Posted on by Kurt Bodling

praying and mulling over the Psalms

Note: The reason we spend so much time praying with the Psalms is that their broad range of content and expression touch all our needs. It could be that we feel one thing when the appointed Psalm goes somewhere else, but that just indicates (I think) our need for broader and deeper familiarity with them so that we can recall and pray the verses that do, at that moment, speak our heart.

Quote:
“And with that gospel, it is very important during our periods of silence and personal prayer to repeat some psalms that we have prayed in the Liturgy of Hours. Why the psalms? I can find myself in the psalms. Through the psalms I can praise God with trust and hope, but I can also give free rein to my darker thoughts that might otherwise lie in wait within my heart. Above all, the psalms sing my own thirst for God, the joys and sufferings of my search for God. The psalms are a support for our prayer and lectio divina.” (p. 55)

Source: Barban, Alessandro. “Lectio Divina and Monastic Theology in Camaldolese Life” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002.

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how the Camaldolese practice lectio

Note: How and why do we do lectio? And what comes of it? The Camaldolese practice it this way: slowly and with silence. It leads to conversion of life and thought, not confirmation of them.

Quote:
“So, the first exercise of lectio is the proclamation of the gospel. We read the text at least three or four times, with attentiveness and concentration, accompanied by lengthy, deep pauses of silence. God’s Word is a gift that does not come to confirm my thoughts or life, but to convert them.” (p. 55)

Source: Barban, Alessandro. “Lectio Divina and Monastic Theology in Camaldolese Life” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002.

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the truths of lectio are heart truths

Note: Lectio divina takes us to, and uncovers, the spiritual heart of a text, which may well be, and usually is, different from the literal, exegetical center. The latter is head knowledge more than heart knowledge. But does this mean that lectio truths are personal ones and not as applicable to the larger Body? That would mean that the spiritual heart of the text could be different for each of us. Well, why not?

Quote: “All of this spiritual exercise in reading, repetition and hearing makes sense if we discover the center of the text. What is the center? In lectio we do not search for the textually central spot, but that spiritual center that gives the text a contemplative sense. Such a center can be a sentence, a verb or series of verbs, a teaching, etc. In other words, this center is not always the exegetical center. It is the heart of the text for me, right now, in my present spiritual path. That center we discover in our lectio is a gift of the Spirit, a spiritual intuition that comes from God, not from our intellect. In the beginning, it is not always easy to uncover the spiritual center of a text.” (p. 56)

Source: Barban, Alessandro. “Lectio Divina and Monastic Theology in Camaldolese Life” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

meditate like a bee

Note: Barban clarifies the parts of meditatio with a nice animal metaphor. In lectio we read the Bible, and in meditatio Scripture reads us. It’s important for us to store up Scripture texts, as a bee stores honey.

Quote:
“In the Christian monastic tradition, meditatio is not primarily a technique for emptying the soul. Meditation is an exercise in attentiveness, purification, and concentration, but its primary goal is the fullness or maturation of God’s Word within us. According to the most ancient tradition, meditation is biblical. And in lectio divina, three important ‘moments’ constitute meditatio: the ant’s work, the bee’s work, and discernment.

“The ant’s work is to harvest the food. Our food is God’s Word. … [then hammer at the keystone center of the text]. One who is more familiar with Scripture will have the advantage of recalling a greater number of texts.

“We must not only harvest our food, but also work with it like a bee. …. In other words, the monk’s work is to meditate, i.e., to reveal the hidden sense of Scripture, to produce the honey of evangelical wisdom. Monastic tradition calls this second step of meditation ruminatio. …

“God’s Word entering our lives begins a work of discernment, of purification, of krisis–transformation and conversion. Whereas with lectio we read Scripture, during meditatio God’s Word ‘reads’ us. This can prove a painful process.” (pp. 56-57)

Source: Barban, Alessandro. “Lectio Divina and Monastic Theology in Camaldolese Life” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

centrality of lectio divina

Note: Camaldolese prior Alessandro Barban highlights the centrality of lectio divina among the Christian spiritual disciplines. It is the core around which all the rest of spiritual life circles. He is writing about his Camaldolese monks, but the thought applies to us all as we are able in our various stations in life.

