Encountering Christ in Holy Scripture with Lectio Divina

by R. Thomas Richard

Lectio Divina is an ancient and time-tested method of listening to the Holy Scripture. It was developed long ago in monasteries, but has been received and gratefully practiced by Christians for many centuries. It is a way of listening to Scripture so as to hear the divine Author; of listening to the words so as to hear the saving Word.Lectio Divina has been recommended to the Church today by Popes John Paul II and now Benedict XVI, for all in the Church - clergy and laity alike. Although found more commonly among Catholics, all Christians could find in this simple discipline a completely Biblical path of discipleship. As the title indicates, it is simply a way of meeting Jesus in the holy word.This edition is a small book, but it presents the practice of Lectio Divina in its practical application as well as in its spiritual heart and substance. We the Church need what we can learn from Lectio Divina! And the world needs us to learn it, to know it and to live it.R. Thomas Richard, Ph.D., has earned degrees in ministry and theology, as well as in physics. He has taught at the college and high school levels, has served as a Protestant pastor, and in missionary work among migrant farmworkers. After returning to the Catholic Church and earning a graduate degree in Catholic theology and ministry, he began work in religious education and especially the formation of adults. He is author of The Ordinary Path to Holiness and The Interior Liturgy of the Our Father, and serves the Church today with his wife Deborah in adult faith formation.

75 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 8, 2011

Reviews

[MariaChristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

How timely this book is! Pope Benedict XVI has been encouraging the Church to encounter Christ in Scripture and particularly by using the ancient (yet ever new) method of "Lectio Divina". I am grateful to Dr. Richard for writing this small and very helpful book for the average person to appreciate a method that they may never have heard of, and yet can be so meaningful to their lives.

It is a book I would also recommend to Christians who are not Catholic. How can we believe if we have not heard? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, as Scripture itself tells us.
We are so often "slow to believe" but God continues to provide so many helps for us. I hope many persons will avail themselves of this book to help them to hear and live the Truth they hear.

[R. Thomas Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lectio Divina is a very old method of prayerful listening to Scripture. There are modern interpretations of the method that can, I'm afraid, lead to practices contrary to the traditional understanding of properly Christian meditation. This little book is intended to guide modern Christians to and through the method in a way that is consistent with the traditional sense of Christian meditation - that is, that leads to fully obedient Christian lives.