The method
Christian meditation is an old practice. You read Scripture slowly, then pray it into your heart until it shapes what you love. This journal follows three simple movements, with their traditional Latin names.
Why meditate
Psalm 1 describes the person who delights in God's word and meditates on it day and night. The aim is not more information. It is to know God, not only to know about him. Knowing a truth and being moved by it are different things. Meditation is the space where one becomes the other.
It sits between Bible study and prayer. Study tells you what the text says. Meditation stays with it, turning it over and talking it through with God. Prayer then grows out of what you have seen.
I Retentio: hold the truth
Get a clear grasp of the passage and keep it in front of you. Three ways in:
- Paraphrase the passage in your own words.
- Outline its sentences and clauses to see how they connect.
- Weigh each word. Stress one word at a time, or imagine it gone, and ask what it adds. "The Lord is my shepherd": not just any shepherd. "The Lord is my shepherd": present tense, now. "The Lord is my shepherd": personal.
Finish by writing down the principles the passage teaches.
II Contemplatio: look at God through it
Step back from the details and take in the whole. Ask questions that move from the text to God, and from God to your own life. You will not need all eight.
III Dilectio: delight
Some days the text comes alive and you see something you had missed. Some days it does not. Either way, write down what you receive. Then pray it back to God in praise, confession and requests.
Two things to remember
Christian meditation fills the mind with truth about God. It does not try to empty the mind, or to picture a reality of your own making.
Depth comes over time. Some sessions are rich and some are dry. Steady faithfulness matters more than any single day.
Bring your own Bible. Paste the passage from any translation you read.
