Praying with Scripture
Keep in mind, first, that if you spend more than a few minutes paying attention to any passage in the Bible, you will be praying. For you will be listening to words that God guarantees, that God makes His own.
Hence, the most natural way to pray with Scripture is to read it attentively and devoutly. You have occasion to do this on Sundays, sitting and then standing reverently to listen to the Word of God. In old times, the monks gathered each day in their chapter house to listen to a chapter of Scripture, read over and over again until each one had gotten up and left, ready to think about what he had heard.
So, to pray with Scripture: decide what page or pages you intend to read. Find a quiet place where you can be attentive to the reading and reverent in the presence of the Word of God. Read the passage, moving your lips or whispering it (so as to distinguish this reading from the many other kinds of reading you must do). Where your own spirit requires it, pause, reread, repeat words or phrases over and over, imagine what you are reading about, wonder at this great Truth, praise and thank the One who moves you, ask God or tell God whatever comes into your spirit. When your time is over, stand and recite the Our Father.
Very many people have found this useful. They find that they listen to the Word of God and let the Spirit instruct them. They find themselves resting in the Word of God, and in God's own Self.
Three Manners of Praying with Scripture
This praying with Scripture sometimes falls out into three distinguishable manners. People who pray find these three ways overlapping and fading into one another. Some are helped, however, by knowing that they like to pray in one of the three manners, or at least like to start their praying in this or that manner. Here is a sketch of these three manners of praying with Scripture.
The First Way: Contemplation.
Sometimes when a hiker tells you about her latest mountain escapade, you can almost smell the fir and hemlock trees and practically feel as tired as she. You were absorbed in her story, seeing and hearing and smelling what she sensed, and feeling excitement and fear and delight as she felt them. Your hiker friend has helped you contemplate. We do precisely this every time we read a story or a novel; we let ourselves be placed into the event-we are there.
This is contemplation. We are perfectly right to contemplate this way, because all things are present in God, who is not limited by time. So when we go into God and remember events in Jesus' life, we and those events are both present in God. The manner of contemplating involves little effort, if we allow our fantasy freedom. We imagine ourselves walking with Jesus down a road, feeling the heat of the dust and hearing the buzz of a desert afternoon. We enter into the excitement of the Samaritan woman, to whom Jesus said first, "I am He." We lie cold on the stone with Lazarus and then feel the power of Jesus' voice resonating through our bones. We talk with Peter, let Jesus wash our feet, beg Him not to leave us. And in the end, we apply to our own selves and our own lives what we have felt and experienced.
The Second Way: Meditation.
Suppose you face a serious decision whether to report something you saw to your superior. You go to a friend for help. You describe to him what you saw, in detail, and then you interpret its significance. He might ask you some questions, wondering whether he has events straight. And then he will think about what you should do. Both you and he are meditating. For meditating on an event means to recall what happened, vividly and in detail, and then to try to figure out what the event means and what you might need to do about it.
When we meditate the Scriptures, we enter into an event in Jesus' life, or in some other Biblical person's life, and recall it vividly and in detail, though without "getting lost" in the story. Judas approaches Jesus and kisses Him. We feel astounded that a friend could do that, but we may remember that Judas was very interested in politics. We look into Judas's personality-- "he was a thief" --and feel amazement that his desire for money could end up leading him to this. Did Jesus choose badly? Or did Judas, well chosen, cold-bloodedly betray His Lord? Then we sense how many of the rest of us have given Jesus that kiss. So, moving back and forth from events to reflections, we apply what we have meditated on to our own lives.
The Third Way: Consideration.
The writers of past ages searched the pages of Scripture for sentences and events that spoke to their own lives. They were finding the "spiritual meaning" of Scripture.
We consider the Scriptures when we work out in some detail how they apply to our life world and ourselves. We can consider, for example, that a lily does not choose where to grow and neither do we. A lily does not decide what kind of soil it will be planted in; we do not decide what culture we will grow up in, speaking what language and believing in what God. A lily does not choose its color; neither do we-physically and in personality. And so on: as God creates the lily and makes it more splendid than a king in his robes of state, so God creates me and makes me splendid.
This last manner is a very active kind of praying. The earlier manners require that we be more at ease, and let Scripture pray in us, as it were. But the last word is this: The Word of God is a living word, and will speak to us if we will only listen.
More Detailed Suggestions for Praying with the Scriptures
Beforehand, find the passage you will pray with. When you open the book, be aware that you are in the presence of the Living Word, the One who guarantees all that is written.
Now, first, read through the whole passage slowly, moving your lips or even reading softly out loud (to distinguish this from reading reports or newspapers).
Then, second, put the book aside and from memory write down words or phrases that stay with you. (If you can recall none, check the text or read it once again, then jot down what impresses you.)
Third, take each of the words or phrases you have jotted down and think about it. What does it mean? Who said it? What was the speaker feeling? To whom was the word or phrase addressed? While you are considering this way, you may think of God in the third person.
Fourth, all along, or as you are coming to the end, think about what this all means to you: to your personal history, your life world, your life, your self.
Finally, end this way: Consciously gather up your thoughts and then turn to God our Lord. Now think of God as "You." Tell God what you thought about, and feel in God's presence what you have felt. What would you give to God? What do you want of God?
In general, you do not "finish" a passage. A passage is not an assignment; it is a place to find God. Sometimes, you will find almost no meaning in a passage; then, beg God for insight and a tender heart, and stay with the passage as long as you can.
Any passage where you find tremendous meaning, and any passage where you find nothing but dust and boredom-you need to return to these until you know you have done with it. Then go on to another. Praying Scripture has nothing to do with "getting through" passages and books; it has everything to do with letting the meaning and the values of each single word sink into your life.
Excerpted from: Joseph A. Tetlow, S.J.
Choosing Christ in the World
(St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources)