August 2025 Reading on St. Augustine
Lectio Divina with St. Augustine
This year the school will be doing a lectio divina (sacred reading) of John’s Gospel. Influenced by St. Augustine and the later Benedictine tradition, one of our common hours every week will be devoted to this careful reading of scripture that has four stages: 1 lectio (reading), 2 meditatio (reflecting); 3 oratio (praying); 4 contemplatio (contemplating).
1. Lectio (20 minutes): For our students I will read the passage aloud, give them some background to the text, and read the text aloud again, slowly. For example, on our first day I will present the various meanings of “Logos (Word)” in the beginning of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. ” The Word is the Son of the Father who takes on flesh and becomes the God-man Jesus Christ. But the Logos also means word in the English sense of an intelligible spoken communication and in this sense John 1:1 refers to Genesis 1:3-29: “God said let there be light. And there was light” et cetera. From this divine speech comes creation. God’s word is different from our word. When God speaks, it happens. He has a creative Word. Logos also has a meaning in the Greek philosophical tradition. It is the thought of God that makes the world intelligible- hence biology is the study of bios, life, and theology is the study of theos, God. My favorite proof for God’s experience, which I take from Pope Benedict XVI, works on this meaning of Logos. It goes as follows. Modern science asks questions of the universe: Why do atoms have these properties? Why do genes work like that? What function does this organ in a frog have? In the act of asking these questions, modern science presupposes that there are answers to our questions, even if we don’t (yet) know them. Modern science presupposes, that is, that the universe makes sense, that it’s intelligible. This intelligibility requires an intelligence. That intelligence we call God- specifically the Logos.
2. Meditatio (10 minutes): Having engaged with the text with our active ratio (Pieper’s “discursive reasoning”) we move on to reflect on the passage in a more receptive way. Medieval monks called this “chewing the cud.” We’ve ingested the scriptural text with my commentary (drawn from Cornelius à Lapide, SJ, St. Augustine, and Pope Benedict XVI). Now we ponder its meaning privately. Where have I encountered God’s creative Word? In the grace of the Sacraments, in the gift of new life of siblings, cousins, friends and animals? In the recreation of the world that comes every spring? Where have I encountered the Logos in creation? In my study of the cosmos at school and in the micro-cosmos that is the human person? Can I encounter the Logos in myself?
3. Oratio (10 minutes): Now it’s time to pray. Can I thank God for the work of the Logos in my life? In the life of my family? As messy as both realities are for all of us, can I see the Word, the Son of the Father, Jesus Christ, at work in my life? I would encourage you to reflect on the Word’s activity in your life and to thank Him for it. Perhaps you have questions for the Son- things you’re wondering about or graces you want to ask of Him. Do you have worries? Bring them to the Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ.
4. Contemplatio (5 minutes): “If the Creator were to put a worm in heaven, you would rebuke Him; or if He were to make a heavenly angel to be born of decaying flesh, you would rebuke Him; and yet this is exactly what He did [in the Word taking on flesh and becoming Jesus Christ] and he is not to be rebuked for it” (St. Augustine, Commentary on John I.13). God’s Logos, which is the deepest truth, subverts worldly reason. It is in the Son’s humility that we see the truth about God and ourselves. Now “bring your mind to that Word.” (Commentary on John I.9). Now we move from the active, discursive reason of lectio (reading) to the receptive activity. Bring your soul’s attention to the Word at work in the cosmos or the Word which shines within you. In his Confessions St. Augustine calls God a light that is interior intimo meo- “deeper down than my deepest down self.” Quiet your mind. Allow thoughts to go through your mind but don’t hold on to them. Live in that silence for five minutes. Can you hear, however faintly, the echo of that Word that speaks without words?
