Category: meditation

• June 20, 2011

  The demise of the lectio divina

  The following is an excerpt from Ivan Illich’s book In the Vineyard of the Text. To give you some context: Hugh of St. Victor is the hero of the book. In this excerpt, Illich is describing the change in reading practice from a fully embodied, transformative experience (the lectio divina up until the 13th C.)…
• June 17, 2011

  Innisfree ho

  I awoke this morning and there in my ear was the first line of Innisfree: “I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree.” O, Yeats, as the hammer pounds down, the taxis swerve, and the summer gets thick with ire, I’ll join you there in Innisfree, and there, my friend, we’ll listen to…
• June 15, 2011

  A writer’s life

  O, give me but sun and wind and trees so that I may work till dark. Ah, there we are.
• June 10, 2011

  On lectio divina – day 2

  Suppose you were to approach a book the way you do wine. To begin with, you’d be careful in your selection. After all, the thing’s going in your mouth and down your gullet. Once you’ve selected something palatable, you’d let it breathe, take it in, sit with it for a while, give it time. And…
• June 9, 2011

  On the lectio divina

  In the Middle Ages, the lectio divina was the art of reading Scripture slowly and contemplatively. It was a gustatory experience if not also an experience in attunement. Still in Montaigne’s time, books were to be sat with, chewed on, mulled over, and taken in. Now, books are packets of information: Our eyes do the…