Lectio Divina

Lectio Divina is first of all a method of praying from the Word contained in the Holy Scriptures. It is a method that goes back to the Church Fathers who had an extraordinary moment in the Middle Ages with the Cistercian and Carthusian monks, the “Sacred Page”.

It was then that Guido the Carthusian at the Scala claustralium defined the method. It’s very simple. It is a method in which four moments are contemplated.

First of all, the reading of the text of Scripture and an understanding of the text as well as it can be read.

A second moment dedicated to meditation: it is about searching the text, eventually helping us with comments or looking for parallel passages in Scripture.

The third element is prayer: letting yourself be inspired by the passage you read in order to pray. If in the passage we have found that Jesus forgives the adulteress, it is a prayer requesting mercy for sinners. If Jesus gives us the bread from his body, it is a prayer so that we can participate in the Eucharist. In short, it is precisely in that case that Scripture dictates the intentions of our prayer.

And at the last moment, which may seem the most difficult – it is called contemplation – it is nothing more than trying, after this reading, this meditation and this prayer, to see the reality of the world with the eyes of God. Contemplation is fixing one’s gaze on God: it is Christ’s feeling about things and it is certainly the fruit of the first three moments of Lectio Divina.