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How We Read: Lectio, Luther, and the Daily Lectionary

Welcome. Each day on these pages we read Holy Scripture slowly, pray it, and hold on to it through the day. You don't need training to do this. You need the Word, a quiet few minutes, and a willingness to listen. This page explains where the practice comes from, how Martin Luther taught Christians to read, and where our daily readings come from.

An old way of reading

Lectio divina is Latin for "divine reading" or "holy reading." It names an old Christian habit: reading Scripture slowly and prayerfully, not to get through it, but to be fed by it.

Early roots. Christians read Scripture this way long before anyone gave it a name. About the year 235, Origen of Alexandria wrote to his student Gregory and urged him to give himself to the "divine reading" of the Scriptures, and added that "what is most necessary for understanding divine things is prayer" (Letter to Gregory, in the public domain Ante-Nicene Fathers translation). In the 300s the monks of the Egyptian desert carried Scripture with them through the day, learning the Psalms by heart and repeating them while they worked. John Cassian, who visited them, wrote down the advice of Abbot Isaac to keep one short verse of a Psalm always on the lips and in the heart (Conferences, 10.10).

Monastic roots. The Rule of Saint Benedict, a guide for monastic life, sets apart fixed times each day for manual labor and fixed times for lectio divina. Chapter 48 arranges the hours of reading by season. It asks the brothers to give Sunday to holy reading. In Lent it has each brother receive a book from the library and read it straight through. Benedict also asks seniors to walk through the house during reading times, so that no one wastes the hour in idleness or chatter. Holy reading was not a hobby. It was part of the ordinary day.

Guigo II's ladder. In the twelfth century a Carthusian prior named Guigo II wrote a letter on the contemplative life, dated to about 1148 to 1151 and known as the Scala claustralium, the "Ladder of Monks." He tells how, while working with his hands, he began to think about the spiritual work of a Christian, and four steps came to mind: lectio (reading), meditatio (meditation), oratio (prayer), and contemplatio (contemplation). He pictured them as the rungs of a ladder, with its foot on the earth and its top in the clouds. Reading, he said, puts solid food in the mouth, meditation chews it, prayer finds its savor, and contemplation is the sweetness itself.

How Luther wrote about it

Martin Luther was formed in that monastic world, and he never stopped urging Christians to read the Bible. He spoke to the practice in two writings that still help us.

The 1539 preface. When the first volume of the Wittenberg edition of his German writings appeared in 1539, Luther wrote a preface that mostly asks readers not to let his books crowd out the Bible. He wanted fewer books and more reading of Scripture. Then he describes what he calls the right way to study theology, which he says King David teaches in Psalm 119. He finds three rules running all through that Psalm: Oratio, Meditatio, Tentatio.

• Oratio (prayer). Luther says to begin by giving up on our own cleverness. Kneel down in your little room and ask God, with real humility and earnestness, to give you His Holy Spirit through His dear Son, so that the Spirit may enlighten you, lead you, and give you understanding. David does this all through Psalm 119, asking again and again for God to teach him.
• Meditatio (meditation). For Luther, meditation is not only thinking quietly in the heart. It means working the spoken and written words over outwardly as well: reading them and reading them again, with careful attention to what the Holy Spirit means by them. He warns against growing tired of a text or thinking that once or twice is enough. God does not give His Spirit apart from the outward Word, he says, which is why He told us to write, preach, read, hear, and sing it.
• Tentatio (trial). Luther's German word is Anfechtung: assault, testing, spiritual struggle. He calls it the touchstone. Trial teaches us not only to know and understand God's Word, but to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, and how comforting it is. He adds that the devil's attacks and his enemies' pressure drove him to seek and love God's Word, and so made him a real theologian.

Put Luther's list beside Guigo's and you can see the difference. Luther begins with prayer, not reading, because we cannot open the Word by our own wits. And where Guigo's ladder ends in contemplation, Luther ends with trial, the everyday place where the Word is tested and proves true.

A Simple Way to Pray (1535). Some years earlier, Luther's friend and barber, Peter Beskendorf, asked him how to pray. Luther answered with a little book describing how he himself prayed. He recommends beginning and ending the day with prayer, and he walks through the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, along with the Ten Commandments and the Creed, as words to pray slowly and with full attention. It is a humble, practical book, written for a working man.

How each day is arranged

Each daily page opens with a short box called Daily Lectio:

• Oratio (prayer): It is a good practice to begin on our knees, asking God for His Holy Spirit so we understand His Word.
• Meditatio (meditation): It is a good practice to read the Word aloud with repetition. This means more than thinking. Read the text aloud over and over, comparing and listening for what the Spirit means. Consider even rereading in another translation. The Psalms often pause with the word Selah, which many understand as a call to stop and reflect. That is the spirit here.
• Tentatio (trial): This is where God's Word is proven true. This teaches us how true and comforting God's Word is.

