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Cistercian life at Nový Dvůr

Lectio divina

“Listen willingly to the holy readings and apply yourself frequently to prayer.”

Saint Benedict, Rule for Monks, Chapter 4

“Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Thus the brothers ought to consecrate certain hours to manual work and the rest to the reading of divine things.”

Saint Benedict, Rule for Monks, Chapter 48

This is a sort of reading without haste, involving the whole of the person and helping him to enter into the relationship with God. It is a reading without haste in the sense that one does not seek to get to the end of certain number of pages, or even to the end of the first page. We are not in search of information... the value of lectio divina is not in the new ideas that it could give us, but in the person it can help us become... It is a reading practiced in an atmosphere of retreat, woven in prayer. It is a directed reading, oriented towards the communion with God, a “being with.” Here it is not a matter of reflection but of consentment (Dom Ambrose).