The Order of Saint Benedict

Lectio Divina

From "Renew and Create"

Part III. Life

The Elements of Benedictine Life

3. Reading

Of great importance in the monastic life of prayer is meditative reading (lectio divina). The reflective pondering of the word of God aims at giving an awareness of God's presence, a consciousness of the immersion of life in the mystery of God's activity as revealed in sacred history. Not only the Scriptures, but also the fathers and spiritual and ascetical writers of every age, provide the nourishment without which the life of prayer, the life as lived in the Spirit, is inevitably retarded in the promise of its growth. Hence monastic formation implies an adequate schooling in lectio, and the order of the monastic day, coupled with the distribution of work, will permit the time and conditions conducive to regular prayerful reading.

-- From Renew and Create: a statement on the American-Cassinese Benedictine Monastic Life,
(36th general chapter, 2nd session, June 1969, 55-56.)

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