Lectio Divina: The Medieval Experience of Reading (Cistercian Studies) by Duncan Robertson

Author:Duncan Robertson [Robertson, Duncan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780879072049
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Published: 2011-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

“Listen willingly to holy readings.” The knowledge of sacred reading provides those who cultivate it with keenness of perception, increases their understanding, shakes off sluggishness, does away with idleness, shapes their life, corrects their behavior, causes wholesome groaning, and produces tears from a heart pierced by compunction; it bestows eloquence in speaking and promises eternal rewards to those who toil; it increases spiritual riches, curbs vain speech and vanities, and enkindles the desire for Christ and our heavenly homeland. It is always associated with prayer, and must always be joined to prayer.

The passage from Isidore then follows (Sent 3.8.1–4, quoted above), into which Smaragdus makes a meaningful interpolation, given here in brackets: Quae enim nescimus, lectione discimus; quae enim didicerimus meditationibus conservamus [et ut conservata a nobis impleantur, oratione adipiscimur]. Geminum enim confert donum sanctarum lectio scripturarum (“What we do not know, we learn by reading, and what we have learned, we conserve by meditation, [and we obtain by prayer that what we have conserved may be fulfilled]. The reading of the sacred Scriptures confers a double gift”).18

In these passages, Smaragdus’s own thought comes into view. Reading, he asserts, enkindles among other things the desire for Christ and for heaven, which must necessarily accompany prayer. That is to say, reading fosters what is elsewhere called intentio: the focus, we might say, of intellectual and emotional faculties upon the goal; the presence of mind and heart to God, without which prayer is meaningless.19 Reading, conserved by meditatio, prompts fully “intentional” prayer, and by prayer one obtains fulfillment or implementation of what has been conserved in life and action.

To conclude this section, Smaragdus adds a note taken from Isidore (Sent 3.9.1; cf. Prov 4.8) on the value of assiduity in acquiring a true, deep familiarity with Scripture. Under the next heading, Smaragdus further explores the relationship of reading to prayer:

“Orationi frequenter incumbere.” Incumbere dicit, instare, vel incubare. Et congrue nos post lectionis auditionem orationi jussit frequenter incumbere. Non enim a lectione dissentit oratio, nec ab oratione aliena est lectio. Aliquoties autem proferunt unum, aliquoties vero diversum. Sed quia oratio dicitur oris ratio, neutra illarum orationis nomine caret, utroque rationabiliter cautae, utroque vero rationabiliter sunt dictatae.

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