Quote:
“Every day we monks live in important spiritual practices, such as stability, attentiveness or mindfulness, meditation, silence, prayer, obedience, purity of heart, simplicity, openness, and many others. But lectio divina is the center of our monastic life. Monastic practices are not simply things to do. They are dimensions of the Spirit. If we cannot live these dimensions, we are not really monks.” (p. 59)

Source: Barban, Alessandro. “Lectio Divina and Monastic Theology in Camaldolese Life” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002.

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understanding Scripture

Note: Augustine says that different people understand the Bible at different depths, and that it’s really best if they get the true meaning in their hearts rather than just the bare words in their heads. On the other hand, if the understanding is weak or lacking, then it is best to have the actual words of the text memorized. A takeaway for Bible teachers would be that they shouldn’t expect the same results for everybody.

Quote: “The wisdom of what a person says is in direct proportion to his progress in learning the holy scriptures — and I am not speaking of intensive reading or memorization, but real understanding and careful investigation of their meaning. Some people read them but neglect them; by their reading they profit in knowledge, by their neglect they forfeit understanding. Those who remember the words less closely but penetrate to the heart of scripture with the eyes of their own heart are much to be preferred, but better than either is the person who not only quotes scripture when he chooses but also understands it as he should. For a person who has to speak wisely on matters which he cannot treat eloquently, close adherence to the words of scripture is particularly necessary. The poorer he sees himself to be in his own resources, the richer he must be in those of scripture, using them to confirm what he says in his own words; so that although once deficient in words of his own he can grow in stature, as it were, by the testimony of something really important.” 

Tags: #scholarship #study #Bible

Source: St Augustine of Hippo, “On Christian Teaching” Book 5, paragraphs 19-21. Translated by R.P.H. Green (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), page 104-105.

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texts and the student

Note: Augustine thought it important for students (especially students of Holy Scripture) to have ready access to good quality texts. This is really a foreshadowing of the Renaissance humanists’ call to return to the sources (ad fontes). Also, note how Christian scholarship leads to holiness, holiness leads to gentleness, and gentleness to avoiding controversy.

Quote: “The student who fears God earnestly seeks his will in the holy scriptures. Holiness makes him gentle, so that he does not revel in controversy; a knowledge of languages protects him from uncertainty over unfamiliar words or phrases, and a knowledge of certain essential things protects him from ignorance of the significance and detail of what is used by way of imagery. Thus equipped, and with the assistance of reliable texts derived from the manuscripts with careful attention to the need for emendation, he should approach the task of analysing and resolving the ambiguities of scriptures.” 

Source:
St Augustine of Hippo, “On Christian Teaching” Book 3, paragraph 1. Translated by R.P.H. Green (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), page 68.

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Apophatic Theology and True Theologians

“In accord with the ecstatic and negative theology, by means of which God is praised in a way beyond expression and by being silent because of the amazement and wonder induced by His majesty, so that now the worshiper feels that not only every word is less than His praise, but also that every thought is inferior to His praise. This is the true Cabala, which is extremely rare. For as the affirmative way concerning God is imperfect, both in understanding and in speaking, so the negative way is altogether perfect. … Therefore our theologians are too rash when they argue and make assertions so boldly about matters divine. For, as I have said, the affirmative theology is like milk to wine in relation to the negative theology. This cannot be treated in a disputation and with much speaking, but must be done in the supreme repose of the mind and in silence, as in rapture and ecstasy. This is what makes a true theologian. But no university crowns anyone like this, only the Holy Spirit. And whoever has seen this, sees how all affirmative theology knows nothing. But this matter perhaps experiences more things than modesty.”

Luther, Martin. On Psalm 65:1. In “First Lectures on Psalms, I” Luther’s Works, American edition. Volume 10. St. Louis: Concordia, 1974, p. 313. [lectures delivered in 1513-1515]

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Breadth and variety in study

“There is no more effective means of keeping the mind fresh and its faculties at the height of their performance than the occupation, within proper limitations, with some side-line of study. When we inquire how it is that some men maintain even into old age a peculiar freshness of mind and true balance of mental faculties, here is the answer.”

From: Graebner, Theodore. The Pastor as Student and Literary Worker: Lectures Delivered at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Second, revised edition. St. Louis : Concordia Publishing House, 1925, page 68.

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simplicity can be simple

“Given the same external circumstances, a desire for simplification can do much, and what one cannot get rid of outwardly, one can always remove from one’s soul.”

Sertillanges, Antonin G., O.P. The Intellectual Life: its Spirit, Conditions, Methods. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1987, p. 41.