Guidelines for Lectio Divina

Step One– Silence

I prepare for God’s address by allowing myself to experience God who is present. I shift my awareness to my senses, posture, breathing, heartbeat, and God’s presence. 

What am I feeling right now?

Step Two– Lectio

I listen to the Word, to God’s address to me in these words, allowing myself to be drawn to the word or phrase that grabs, strikes, holds, calls, solicits, disturbs, resonates, pierces, or stirs me in my senses, feelings, imagination or thought.

What word or phrase most affects me?

Step Three– Meditatio

I listen again to the Word, opening myself to receive the essence of God’s address to me, receiving feelings, thoughts, images, and sensations that invite me into a deeper understanding of my relationships with God, myself, others, the world, and nature. 

What word or phrase names the feeling, thought, image, sensation, or desire that stirs me?

Step Four Oratio

In silence or writing, I respond to God, expressing my thoughts, feelings, and desires about the meaning that has emerged for me, perhaps by giving thanks and praise, asking for help, confessing, or surrendering.

I communicate with God.

Step Five Contemplatio

I wordlessly rest with God in the experience, opening my shole being to what God has stirred in me. 

I silently rest with God.

Afterward

I continue to express and incarnate my experience, possibly sharing it with another person. I notice the fruit of the prayer life, including intentions, decisions, and actions. 

What would I like to express and incarnate from this experience?

Source: San Francisco Theological Seminary’s Program in Chrisitan Spirituality