Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayer, and Compline are available as audio files from The Episcopal Church in Garrett County (Maryland). Click the links below to listen:
It is ironic that in the fast-paced and noisy modern world, the ancient practice of lectio divina ("sacred reading") can be facilitated via the web - a technology that didn't exist even 30 years ago.
Lectio divina is a slow, quiet, contemplative method of praying the Scriptures. There are four "stages" to the practice and method of this kind of prayer (for a full description of each, see this page); the entire process can take 20-30 minutes or so, and those who do it regularly often experience a sense of deep relaxation in the process. Be sure to find a quiet time and place in which to engage in lectio; many people enjoy the practice during the early morning when the world hasn't yet stirred itself fully. Spend about equal amounts of time in each stage.
The first stage is Lectio, or reading or listening. This is relaxed, attentive reading or listening to a passage of Scripture: listening for the "still, small voice" of God, and to what the passage might be saying to you. You are seeking a word or phrase that stands out - that speaks to you in particular that day.
Next is Meditatio, or meditation. No longer reading, simply repeat the phrase to yourself;at this stage we allow the word or phrase "to interact with our thoughts, our hopes, our memories, our desires."
The third stage is Oratio, or prayer. This is speaking to God, experiencing God "using the word or phrase that He has given you as a means of blessing." It is close to the kind of prayer most people are familiar with, but focussed on what's happened during this particular time of prayer.
And finally, there is Contemplatio: contemplation. This is a time of "resting in God"; a wordless form of communication in which there is no reading or meditation or prayer or even thought. It is simply a sitting still, and "knowing God" through this experience of prayer.
This monastic way of doing Lectio Divina always begins with prayer to the Holy Spirit. The four moments along the circumference of the circle are reading in the presence of God, reflecting in the sense of ruminating (not in the sense of discursive meditation), responding with spontaneous prayer, and resting in God beyond thoughts and particular acts of the will.
By "ruminating" I mean sitting with a sentence, phrase or even one word that emerges from the text, allowing the Spirit to expand our listening capacity and to open us to its deeper meaning; in other words, to penetrate the spiritual sense of a scripture passage. This leads to the faith experience of the living Christ and increases the practical love for others that flows from that relationship.
As we repeat the phrase or sentence slowly, over and over, a deeper insight may arise. For example, take the words of Jesus, "I will not call you servants but friends." All of a sudden, it might dawn on us what it means to be a friend of Christ. Our awareness expands without our having done anything but allow the Spirit to act. It is a heart-to-heart exchange with Christ. We think the text but we do not think about the text. If we are thinking in the sense of reflecting, we are dominating the conversation. That can be done fruitfully some other time. Here it is a question of receiving and resting in Christ's presence as the source of the word or phrase.
Lectio Divina is a special kind of process, and to benefit fully from its fruits, its integrity has to be respected. The ripe fruit of the regular practice of Lectio Divina is assimilating the word of God and being assimilated by it. It is a movement from conversation to communion. It also enables us to express our deep spiritual experience of union with God in words or symbols that are appropriate. There is thus a movement not only into silence, but from silence to expression.
