Lectio divina: The method by Jean Khoury

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This book is the fruition of not only a long personal experience but also a teaching and sharing about this ancient way of prayer: lectio divina.

Lectio divina is an ancient Latin expression which means "spiritual reading of the Bible".

This book focuses on a unique method on how to listen to God every day, through the daily readings of the Bible. It is a method which brings about a real change in our life and powerfully nourishes our personal relationship with Jesus.

It makes the action of God accessible to everyone and shows that our dialogue with Jesus can be very real. So we are led to a new experience where he speaks to us everyday, follows us and transforms our lives.

Whilst rooted in the living Tradition, this book is full of new intuitions with many practical insights that makes it a useful manual.

No Christian who prays or who loves the Bible can ignore this teaching.

I- The basics of lectio 7

1. Introduction 7

2. Christ's central place in this process 9

3. The primary impulse of lectio 10

4. The immense importance of lectio 11

5. Basic activity of the Fathers, the eminent monastic practice 11

6. Listening, discovering God's will, its fulfilment 12

7. The Readings of the Mass (a particular grace of Vatican II) 12

II- The process of lectio 13

1. Morning solitude 13

2. Before Christ 14

3. Reading the two texts 15

a) The first request; re-reading 15

b) The quality of the request; the example of the blind man 16

c) The first reading is not enough 16

d) Not just ideas 18

4. Rules of discernment: am I listening or not? 18

a) Two texts, one word (95 %) 18

b) The four signs 20

i) A new taste 21

ii) Practicality 23

iii) A word that seems of "little" value 24

iv) Impossibility 25

5. The process of lectio; two requests 27

III- Around the process of lectio 29

1. Lectio is completed through life; its benefits 29

2. "Lord, I have done, through your grace, what you asked me to do this morning" 30

3. At the beginning we might find it hard to practice lectio for 55 minutes 31

4. The required purity: the gift of oneself 32

5. Temptations to flight 34

6. Insistence and perseverance purify the heart 36

7. What transformation occurs? 38

8. Keeping a written account 39

9. Lectio is an authentic exercise of love 40

10. Lectio is a daily verification of this self-abandonment 40

11. The consolation we receive in lectio 41

12. The desire to convert oneself - the heart of lectio 41

13. Digging deep 45

14- Vade mecum 46