Divine Reading

In each of us, as the whole tradition of the Church attests, Holy Scripture becomes our saving word only when heard in prayer that leads to the submission of faith.  Lectio divina, a practice dating back to the earliest days of religious life in the church, supposes that the reader surrenders to God who is speaking and granting him a change of heart under the action of the two-edged sword of Scripture continually challenging to conversion.

(-from the Documents of the 31st General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, 1967)

My husband brought me this article he found in the archives of St. Ben's Abbey because he knew I'd love it.  Written by a Jesuit, the article attempts to bring together the scholastic tradition of the Jesuits (and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius) with the monastic tradition of the Benedictines.

What a wonderful insight by David Stanley, S.J.!  Finally, someone has really pointed out something that has frustrated me for a long time.  The Catholic Church offers many bible studies, but they all tend to be more in the scholastic tradition, with historic background, cultural explanations, etc.  This is the kind of tradition that Benedict XVI did not disparage, but said that it did nothing to reveal to him "the face of Jesus."  He wrote his own book Jesus of Nazareth as a personal search for the person of Jesus.

There is nothing wrong with Bible Study, but if it is a quest for intellectual enlightenment, it will do nothing for us, except maybe make us more knowledgeable about the background to the Bible.  And we do have to be knowledgable if we are not to be stupid.  However, being more knowledgeable is not the same thing as drawing closer to Christ; it is not the same thing as what I wrote about yesterday -- knowing the saving hand of God in our own lives, knowing that He has drawn us out of murky waters that were threatening to drown us. 

The program started by a woman from New Orleans, Lord, Teach Me to Pray, based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, as I understand it, teaches people to enter into the Scriptures to hear what God might be saying to them right now.  It teaches people to open their ears and hearts to receive the personal, living Word of God, speaking aloud to them at this moment.  It does not matter if we are "knowledgeable" about how the bible came to be written -- that can come later, if we are really interested.  All that matters is our present-moment conversation with the living God Who cannot wait to begin really conversing with us, face-to-face, as a man talks to his friend.

The principal purpose of reading scripture is to have a spiritual experience, in other words, to be united with God through Christ, The Word.  He is the Word we speak to God; He is the Word God speaks to us.  We now have a common language that is understood and embraced wholly by both speakers. 

Lectio Divina, or this kind of Scripture reading is not at all identified with scientific study; in fact, it goes in the opposite direction.  Scientific study reconstructs the past; the Christian reading scripture begins with today, listening to what the Eternal Word wants to say to him today.

Dom Hubert Van Zellar says this:

Prayer rises out of reading as song rises out of music.  Reading is the most appropriate prelude to prayer.  To the degree that "faith is from hearing," prayer is from reading.  Just as hearing does not complete the work of faith, so neither does reading complete the work of prayer.

St. Benedict built lectio divina into his rule of life for the monks, because in his mind, divine reading "embraces unresticted access to prayer and contemplation."

If we truly want to hear the voice of God speaking to us, to me, in this day and age, let us "take up and read," in the word spoken to St. Augustine.  But let us read slowly, meditatively, waiting for the words to leap into our hearts as living words from the Spirit.  And if we do not know where to begin reading, let us first just hold the book on our laps, asking the Holy Spirit to open it to the place we need to begin.  That in itself is a wonderful place to begin the walk of faith--the belief that God is with us, speaking to us, listening to us.