Then each reading follows the same order: its picture, a short prayer (Oratio), the full reading with time to read it aloud and notice what speaks to you, the Law and the Gospel, and a prayer of confession and thanks (Meditatio), and finally a word for times of trial with a closing prayer (Tentatio). In the evening that closing prayer is an evening prayer.

Where the readings come from

Our daily readings follow the daily lectionary of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS), as printed in Lutheran Service Book (LSB).

Lutheran Service Book. LSB is the hymnal and service book of the LCMS, published by Concordia Publishing House, which calls it the choice hymnal of the Missouri Synod. Besides its hymns, it holds the orders of the Divine Service, the daily prayer offices, psalms pointed for singing, and the lectionaries that set the readings for Sundays and festivals. It also includes a daily lectionary for personal and family reading (pages 299 to 304 in the pew edition).

lutherans.church. We follow that lectionary day by day through the Lutheran Daily Lectionary at lutherans.church. The site says it is based on the lectionary prescribed in Lutheran Service Book. It gives Old Testament, New Testament, and morning and evening Psalm readings for each day. It is clear that it is not affiliated with the LCMS, though it hopes to support the church's mission, and it encourages readers to own a copy of LSB and to find an LCMS congregation. We are grateful for it, and we credit it on every page.

The Small Catechism. Luther wrote the Small Catechism in 1529, after visiting the congregations of Saxony in 1528 and finding that many people, and even some pastors, did not know the basics of the faith. It is a short summary of the Christian faith in six chief parts: the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, Holy Baptism, Confession, and the Sacrament of the Altar. It was written to be learned by heart and taught at home, a little at a time. It has been called "the Layman's Bible," because it gathers the heart of Scripture into a few pages. We lean on it gladly, and the prayers on these pages try to stay within its teaching. You can read it online at catechism.cph.org.

About the LCMS. The LCMS describes itself as a mission-oriented, Bible-based, confessional Christian church body, headquartered in St. Louis. You can learn more at lcms.org.

The translation

Scripture on these pages is the King James Version, which is in the public domain. Every reading also links to Bible Gateway, in the KJV and in other translations, so you can compare them and read in the one you know best.

An invitation

These pages are no substitute for the Church. God gives His gifts in the gathered congregation, where His Word is preached and His Sacraments are given. If you don't have a church home, we warmly invite you to find a Lutheran congregation of the LCMS near you and worship with us.

Find an LCMS church near you

My own church home is Peace Lutheran Church, McMurray, PA.

References

These are the pages we opened while writing this page.

• Rule of Saint Benedict, chapter 48, "The Daily Manual Labor": pressbooks.palni.org
• Guigo II, The Ladder of Monks (selections, Latin and English, tr. L. Dysinger): www.ldysinger.com
• Guigo II, Epistola de vita contemplativa (Scala claustralium), catalog record with date 1148 to 1151 (IRHT Bibale): bibale.irht.cnrs.fr
• Martin Luther, Preface to the first volume of the Wittenberg edition of his German writings, 1539 (German text): www.checkluther.com
• Martin Luther, Preface to the First Part of His German Works, 1539 (English, Works of Martin Luther, vol. 1, 1915, selection): en.wikisource.org
• Eric Lund, introduction to Luther's A Simple Way to Pray (1535), Fortress Press: ms.fortresspress.com
• Concordia Publishing House, Lutheran Service Book: music.cph.org
• Concordia Publishing House, "Daily Prayer for Individuals and Families" (LSB excerpt naming the daily lectionary on pages 299 to 304): communication.cph.org
• About the Lutheran Daily Lectionary, lutherans.church: www.lutherans.church
• Luther's Small Catechism online, Concordia Publishing House: catechism.cph.org
• Rev. Jonathon T. Krenz, "The Large and Small Catechisms of Dr. Luther," LCMS: resources.lcms.org
• About Us, The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod: www.lcms.org
• Find a church, LCMS Locator: locator.lcms.org
• Origen, Letter to Gregory (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 9, public domain translation), New Advent: www.newadvent.org
• John Cassian, Conferences, 10.10, New Advent: www.newadvent.org
• Andrew R. Jones, "The Cycle of the Christian Life: Oratio, Meditatio, Tentatio," Concordia Publishing House blog (quotes the 1539 preface from Luther's Works, vol. 34): blog.cph.org
• Beliefs, The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (on the Small Catechism): www.lcms.org

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