Meditation

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It frequently happens to Christians during their reading that a particular phrase, sentence, or longer section appeals to the readers' mind and heart with special urgency. It just seems like there is unusual power, beauty or truth in a particular passage one is reading. When this happens to you, stop reading. Concentrate on the passage which strikes you as particularly important. Read that passage over, slowly. Read it over slowly again and again. Do not reason about the text. Do not analyze it. Do not think thoughts about the text. Just listen to the words and meaning of the text itself.

The grace, the healing and life-giving power is in the words and meaning of the text itself which is the Word of God. Our own thoughts about the text do not possess that grace and power. There are other times when you can reflect discursively about this text (or any text) as much as you like. But not now. Not during the time you have set aside for lectio divina.

What is now taking place is this: God has led you to a word in Scripture that is the remedy for one of your ills, a release from one of your bonds, or a life-giving word that is actualizing one of your capacities for transcendent Christian life. At this time, stay with this word of God. Prefer it to all other thoughts. It is divine seed, for the Word of God is seed. It has the power to spring into life when planted in the soil of our hearts. Meditation, as a part of lectio divina, just means repeated reading of texts experienced as especially important to oneself. It is God who highlights these texts and makes them appealing to the needs and capacities of each person at each moment of their life. God draws us to God's Word. We yield ourselves to it. We repeat it over and over. Eventually we learn it by heart. Then we repeat it in our hearts. Thus we give it time to do its work in us. We do not rush away from it on to the next passage.

In practice, it is very important to know when to meditate, i.e. repeat a passage and how long to continue repeating it. Read slowly and thoughtfully until you are attracted by a text. The text will strike you as particularly important or meaningful, at least to you personally. Then meditate that passage as long as you feel inclined to do so, as long as it holds your attention and seems worthwhile. It might be a short period of a few minutes. Or you might spend days, or weeks, frequently returning to meditation on the same text.

The meditation itself consists in repeating the reading of the passage, learning it by heart and reciting it by heart. Meditation involves staying with the words and meaning of the inspired text and avoiding ruminating and thinking about the text. You end your meditation when the text no longer has any special attraction. At that point simply resume your reading. Read as usual, seeking God in the reading. When another text strikes you as one you want to appropriate in the special way of meditation, then meditate again. Always return to reading when your meditation is over.

An additional fruit of Meditation is that you will always have a few meditation texts in your memory. It is spiritually refreshing occasionally during the course of the day to recite your meditation text by heart. It brings you near to God in the midst of your work.