. The classic wisdom of the Christian tradition affirms that the primary posture of the believer when approaching the Bible and/or prayer is one of open, receptive listening.

What might it look like for you to begin your times of Scripture reading—whether devotionally or in sermon preparation—with silence? Simple, embodied practices of quieting yourself and your environment can help you to enter a place that, in its silence, tunes you into the formative work of the Word and the Spirit. For example, try:

Closing your eyes and slowing your breathing

Lighting a candle

Disconnecting from the Internet

Turning off your radio, CD or mp3 player

Moving to a room or area that has less “stuff”

Gently surrendering up to God each thought/idea/concern that emerges and waiting until you are mentally at rest

Then, out of the silence, offer a simple, verbal invitation to God to join you and speak to you from the text.

Lectio

Reading. Most of us do not remember when we first learned to read, but we have heard enough from our parents (and some of us have had enough practice as parents ourselves!) to know that you begin by reading out loud to a child. In its most primitive form (and therefore, at is most formative), reading is audible, slow and deliberate, carefully articulated, imaginatively evocative, and relational. There is greater chance of the text of Scripture becoming a part of us when we read this way, not the ways we have been encouraged to read in Western educational systems: silently, quickly, skimming.

When coming to a passage of Scripture devotionally or to prepare to preach or teach, try first reading the passage aloud, slowly, at least twice. As you do, use your imagination to engage any and all of the five senses that may be reflected in the narrative. Place yourself in the text, even as you listen to the sounds (and imagine the sights!) of the words you speak. Hearing these words come at you from “outside” your head may help remind you that this Word is a spoken word from God to you.

Meditatio

Meditation. To meditate is to think about or mentally “chew on” what you have read. Many of us preachers seem to have no trouble engaging this dynamic. We read commentaries about the Scripture text, consult the perspective of contemporary authors, brainstorm sermon and lesson ideas, search our memories for life-connections and practical illustrations. If we have Attention Deficit Disorder, we may find it difficult to not constantly think about and around the Bible texts on our mental front burners.

A closer inspection, however, often reveals that our mental activity is not really meditation. To meditate, as the Psalmist reminds us, is less like an intense mental whirlwind and more like a relaxed mulling over: “I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night” (Psalm 63:6). The following practices might help you be more meditative in your study of the Bible:

Take one word or phrase and stay with it longer than you normally would, repeating it out loud and freely associating.

Ask questions about the text, but do not press for answers—live the questions for awhile.

Find a corresponding or linked Old Testament text if you are reading in the New Testament or find a New Testament text if you are reading in the Old (a Lectionary can be helpful) and immerse yourself for awhile in the other Testament’s viewpoint.

Oratio

Praying. “Thinking about” and “praying” are not completely disconnected activities, but they are not necessarily identical either. I have found it far easier to think about God-stuff than to talk directly to God about stuff, even while reading the Bible. If this is true for you as well, then nurture this dynamic by more intentionally praying about what rises up in your mind and heart as you read and meditate on Scripture.

Talk to God about it as you would in a close, personal, human relationship. Speak to God (preferably out loud) or write your prayer in a journal. Do not expect God to just “read your thoughts”—it is not that God cannot; rather, by externalizing your prayer, a conversational dialog with God as Author of Scripture is more likely to emerge. As in any love relationship worth its salt, the lover must risk putting him/herself “out there” in a way that is directed toward and can be received by the beloved. Is your praying with Scripture:

Honest? (does it require vulnerability?)

Immediate? (or do you postpone it to other designated prayer times?)

Dialogical? (do you leave space for response?)

Contemplatio

Contemplation. Stop and rest silently before God. Receive whatever the Spirit gives. Be content in the moment. This may be the most difficult dynamic for us preachers because it cuts across the grain of our busy, achievement-oriented lifestyles. It feels anti-climactic, unproductive, even a waste of time after the rigors of meditation and the liveliness of spoken or written prayer. Some evangelicals have re-arranged the classic order of these lectio divina dynamics so that the process finishes with oratio rather than contemplation4—certainly more in line with what many of us are used to, but missing the whole point of lectio by giving us the last word.

After engaging Scripture, there is supposed to be a “letting go,” if you will, of the written text and the spoken word, so that we can keep anchored in the God who not only speaks through the text, but who is above and beyond the text. God who is and who wants us, ultimately, to be.

Compassio

Compassion. The fruit of the contemplation of God is love—love of God and love of neighbor. This is the ultimate test of our engagement with the Bible as God’s Word: do we live it in ways that are visible to those around us, especially those with whom we live and work. Whatever insight, feeling, or commitment emerges from our time with Scripture is to be shared as grace with others. God’s grace transforms our lives and, consequently, witnesses to God’s transforming grace for others. This is where reading the Bible devotionally and reading it for preaching-teaching come together around a single goal.

But there is a catch. None of us preachers are in a position to evaluate ourselves according to this criterion of compassion. Only others can by their experience of us. And so, we are dependent on our friends, our spouses, even our parishioners to tell us, in so many words, whether or not we are “walking the talk” or just “talking the walk.” We may cultivate and nurture Scripture practices that are more inclusive of silencio, lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio, but if these do not bear fruit in ever-increasing compassionate living, then our problem may not be a devotional reading of Scripture vis-à-vis a ministerial reading of Scripture at all. Rather, it may be that we have yet to come to terms with the God revealed in Jesus, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

1. See, for example, the Nazarene Publishing House/Barefoot Ministries series of books, Lectio Divina for Youth.

2. For starters, I recommend reading Michael Casey, Sacred Reading: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina (Liguori, MO: Liguori/Triumph, 1995) and Eugene H. Peterson, Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Arts of Spiritual Reading (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006) for grounding in theology; the following websites provide succinct summaries with suggestions for practice: www.valyermo.com/ld-art.html; centeringprayer.com/lectio/lectio.htm; www.upperroom.org/
methodx/thelife/prayermethods/lectio.asp (accessed August 28, 2008).

3. Classical descriptions name four dynamics: lectio, meditation, oratio, and contemplation. I follow the lead of Clay Oglesbee, “From Praying to Proclaiming: The Lectio Divina in Sermon Foundation,” Preaching (Vol. 5 No. 4, November-December 1989, 16-19), in naming two other implicit dynamics: silencio at the beginning and compassion at the end.

4. The Lectio Divina Bible Studies Series, produced by the Wesleyan Publishing House and Beacon Hill Publishing inverts the traditional order of oratio followed by contemplation. The publishers explain the change as seeking to remain true to the spirit of lectio while adapting its methodologies to the evangelical context. However, in my judgment, the change results in a missed opportunity to teach contemplation as honed through centuries of monastic practice.

Dr. Doug Hardy is Professor of Spiritual Formation and Director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri.