Episode 368 - Discovering Lectio Divina: Ancient Practices for a Modern Spiritual Journey, Part 2

Welcome to Restoring the Soul with Michael John Cusick. In today’s episode, Michael guides us through the ancient and transformative practice of Lectio Divina, or "sacred reading"—a gentle, four-step approach to engaging scripture that moves beyond intellectual study and invites deeper communion with God. Drawing on his own journey and experience with this practice, Michael unpacks each movement—reading, reflecting, responding, and resting—offering practical wisdom and personal insights along the way.

Whether you’re new to Lectio Divina or seeking fresh ways to revive your spiritual life, this episode provides both a clear explanation and a real-time invitation to experience sacred reading for yourself. Michael walks listeners step-by-step through a beloved passage in Matthew, encouraging us to let the words of scripture nourish not just our minds, but our souls. Settle in, take a few deep breaths, and prepare to experience a slower, richer way of encountering God’s presence in your everyday life.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Restoring the Soul podcast. I'm Michael John Cusick. Today practicing lectio divina, which is Latin for spiritual reading, holy reading, or sacred reading. And in a previous episode, we explored five reasons to cultivate lectio divina in our life for the purpose of cultivating a deeper life with God. And lectio divina is a way of coming to God with an open heart and an open mind and turning our focus in a gentle, restful way that allows God to work in us, but in a way where we're really receiving. What I love about this on a personal level is that I was exposed to this practice probably 20 years ago for the first time. And when I experienced it, I thought, well, this is not enough. This somehow is like a lazy man's version of reading the Bible. I really need to be digging in and studying and getting out my commentaries. And yes, there's a place for that, and some people are called to that. But we can do that our entire lives and not actually feed our soul. We're only feeding our mind. So this is all about the deeper life. And it's very, very simple and involves four movements. I want to describe what these four movements are in advance, and then I'm simply going to, through most of this episode, walk us through scripture and allow you, the listener, to actually experience lectio divina. If you're in your car, don't close your eyes, but you may want to lower the volume at a certain point as there's going to be a pause opportunity. In each of these four movements, if you're at home or sitting or in another quiet space, just allow the silence to be there and then respond, as each of these four movements invite you to do so. So here are the four movements, each of which allows us to respond to God and to open ourselves to God. The first movement is called Lectio L E C T I O And this is simply when the passage is read, I'll be reading it to you in some apps that are available, such as Lectio 365, which I strongly commend you get. They will read it to you and you listen. But if you have your Bible or scriptures or a lectionary in front of you, you would simply read the passage. And in reading it, you're opening yourself to God and prayerfully, allowing short pauses between the sentences. And then as you continue to practice this and cultivate it, you'll just develop your own rhythm and flow. But you're not saying for God. So loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. So whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. But you're reading it slowly. Being able to take the words in after that first movement of lectio, or reading, you're simply allowing there to be a period of silence, opening yourself to God's spirit. And I like to think of it as allowing the words to sink in. In this first movement of reading, it's like taking a garden hose and putting it on the sprayer part, as opposed to the jet nozzle, and you're spraying it over ground that is parched, and the water just goes on top of the surface, and it's going to take a moment to sink down. And that's really what this is about. The second movement is called meditatio. Now, of course, these are Latin phrases, and they sound really impressive. If there's ever a Christian version of Jeopardy, and you go on Christian Jeopardy. And they say, what is a Latin word for reflect? You can go meditatio for 500, please, Alex. So the reflection in the second movement is when you're listening for a particular word or phrase where God wants to speak to you. You're drawing your attention to something that stands out, to something that grabs your mind, your heart, where there's some kind of shift in your body, and you're simply receiving this word, this phrase, this image. As I've said before, I see in pictures, and so I hear a Scripture, and. And an image pops into my head. And it's usually something that's very vivid. And when I see that image, it's often difficult for me to hear the rest of the words, which is why, when I'm in church, if they're reading the Scriptures and I'm part of a liturgical church where they read from a lectionary, I need to be listening, where that's creating images in my head. But then I also need to be following the words. Otherwise I'll get off track, and I'll hear them read for three minutes, and it might be multiple paragraphs, and I'll have no idea what it just said. Lectio divina allows us to take short bites of Scripture, to read it, to pause, to get into a slow rhythm, and then in the second movement, to simply reflect. But it's not an intellectual cognitive reflection. Primarily, it's asking this question, what word, phrase, image, idea jumps out at me? The third movement is oratio or oratio, and that is to respond. So the first R would be to read the second R is to reflect. And this third R is to respond. And in this third reading, we're listening for God's invitation. As you've tuned into the word or the image or the phrase, how does your heart want to respond? If you're hearing Jesus say, come to me and I will give you rest, your heart might respond to the word come. It might respond to the to me, it might respond to the rest. And with whatever word, phrase, or image is brought to you, what does your heart want to do? And because we talk to a lot of people here with disillusionment, trauma, anxiety, and. And some not so positive experiences with the Scriptures, sometimes because of spiritual wounding or maybe teaching that you've had, it's also important to give you permission that maybe you feel nothing, maybe you hear the Scripture and there's nothing that leaps, nothing that comes alive. There's no word or image or phrase that jumps out. Then you can sit there and your response might be, lord, I'm feeling numb, or God, I don't feel anything. And let that be a prayer and allow that to be the doorway into the intimacy that your heart craves and that God is inviting you into. In this response, many people choose to respond verbally out loud. Other people respond and pray inwardly and silently, whatever is most comfortable to you in the responding. You can just fine tune that as you move along and begin to cultivate this practice. The fourth and final movement of Leccio divina is rest. And this is the Latin word contemplatio. And it's contemplate. And to contemplate is to really take your place in the loving, embracing presence of God and to rest. And it's here that some of the greatest action takes place in this paradox of resting and acting. It's in the resting and the contemplating that we get filled up. And rather than flexing our muscles or taking buckets of water from the well and pouring them out as we're filled, we overflow. And this is the rhythm of heaven. A rhythm of coming, of feeding, of being filled, of overflowing. Thomas Merton referred to this as a model of a spring and a stream. The stream fills the spring, the spring overflows, the stream flows into the spring. It just becomes an endless cycle. In this cycle, after the reading of the passage, after the reflection, after the responding, it's resting in the words and the ideas of the passage, but resting simply in the love of God as he's speaking to us. In the resting passage, it's about letting the words and the images wash over you. It's about allowing them to surround you. It's about allowing God's spirit to draw you close. It's in this stage where in the resting stage, sometimes, for example, with the words come to me, I'll see in the eyes of my heart with my eyes closed. And it's not required that you close your eyes, but as I'm sitting here talking to you now, my eyes are closed and with the words come to me, I picture Jesus with open arms and I'm coming to him. Or I might hear the word simply come to and I'm seeing him coming closer to me. I might hear the word rest. And just reflexively, without consciously thinking about it, I take a deep breath and I exhale. And in that exhalation I feel a freedom and a permission to be embraced by God. So in this rest stage, it's really a time, more than any of the other movements, to experience God and what he's saying to us. Some authors have written about this fourth stage of rest as a place of lingering, as a place of receiving, as a place of maintaining connection, as a place of, as I've already said, being filled. It's a time also in this resting, to allow that word or phrase to be a kind of literary icon, a picture, something that we take hold of in our mind, almost like picking up a stone off the ground and putting in our pocket. We can take this word or phrase or image into the pocket of our heart and then carry it with us throughout the day. And if we believe the Scriptures are really from God, every word of God is living and active, sharper than a double edged sword. God is speaking to us through the Bible, through the Scriptures in a way that is not just a book that was written 2,000 years ago, but through the Holy Spirit that He's actually speaking to us, that it's an intimate communication. I'm going to read a scripture out of Matthew, chapter 11, verses 28 through 30. It's the passage that Eugene Peterson paraphrased that many know well about learning the unforced rhythms of grace. But it's the passage that in traditional translations we know to be that my yoke is easy and my burden is light. This passage in the Message is particularly poetic and vibrant and just very fresh imagery. And that's why it's a good passage to read in addition to being meaningful, just in general, it's a good practice to learn lectio divina with just because it's so rich and image driven. So again, first I'm going to read it, and then give a time of silence. And you're just going to prayerfully and slowly. Allow these phrases to sink in. There will be the pause. I'll read it a second time. And this is the time to reflect, to be curious, and to see what image, phrase or word you're drawn to. Then there will be a period of silence. I'll read it a third time. In the third movement, we're responding and allowing your heart inwardly, or as you speak outwardly, to respond to the Lord as he's spoken to you through the word, the image or the phrase. You're simply responding. And it can be very meaningful if it's one, two or three words, or it might lead into a deeper conversation. But this is where it becomes conversational. And the fourth is to rest. Read, reflect, respond and rest. You're eventually going to just know this rhythm. And you can begin to do this anywhere, anytime. Read, reflect, respond and rest. And so if you're in a place where you can do this, I invite you to settle yourself, to take a few deep breaths. Just begin to be present with yourself and know that the God who dwells within you is present to you. You don't need to attain or acquire his presence or his love. You're simply to be with it. As I read this passage the first time, just allow it to sink in. Matthew, chapter 11, verses 28 through 30. Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me, work with me, watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. Just sit with those words in silence for several moments. And now, if you're doing this lectio, I wouldn't be giving the commentary. But in this movement you're going to reflect. And that reflection is to listen for a word or a phrase or an image from the Scriptures which is God speaking to you. Are you tired? Worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me, and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. And now, reflecting, listening for a word or a phrase. Or an image, and I'll model this. I could say this inwardly, but for the purpose of this podcast, I'm going to speak it out. What's the word, Fraser? Image. Michael, I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting upon you. Ill fitting. Ill fitting. So, listener, what image or phrase or word jumps out or catches you? What are you drawn to? Just reflect the third movement of respond. This is where it becomes interactive and conversational. I'll read the passage again, I'll have a moment of silence, and then I'll model by responding just as I'm doing this exercise along with you. Are you tired? Worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me, and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. And as I model this, I might say, lord, as I hear those words, that you won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting. So much of the time my faith has felt ill fitting, that I have laid burdens on myself and expectations and perfectionism. God, it feels like this faith and this journey in this way of knowing you just feels like it doesn't fit me. And I'm tired of striving, I'm tired of working. I'm tired of evaluating our relationship based on what I do. So I just ask for help. Show me this different way that you invite me to. That's simply my response. And if I were to simply say, God, ill fitting, I don't get it. Open my eyes. That would be sufficient. Or if I heard in this passage freely and lightly, and something in me feels joy when I hear those words, and I respond with, oh, thank you, thank you. And then the fourth movement of rest. Could it be really true in this fourth moment that I could just sit here with God's words to me freely and lightly, or nothing ill fitting? And that I just take those in like something delicious and nourishing, and I just rest and I'm present to this. And like that garden hose that's sprinkling and spraying water onto the parched ground, my job is just to sit and allow that water and the imagery and the life therein to be absorbed into the ground and soil of my heart. So here we go with the fourth movement of rest. Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me and watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. And so, listener, just rest and stay with all of that. Stay with the image, the phrase, or the word. Letting it go down into the depths of you, letting it go below the surface. Not trying to make anything happen, but to receive. And so, on this journey of digging deeper into life with God, into a depth life with God, we'll continue looking at practices, disciplines that will help to restore our soul on upcoming episodes. Until then, bless you.