Meditation Stage. In many ways this is the crucial stage of the lectio journey in so far as it will determine the power of the passage to touch us deeply, to heal, to nourish and to inspire us for the journey ahead. We let the stories of Jesus enter into the stories of our lives, and the stories of our lives enter into the story of Jesus so that he remains in us and we in him.
The scripture text, as we have seen, vibrates with the spirit of God. But it is a restless spirit, seeking, searching for something. On its own it is incomplete and desperately seeks to find its duplicate, its match, a copy of itself in life today. It seeks to be united with the new manifestation of itself.
Having read the passage several times we now move from the observer mode into the participant – as we enter into it. Through the power of the same Spirit at work in us, we engage with the passage and begin a dialogue between the passage and life experience.
Some little triggers can facilitate this process: Where do you feel drawn? What touches you in the passage? What does it remind you of? What memories does it evoke? Where and when have you seen this happening this before. Where do you see it happening today? Where and how have you been Jesus, or seen Jesus, acting in this way? Let the memories surface in all their historical reality “Where it was? When it was? Who was there? What happened? Let the passage and the memory engage and interact with each other, converse with each other, get to know each other. As the conversation continues details from the passage remind us, and throw light on certain aspects of the ‘memory’ In turn, details of ‘the memory’ throw light on the meaning of words or phrases in the passage.
Some memories will come and go and the dialogue may not go very far initially but eventually we settle on one or two recollections and go deeply into them. The passage and memory don’t have to agree in every detail but they are similar in their movements of grace, goodness, love and in their movement of sin, selfishness or evil.
Recognising the passage. We let the Spirit move us as we go to and fro -from passage to life experience and back again – until these two are more and more at home with each other. We stay with the meditation until we are moved to say, “I recognise that passage.” From life experience we just feel to say “that is my story too! our story!” Remember how Jacob responded after his encounter with Yahweh (in the dream of the Ladder) “Truly God was in that place and I didn’t see it until now! Gen 28:18. Or like Moses before the burning bush we feel to take off our shoes for the ground on which we stand is holy ground. Ex 3. Filled with God’s presence this ‘memory’ has become a living word of God for us today.
Ideally, we will find the passage fulfilled at two levels: within our own personal story or in the story of someone close to us, and secondly, outside of ourselves, in what we see going on around us – involving others, between one community and another, in the wider world and in creation itself. In this way Lectio avoids going down the slippery slope of mere introspection as it takes us out of ourselves and into solidarity with others.
An activity for any time or place. This meditation stage is not limited to times of silence, solitude and prayer; although, of course, it does not exclude such times either. But it can go on in the background of our minds(like background music) even as we engage in our everyday activities at home, at work, and in community; and at times coming to the forefront of our attention when the circumstances permit. In this way we experience a greater integration of our spiritual life with our secular life –in keeping with the best of our Christian tradition.