Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Lectio Divina


Lectio Divina means Sacred Reading. It is a method of reading the Scriptures devotionally that was developed by Saint Benedict and incorporated into his rule for his monasteries. Benedict created and developed monasteries during the time of the collapsing Roman culture for the purpose of preserving the Christian faith and passing it on to a generation that he hoped would rebuild Christian culture. He instructed his leaders in the priority of the scriptures for maturing disciples with these words... 

"Idleness is the enemy of the soul, therefore, the daily life of discipleship is labor and sacred reading".

Because the goals of classical and Christian schools are also preserving and passing on the faith to a Biblically-reasoning generation of culture-shaping disciples, our students might benefit from the practice of Lectio Divina. The logic stage of learning is an ideal time to introduce students to the practice in order to help them learn and develop a life-long habit of hearing from and responding to God's Word.

The four movements of Lectio Divina are:
Lectio (Read): Read attentively and carefully, identifying key words.
Meditatio (Think): Reflect, ask what is God saying to me?
Oratio (Pray): Prayerfully respond to God, acknowledge the challenge and ask for grace to obey.
Contemplatio (Act): Practically respond to God, ask how am I changed by this encounter with God?

Watch here for samples of Lectio Divina from our faculty and our students!

No comments:

Post a Comment