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Lectio Divina

A recipe

An old monastic way of reading slowly that works on any text at all: read, ruminate, respond, rest.

You need
A short passagehalf a pageUninterrupted timetwenty minutesSomething to write withoptional
Do · 1 of 2
Read it once at ordinary speed, just to know what's there.
Read it again slowly, aloud if you can. Stop at the first phrase that catches — don't finish the passage.
Do · 2 of 2
Stay with that phrase. Repeat it and turn it over. Don't analyse it, and don't look anything up.
Stop repeating. Sit with whatever the phrase left behind, without words.
Rest. Nothing more is asked of the reading.
Watch for

The urge to finish the passage. Finishing is the habit this method exists to interrupt — if you got to the end of the page, you read it the ordinary way.

Keep

The phrase, not the passage. Most days you'll carry one line and forget everything around it.

Now

Half a page. One phrase. Then stop.

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