New this month in retirement is an ancient (but new to me) practice in my devotional life called Lectio Divina (which is Latin for Sacred Reading). It's a method of reading the Bible that was put into practice in Benedictine monasteries in roughly the 5th century. It consists of four movements: Lectio, Meditatio, Oratorio and Contemplatio, which are, in turn, Read, Meditate, Pray and Contemplate.
I've been benefiting from an outline of this practice contained in Kenneth Boa's book "Sacred Readings: a Journal" and have just begin to implement it. The notion behind it is to not simply read for information, but also read for transformation. These four movements allow for deep reading (incl. word study), for ruminating on what you've read ("chewing" the text), for a response from the heart to God out of an informed mind, and finally for time to sit before God and allow the text to sink in - allow it to move upon your will.
In upcoming posts, I will try to record some thoughts coming out of this practice.
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