Editor’s note: In response to Bob’s review of his book Kneeling with Giants: Learning to Pray with History’s Best Teachers, Gary Neal Hansen commented that this Lent he’s trying to engage in a more serious lectio divina. For those desiring to learn more about this spiritual practice, Discovering Lectio Divina: Bringing Scripture into Ordinary Life by James C. Wilhoit[1] and Evan B. Howard[2] (InterVarsity Press, 2012) provides helpful insight.
Lectio divina is an ancient practice of reflective reading and praying about the scriptures that includes the elements of slow and repeated reading (lectio), reflection (meditatio), prayer in response to one’s reflections (oratio) and resting in God’s presence (contemplatio).
What Wilhoit and Howard give us is not a “how to” manual for lectio so much as a deeply theological and formational reflection of what it means to weave this discipline into one’s life. They begin with our thirst for God and the scriptures as God’s speech, his invitation to relationship. [Read more…] about Book Review: Discovering Lectio Divina