Therefore, it must be Catholic and if it is Catholic, it must be bad. Once again, the logical fallacy of guilt by association is used here to take a pot shot at Christianity Today for having the audacity to promote a “method of prayer and scriptural reading” that was formalized by Origen in 220 AD.
So what are the components of Lectio Divina (divine reading)? There are four:
- Lectio–Reading the Bible slowly to hear the still small voice of God
- Meditatio–Reflect on the passage, thinking about how it has personal life application
- Oratio–Pray, have a conversation with God about the passage
- Contemplatio–Listen to God and what he has to say about the passage
Sounds pretty scary doesn’t it? At the risk of proof texting, David and Paul both seemed to practice this form of prayer and Scripture reading:
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Psalms 1:2 (KJV)
12 I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. Psalms 77:12 (KJV)
11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalms 119:11 (KJV)
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things (to consider, take account, weigh, meditate on a thing, with a view to obtaining it—Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon). 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:6-9 (ESV)
If it was good enough for David and Paul, then it’s good enough for me. Yep, you guessed it: I use the practice of lectio divina in my quiet time on a regular basis making me guilty by association.
17 Comments(+Add)
I think you may have actually made it worse by including the “meditatio” and “contemplatio” in your description. Meditation and contemplation are evil. Come on, didn’t you know that. ALL meditation is bad and allows influence by false gods. ALL contemplative spirituality is bad, look at the words. Don’t even get me started on “contemplative meditation.”
Okay, got that out of my system. I really hope everyone here knows that I was being sarcastic.
I think that lectio devina is a great way to read scripture. As with anything, it can probably be taken too far and, if not checked by other study and Christian community, could, theoretically, lead into a “I know it doesn’t necessarily look like it means this, but that verse says ….”
Then again, people who would denounce the “horrible evils” of contemplative spirituality get their personal messages from God that cause them to come to some pretty messed up conclusions anyway.
I’m calling for a labrynth prayer of lecto devino in lane 6 of the NAFTA Highway!
I had a book recommended to me by someone I greatly admire and it included a lot of that attitude. It hurt my spiritual growth a lot. So I guess I’ll be out in lane 6 with Joe here soon.
Tim, Joe,
Careful in Lane 6. You might get lost or worse, hit by an “emerging” truck.
Lecto devino – lecto devino
I love him – I love him – I love him – and where he goes
I’ll follow – I’ll follow – I’ll follow
It’s time for sister act. I am almost convinced that with the amount of real, intercessory prayer going up today He’ll’ take almost anything. It’s not lane six, it’s lane 3 with a halo!
John,
I suspect that the truck would not be ‘emerging’, but rather would probably be driven by Freemasons on their way to the weekly meeting of the Illuminati. I think that RFID chips and fingerprint-banking are on this week’s agenda…
SHUA TO DO LIST, WEEK OF 10-8
1. Stop by the Freemason Illuminati meeting to get by RFID chip
2. Check the status of my fingerprint bank account
3. Stop by Lane 6, spend time praying about not getting lost in the labrynth (hey, maybe I can see Bowie)
4. Stop by Rick’s place to sing Whoopi Goldberg modified oldies (remember to see if Iggy will play them on his station)
5. Cap it all off with some Halo 3 in Lane 3.
Best. Week. EVER.
(True story.) I remember singing in a sacred classical concert at a noted christian college. We sang some pieces in Latin. The school was inundated with letters and phones calls complaining. One said, “I don’t appreciate hearing music in the catholic language”.
nice.
When some people’s ministry constituency seriously thinks this way and talks like this…you don’t get to complain about people believing you lack education.
In my last church people got really “concerned” because I burned some incense in my office one day.
I just liked the smell and my office was a bit musty.
But people thought there was something spiritual afoot.
(Apparently incense is always unchristian.)
And in my office I had a Japanese wall hanging from my time of living abroad. The hanging was the cultural equivalent of the “Mona Lisa” in Japanese art history.
But the accusation that I was a pluralist who embraced buddhism went floating around for months before it just “bothered” people so much that they finally had to have a meeting about it….with the senior pastor, without me present, of course.
All they had to do was just come ask me…but then their sense of meaning and purpose would evaporate into the morass of reason and common sense.
They put 2 and 2 together and got 9.
whatever.
Two words describe this junk:
ignorance. bigotry.
btw, my wife and I finally ran for our lives after non-stop garbage like I described above. I wrote this a short time later.
http://perlaetus.blogspot.com/2006/07/christians-taught-me.html
NC, Does that mean you’re joining us for some labyrinth prayer time with some Halo 3 or not?
only so long as you burn incense while we pray and play.
I understand the Lectio Divina is “divine reading” and is the understanding we are reading God’s Holy and Divine Word which many would then add as if needed, “infallible”, “inerrant” and inspired (which is what the bible states of itself).
They claim to read it literally and yet do not stone their disobedient children… they claim to take the word seriously yet deny it is worthy to be read slowly to let it sink in and get into one’s heart. They turn this practice into some sort of witchcraft instead of realizing the Holy Spirit is still part of the Trinity and speaks to us today through Jesus and the scripture (in that order btw)
I see that there is this weird denial of the Holy Spirit and reverence for God’s word and “living” yet they claim the ones that practice such as Lectio Divina as the ones who do not love God’s word… strange is like their is this mirror that the reflect in and when they see something they hate in themselves they project it on others around them who do not have the issues they see in themselves! LOL!
Be Blessed,
iggy
Can we also…
Listen to Cat Stevens in lane 6 while reciting Lectico Divina and then “Emerging” into Lane 3 to play Halo then get off at Exit 666 to shop for aluminum foil hats and Illumaniti greeting cards with our fingerprint credit cards.
Miles from nowhere…guess I’ll take my time….Oh yea
To get there…
Wow record time in getting my obscure reference.
Kudos Rick!
Personally, I think Lectio Divina sounds like a heavy metal band – hello Cleveland! We’re Lectio Divina and we hope you’re ready to rock!
Lectio Divina is actually what lead me into reading watchblogs. Lectio Divina was something I found very helpful and in looking deeper into it, I ran into Lighthouse Trails “research”, found that they where badmouthing people I knew in real life, sent them an e-mail challenging that, and ending up in this long e-mail debate that got real intense real fast, and my eyes where soon opened to this larger world of ODM’s. I have to tell you the benifiet for me in reading these watchblogs is it makes watchdogs I meet in the everyday seem reasonable.