What the Church tells us
As we know, the Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consacrata which with the passing of time is becoming ever better understood, is permeated from beginning to end by the presence of the Word of God.
We will limit ourselves to a brief comment on number 94, which has the title Listening to the word of God. Here are its principle statements:
1. “The word of God is the first source of all Christian spirituality. It gives rise to a
personal relationship with the living God and with his saving and sanctifying will.”
The word of God is placed at the foundation of every type of spirituality, that is of
all of them, and not only those who have a special type of life or a particular availability of time to delve into the Sacred Writngs.
2. “It is for this reason that from the very beginning of Institutes of Consecrated Life,
and in a special way in monasticism, what is called lectio divina has been held in the highest regard. By its means the word of God is brought to bear on life, on which it projects the light of that wisdom which is a gift of the Spirit.”
If the “wisdom” approach to the Word, which finds in lectio an acclaimed method,
was born and perfected in monastic environments, it still is not absent in other forms of consecrated life, even though with different names and various nuances.
With the expression lectio divina, therefore, we mean a way or a method that is specially efficacious for transferring the word of God into life. If this expression and method of approaching the Word is taken up today, it is precisely because there is a strongly felt need to make the wisdom of God’s word effective and influential in daily life, to enter into contact with its transforming force,. with the consequent certainty that this method, appropriately adapted to the various situations, can also help today, those who live in very diversified situations.
3. “...the writings of the New Testament deserve special veneration, especially the
Gospels, which are ‘the heart of all the Scriptures’.” These writings merit regular meditation by consecrated persons. Also because “Founders and foundresses were inspired by these texts in ...discerning the charism and mission of their Institutes.”
Those who follow the liturgical lectionary are able to approach the Gospels daily and systematically.
4. “Meditation of the Bible in common is of great value....thanks to which brothers or
sisters grow together and help one another to make progress in the spiritual life.”
It is the practice of sharing or of collatio, a practice that ought to be spread also
among other members of the people of God. Some ecclesial groups practice it regularly and with great profit.
5. From the meditation of the word of God come fruits of contemplation and action
light for the discernment of the signs of the times.
Meditation of the word is not an end in itself, but leads to a better knowledge of the mystery of God and to a renewed missionary commitment in the concrete situations in which one is found. And it enlightens in view of making choices that are evangelical.
6. And finally, from regularly spending time with the Word, one acquires a sort of
supernatural instinct which permits that one does not become conformed to the mentality of this world, but to renew one’s mind “in order to discern God’s will”, through the acquisition of a new sensitivity to face reality from God’s evaluative point of view.
The other document Novo Millennio Ineunte proposes meditation of the Word and the
method of lectio divina, in numbers 39 and 40:
“...the primacy of holiness and prayer is inconceivable without a renewed listening to the word of God.” (39)
“It is especially necessary that listening to the word of God should become a life-giving encounter, in the ancient and ever valid tradition of lectio divina, which draws from the biblical text the living word which questions, directs and shapes our lives.” (39)
Here too the text talks about the need of starting off from the word of God and recommends the method of the lectio divina, an ancient and ever valid method, for a “life-giving encounter”.
We could summarize the current nature of this method with the words of Cardinal Martini:
“One of the special values of lectio divina consists in the fact that it helps to contemplate not only the face of Christ in his divinity and humanity, but also brings unity among diverse aspects of the real which are too often considered as separately, that is, the anthropological aspect, the theological, evangelical and biblical ones... The biblical word and, especially, the Gospel word express with extraordinarily effective formulas both anthropological and theological needs.”