Divine Reading

Originally published in the NEWIM June 2025 newsletter.

Personally, I don’t like labels. There can be a negative disconnect as soon as an activity is named; it seems to limit understanding to our assumptions. Without intentionally seeking to understand it, we forego investigating the fullness behind the label. When it comes to spiritual activities, if our comprehension closes us to exploration, there seems to be no room for the Holy Spirit to work.

Reading an old Bible.

I know this was the case for me, but I learned the Lord had more for me to experience. As I would reread the same Bible passages, I felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit trying to speak to me by illuminating something I needed to know in that moment.

What I discovered is that by purposely setting aside time to deeply listen to God’s Divine and inspired Word, I was pausing my life, my schedule, and my assumptions just to listen to my heavenly Father. Regardless of the passage I was reading, it took several rounds of reading to reveal what the Lord wanted me to know.

The first reading seemed to get my brain’s attention, which is often running in many directions at once, or even running too fast in the wrong direction. In the second reading, certain phrases or words started to jump out as significant, calling me to pay attention. What is God saying? I am not sure, but I wanted to listen again to hear and understand. The third reading seemed to move the message out of my intellectual headspace into my heart. There was a rattling at the gate that closes off my heart to most people. It’s a special place where true intimacy stays. The Holy Spirit stood at that door, wanting in. I wanted God there, and I welcomed him in with another reading of the Scripture. It was then I felt his presence, the love of his words filling my heart and spurring me to worship and action.

I practiced nourishing my soul with this manner of deeply listening to God’s Word before I ever knew it had a label. Since the fourth century, this method of Scripture reading has been called Lectio Divina (Divine reading). Decades ago when I started studying the Bible, I wouldn’t have engaged in this discipline based on its name, but I am grateful that the Holy Spirit guided me through the process anyway.