The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water:

there Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us
for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depth of Gods desire for us.
Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of Gods thirst with ours. God
thirsts that we might thirst for Him. ~ Catechism of the Catholic Church , 2560.

For centuries the church has dedicated the third, fourth and fifth Sundays of Lent to the
observance of the scrutinies. These are rites for self-searching and repentance on the part
of the elect as they prepare to receive the sacraments of initiation into the full life of the
Church at Easter. The scrutinies call attention to the ways God delivers us from the power
of sin and brings us into the freedom of children of God. They also mark this solemn
moment in the Lenten season as we draw near to the celebration of the Paschal Mystery.
It is a time for the elect, and for all of us, to seek a deeper experiential knowledge of
Christ through the study of scripture and through prayer. To this end, Fr. Carver, Fr.
Perry and I will be preaching on different ways to pray over the next few weeks. We are
Jesuits much at home in Ignatian contemplative prayer, but we want to look at other
prayer practices from our rich Christian tradition.
This week we will be looking at lectio divina, a holy, or prayerful reading of scripture.
Rather than being a fact-finding or scholarly read, lectio involves spending quality time
with God through His Word. It is a slow, careful and contemplative prayer with scripture
where the Bible, the Word of God, becomes a means of union with God. This practice
goes all the way back to the fervent passion with which rabbinic Jews approached sacred
scripture in the Torah. By the 6th century AD, St. Benedict made lectio a central part of his
monastic rule. At the heart of his vision of monastic life is the interweaving of prayer and
work, Ora et labora. The Word overflows from the holy reading and the liturgy. It
becomes a focal point while doing manual labor and the daily chores. A word or phrase
such as, water welling up to eternal life, might rise to the surface and become a
background refrain that keeps a monk connected to the underlying spiritual rhythm of the
day as he milks the cows or plows the field. But Lectio isnt only for monks. It is a
practice that can help us all to remain centered on Gods Word through the busyness and
activity of our lives.
This Sunday, the Gospel from John tells the story of Jesus encounter with an unnamed
Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob. We can see the movements of lectio divina in this
story.
The first step is the lectio, or reading. Here it is to approach the deep cistern in the
midday heat. This is the place where since the time of Isaac and Rebecca the bridegroom
has come to woo his beloved. We come to the well of the Word with our thirst and the
Word meets us there. We read prayerfully. Maybe the reading becomes a dialog between
two persons like the playful back and forth between Jesus and this woman. What does the
text say? What is its place in the whole of Sacred Scripture?
The next step is meditatio, or meditation. What does the text say to me or to us? Here the
revelation of God involves a revelation of self. Jesus tells the woman at the well about
herself: . . . the one you have now is not your husband. He reveals the disorientation of
her love life and he lays before her the answer to all her longing and desire the richness
of life in the Spirit. Meditatio allows for a deepening in the personal and communitarian
dimensions of the Word in order to name what God desires of us.
The third step is oratio, or prayer. Here we offer an answer to what the text has revealed
to us. What does the text make me or make us say? This is where we acknowledge the
encounter and respond faithfully to it. We answer in the form of some action:
supplication, praise, giving thanks, or asking for pardon. The woman is forever changed
by her encounter with Jesus. Her response is to leave her water jar and go to her
townspeople to tell them about him. And now, what do I say to God? Where do I go from
here?
The final movement of lectio divina is contemplatio, or contemplation. Words are not
necessary here, just the presence, the encounter and the fullness of communion. After
hearing the testimony of the woman, the Samaritans accept Jesus and he abides with
them. Our sacred reading of the Word can bring us to this contemplative space of broader
openness and deeper receptivity to the boundless riches and unexpected surprises of the
Word.
Everyone will practice lectio from their personal experience and in a somewhat different
way. But however it unfolds in your life, lectio is about letting the Word work in us. It is
about resting in love and giving the Spirit time and freedom to act within us. It is a
gracious gift of God and a gift that is not always given. Sometimes we may not get
beyond the first lectio step. So we go forth with the word or phrase that rises up within
us. And the Word walks with us, through this word or phrase, enabling us to see more
fully how God sees the events of the day. On the whole, Lectio divina can bring us to a
deeper familiarity with Christ and to a wider solidarity with others.