From Soul-Shaping to Job Training: A Classical Christian School Graduate's Story

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Student Produced 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. Here is an example of Lectio Divina, shared with the permission of Javier Mina, 8th grade student at Covenant Christian School in Smyrna, GA.

Today's Scripture: Acts 1

Lectio (Read, identify key words)

Promise: God's promises are true and everlasting
Holy: the Holy Spirit is holy and infallible
Ascension: Jesus ascended into heaven, to an important place or position, a higher level

Meditatio (Think, reflect, ask what is God saying to me?)

He is showing the sovereignty and divinity of Jesus Christ, the one and only Son of God. I believe that God is also trying to show that Jesus did this in a public way to make it known so that thousands of years later in Smyrna, Georgia, a boy named Javier can believe.

Oratio (Pray, respond to God)

God, thank you so much for loving me to have your Son die on the cross for me and then publicly ascend into heaven to be with you, and to make himself known.

Contemplatio (Act, how am I changed by this encounter with God?)

I know now, more than ever, how calculated God was in planning how everything would happen, and how he did everything for each and every one of his followers. I can now go out and live with His light!