Lectio Divina is a technique of meditative reading of scripture that comes from the Western monastic tradition. It consists of 4 parts: Lectio (a slow reading of a passage of scripture, making note of what catches your eye), meditatio (repetitive, slow reading of the passage, noticing each word in turn and what questions and insights come to your mind while attending it), oratio (a prayerful response to the message you’ve received from the Holy Spirit), and contemplatio (what we call meditation nowadays; IMHO this phase is (or can be) basically the same as Centering Prayer).
I mostly do Lectio Divina by myself, so I’ve set up this blog so as to share my musings with others, and hopefully get feedback about which of my musings are on the right track and which are way off, and why. Thanks for visiting the site and I hope to hear from you!
On Centering Prayer
I’m going to say just a few words here about how to do Centering Prayer. To find out what it is, its history and further details, please see the links in the meditation section of my main page.
To begin Centering Prayer you need a Sacred Word. This word can be something you received during lectio or meditatio if you were doing Lectio Divina, or it can be something you are working on in your life, like “humility”, “peace”, “love”, etc. or a word of devotion, like “Jesus”. The practice of Centering Prayer then is simply this: (1) say your sacred word with an attitude of complete trust and surrender to God (or at least as much of that attitude that you can authentically muster); (2) when you notice that you’re distracted and not saying the word, begin saying it again, which surrenders to God whatever your distraction was.
That’s it. There are no fancy techniques or short cuts or complicated procedures. If you do (1) and (2) for the duration of your time of meditation and set aside at least 20 minutes for your session, your practice is successful. There are no other criteria with which to judge your practice. Yes, it really is that simple.
Please keep the simplicity of centering prayer in mind. Do not analyze your experience in terms of any extraneous criteria. For example, it is not a goal of meditation to have a blank mind, or to not use the intellect, or to have no thoughts, or to use the right brain instead of the left, or even to become relaxed, or any other such criteria. The only goal is to surrender your whole being to God as much as you can in the present moment, and that is a very worthwhile thing to be practicing.
