LECTIO DIVINA
St. Benedict, in his holy
rule, promulgated that certain fixed times of the day must be devoted to
Lectio Divina. Haphazard reading done at different times on different topics
that one chances on does not edify but makes the mind unstable. The same is
what happens to those who listen to lectures on topics unrelated to each
other.
Some part of your daily
reading should be committed to memory every day, taken as it were into the
stomach, to be more carefully digested and brought up again for rumination.
. .something to keep your mind busy and free from shallow distraction.
This Lectio Divina should
stir your affection and give rise to prayer, which should interrupt your
reading. . .an interruption which should not so much impede the reading as
to restore to it a mind ever more undistracted for understanding.
Reading serves the purpose
for which it is done. If one reads to find God, everything he reads tends to
make him reach that end, bringing all that one reads and understands into
the service of Christ. But if one reads simply for vain curiosity, then it
will end like all vain things. . .into nothing, if not great harm to the
soul.
William of St. Thierry
(09-07-02)
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