Meditating on scripture?

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elysianverse

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What’s that mean? I can understand meditating on Christ’s passion, but how is one to do it with respect to the ‘boring’ sections of the bible like numbers etc.? Also what does it mean to meditate - to imagine?

Elysian
 
elysianverse said:
What’s that mean? I can understand meditating on Christ’s passion, but how is one to do it with respect to the ‘boring’ sections of the bible like numbers etc.? Also what does it mean to meditate - to imagine?
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Oftentimes, meditating on Scripture is one step of lectio divina, the historical practice of “Divine Reading.”

This practice includes four steps:
lectio (reading): “looking on Holy Scripture with all one’s will and wit”
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meditatio (meditation): “a studious insearching with the mind to know what was before concealed through desiring proper skill”
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oratio (prayer): “a devout desiring of the heart to get what is good and avoid what is evil”
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contemplatio (contemplation): “the lifting up of the heart to God tasting somewhat of the heavenly sweetness and savour”
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The meditatio specifically involves this:
Now we meditate on what we have read, perhaps even reading it again, visualizing it and listening for the aspect of it that reveals the Divine Mysteries. We want the deeper, spiritual meanings of the words now, and read for its anagogocal (or “eschatalogical”) sense and its typical (or “allegorical”) sense – i.e., we consider types and anti-types, shadows and symbolism in order to understand the deeper reality the Holy Ghost intends to convey by arranging nature and history as He did, thereby inspiring the writer of the text to write as he did.(source)
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Hope that helps. 🙂
 
Sometimes those boring parts have hidden meanings in them. We find if we take the numbers of the encampments around the ark of the covenant for instance, and add them up and display them around the tent, we find the shape of a cross. The lineages often lead us to truths such as who the ancestors of someone was, or why it is important. etc. The bible can speak great truths to us if we open our minds to it.
 
Re: the boring parts, they’re boring if you don’t know the historical background or how they tie into things later on for Jesus and the Church, or all the other stuff going on. In other words, they’re more hard to understand than boring, per se. But you are allowed to pair harder stuff with easier stuff, or even skip it until you can understand more. Nobody is grading you on Scripture reading. (Unless you’re taking a class and nobody told us!)

There are some great Bible studies and programs out there to help you understand “boring bits” of the Bible. Fr. Mitch Pacwa’s audio series on “Old Testament Prophets” in EWTN’s audio library is very informative; so is Fr. Philips’ podcast series about the connection between the OT Temple sacrifices and St Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews (over at Our Lady of the Atonement Parish’s website - an old parish in our new Anglican Ordinariate); and so is the St. Paul Institute of Biblical Theology’s audio talk series on the connection between the OT Jewish festivals and the Catholic Sacraments. Oh, and a lot of those timeline outlines of what happens when in the Bible, like the one Scott Hahn did with Jeff Cavins, “Our Father’s Plan” (also in EWTN’s audio library online, I think).

If you read the early Church Fathers, you’ll learn more about how to understand the Bible figuratively, like number imagery, and a lot of stuff about how the early Christians read the Bible and integrated it into their lives (especially the Psalms).

But mostly, it’s just plugging away. Read anything in the Bible and keep doing it on a regular basis, and you’ll be letting God talk to you. He’s the best teacher, and you’ll find Him poking you quite a lot. Usually on moral issues, of course, or stuff you’d be smart or loving to do that you’re not doing. 🙂
 
Thanks.

I want bible reading to be a personal experience. When I read kings or numbers, I simply get information on which king did what … don’t feel like God is talking to me.
 
elysianverse said:
Thanks.

I want bible reading to be a personal experience. When I read kings or numbers, I simply get information on which king did what … don’t feel like God is talking to me.
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Well you have to find out the unviersal discourse of the book like for instance Book on Numbers and what is its relation with the New Testament, this is all about the Jews, the chosen people of God, preparing to enter the promised land and in the New Testament, all Christians preparing to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Meditating the message of the Old Testament and its fulfillment in the New Testament is surely not boring.

Besides, the Holy Scripture is not just intended to satisfy one’s own personal experience and its interpretation of the passages can not be made just to satisfy personal belief or expectation. You have to be aware that this is given for the Church not for an individual. If there is a hard passage, ask the Church which Christ founded.

Peace be to you.
 
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