Lectio Divina is a way of reading Scripture. It literally means ‘divine reading’. Its roots go back to Origen in the 3rd century. After Origen, church fathers such as Ambrose, Augustine and Hilary of Poitiers used the term Lectio Divina to refer to the reading of Scripture.
The monastic practice of Lectio Divina was first established in the 6th century by Benedict of Nursia and was then formalized as a four-step process by the Carthusian monk Guigo II during the 12th century.
Guigo II referred to the four steps as a ladder, and named them with the Latin terms lectio (reading), meditatio (meditating), oratio (praying) and contemplatio (contemplating or wondering).
Since the latter part of the 20th century, the popularity of Lectio Divina has increased outside monastic circles and many lay Catholics, as well as some Protestants, practice it.
Lectio Divina is not meant to be a complicated process. As David Foster, OSB writes in his book, Reading with God, “It is usually just a question of being ready to sit with what we have read, dwelt on, and prayed over, just letting the whole thing sink in.”
