Praying with Scriptures

Scripture Meditation is a form of prayer exercise that calls one to ponder and pray from Sacred Scriptures. It involves repetition and slow pace of reading, inviting one to savor every word from the Scriptures. The method is adapted from the historical Lectio Divina, whose principles were expressed around year 220 AD from Origen. Origen emphasizes on the value of reading scripture with attention to possible levels of meaning. The method customizes the word of the scriptures to one’s daily life or situation since it asks the reader to apply it in his own life.

Suggested Exercises:

• This meditation involves preparation much like any other activity since one has to be eased into a level of silence in order to build the suitable environment for meditative reading. Try to allot a scheduled time for prayer, preferably an hour; and before the appointed time, choose the passage that you will use for the prayer period. It is helpful to choose only one passage for the prayer period. Further, choose a place where you will be free from distractions.
• To ease one into silence, it is useful to engage in awareness exercises. Awareness exercises build one’s rhythm for prayer much like a warm-up before a game. A typical ten-minute awareness exercise is enough and it begins by closing one’s eyes and being conscious of the rhythm of one’s breathing and after the breathing, being sensitive to the surrounding sounds. If your mind wanders away, just try to bring it back to the rhythm.
• The meditation proper involves four moments: the lectio (reading), meditatio (reflection), oratio (dialogue with God), and contemplation (listening to God). Following this way of proceeding, one can start by reading the chosen passage slowly and repeating it for at least three times. One should be sensitive to the words and phrases where one felt the strongest impact. Then, reflect on the meaning of those words and phrases into your life. It is important to note that Ignatian meditation is not primarily an intellectual exercise where one should do exegesis but rather a reflective one, emphasizing on personal impact of words and phrases. The final step is responding to the passage by conversing with God and listening to His responses. In Ignatian spirituality, this is called colloquy. One should not hesitate to engage with God, even if He is all-knowing. It makes a huge difference talking to God as a friend.
• The Ignatian principle of non multa sed multum (not many but much) applies very much to this prayer exercise for it is not the number of phrases or words but their impact that is most significant. One should not be anxious to go on but rather one is invited to stay and relish to those phrases or words that made a significant impact during the reading and reflecting of the passage. Stay with the words, significant feelings, or phrases even if they consumed the allotted time.
• It is helpful to keep track of our prayer experiences by keeping a prayer journal. Note down all your feelings, significant movements, and even your dialogue with God after the prayer period. You may go back to and relish them in your next prayer time.
  
  

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectio_divina

www.prayermatter.blogspot.com