page_title: Lectio Divina
section_title: Formalization during the late 12th century
hierarchical_section_title: Lectio Divina / History and development / Formalization during the late 12th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Saint Bruno chapel, near the monastery of the Grande Chartreuse Français&#160;: Chapelle Saint Bruno, la Grande Chartreuse
context_page_description: In Western Christianity Lectio Divina is a traditional monastic practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God's word. In the view of one commentator, it does not treat scripture as texts to be studied, but as the living word.
  Traditionally, Lectio Divina has four separate steps: read; meditate; pray; contemplate. First a passage of scripture is read, then its meaning is reflected upon. This is followed by prayer and contemplation on the Word of God.
  The focus of Lectio Divina is not a theological analysis of biblical passages but viewing them with Christ as the key to their meaning. For example, given Jesus' statement in John 14:27: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you", an analytical approach would focus on the reason for the statement during the Last Supper, the biblical context, etc. In Lectio Divina, however, the practitioner "enters" and shares the peace of Christ rather than "dissecting" it. In some Christian teachings, this form of meditative prayer is understood as leading to an increased knowledge of Christ.
context_section_description: Seek in reading and you will find in meditation; knock in prayer and it will be opened to you in contemplation — The four stages of Lectio Divina as taught by John of the Cross.
  The progression from Bible reading, to meditation, to prayer, to loving regard for God, was first formally described by Guigo II, a Carthusian monk and prior of Grande Chartreuse who died late in the 12th century. The Carthusian order follows its own Rule, called the Statutes, rather than the Rule of St Benedict.
  Guigo II's book The Ladder of Monks is subtitled "a letter on the contemplative life" and is considered the first description of methodical prayer in the western mystical tradition. In Guigo's four stages one first reads, which leads to think about (i.e. meditate on) the significance of the text; that process in turn leads the person to respond in prayer as the third stage. The fourth stage is when the prayer, in turn, points to the gift of quiet stillness in the presence of God, called contemplation.
  Guigo named the four steps of this "ladder" of prayer with the Latin terms lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio. In the 13th century the Carmelite Rule of St. Albert prescribed to Carmelites the daily prayerful pondering on the Word of God, namely to ruminate day and night the Divine Law. Lectio Divina alongside the daily celebration of liturgy is to this day the pillar of prayer in Carmel.
  Lectio Divina was practiced by St. Dominic de Guzman, founder of the Dominican Order.
  In the 14th century, Gerard of Zutphen built on "Guigo's Ladder" to write his major work On Spiritual Ascents. Zutphen warned against considered meditation without reading of scripture, and taught that the reading prepares the mind, so meditation will not fall into error. Similarly, he taught that meditation prepares the mind for contemplation.
caption: A chapel at Grande Chartreuse where Ladder of the Monk was written by Guigo II
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