{"id":25940,"date":"2010-11-11T18:18:11","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T22:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/11\/the-steps-of-lectio-divina\/"},"modified":"2013-10-17T09:40:57","modified_gmt":"2013-10-17T13:40:57","slug":"the-steps-of-lectio-divina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/11\/the-steps-of-lectio-divina\/","title":{"rendered":"Steps of Lectio Divina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; &lt;br \/&gt;\nmso-ansi-language: EN-US;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/Lectio%20Divina%20chart.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;\" alt=\"Lectio Divina chart.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/assets_c\/2010\/11\/Lectio Divina chart-thumb-275x275-7611.jpg\" width=\"275\" height=\"275\" \/><\/a>Pope Benedict reviews &#8220;&#8230; the basic steps of this\u00a0procedure. It opens with the\u00a0<b>reading<\/b>\u00a0(<i>lectio<\/i>)\u00a0of a text, which leads to a desire to understand its true content: w<i>hat does\u00a0the biblical text say in itself?<\/i>\u00a0Without this, there is\u00a0always a risk that the text will become a pretext for never moving beyond our\u00a0own ideas. Next comes\u00a0<b>meditation<\/b>\u00a0(<i>meditatio<\/i>),\u00a0which asks:\u00a0<i>what does the biblical text say to us?\u00a0<\/i>Here, each person, individually but also as a member of the community, must let\u00a0himself or herself be moved and challenged. Following this comes\u00a0<b>prayer<\/b>\u00a0(<i>oratio<\/i>),\u00a0which asks the question:\u00a0<i>what do we say to the Lord in response to his word?<\/i><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; &lt;br \/&gt;\nmso-ansi-language: EN-US;\">Prayer, as petition, intercession, thanksgiving and praise, is the primary way\u00a0by which the word transforms us. Finally,\u00a0<i>lectio divina\u00a0<\/i>concludes with\u00a0<b>contemplation\u00a0<\/b>(<i>contemplatio<\/i>), during which\u00a0we take up, as a gift from God, his own way of seeing and judging reality, and\u00a0ask ourselves\u00a0<i>what conversion of mind, heart and life is the Lord asking of\u00a0us?<\/i>\u00a0In the\u00a0<i>Letter to the Romans<\/i>,\u00a0Saint Paul tells us: &#8220;Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by\u00a0the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is\u00a0good and acceptable and perfect&#8221; (12:2). Contemplation aims at creating within\u00a0us a truly wise and discerning vision of reality, as God sees it, and at\u00a0forming within us &#8220;the mind of Christ&#8221; (1\u00a0<i>Cor\u00a0<\/i>2:16). The word of God appears here as a criterion for discernment: it is\u00a0&#8220;living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division\u00a0of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and\u00a0intentions of the heart&#8221; (<i>Heb<\/i>\u00a04:12). We do well also\u00a0to remember that the process of\u00a0<i>lectio divina\u00a0<\/i>is not concluded until it arrives at\u00a0<b>action<\/b>\u00a0(<i>actio<\/i>),\u00a0which moves the believer to make his or her life a gift for others in charity&#8221; (<i>Verbum Domini<\/i>, 87).<br \/>\n<\/span><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pope Benedict reviews &#8220;&#8230; the basic steps of this\u00a0procedure. It opens with the\u00a0reading\u00a0(lectio)\u00a0of a text, which leads to a desire to understand its true content: what does\u00a0the biblical text say in itself?\u00a0Without this, there is\u00a0always a risk that the text will become a pretext for never moving beyond our\u00a0own ideas. Next comes\u00a0meditation\u00a0(meditatio),\u00a0which asks:\u00a0what does the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/11\/the-steps-of-lectio-divina\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Steps of Lectio Divina<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[1790,32081],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25940"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25940"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28821,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25940\/revisions\/28821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}