July 2011
"Guigo II and the Development of Lectio Divina"
By Joe Colletti, PhD
Guigo II was a Carthusian monk who died several centuries ago in 1193. His two most renowned writings are the Ladder of Monks and the Twelve Meditations. The Ladder of Monks, which is subtitled "a letter on the contemplative life," is considered one of the first, if not the first, description of the four steps that make up the mystical tradition of Lectio Divina as we know it today. His ladder consists of four rungs termed in Latin as lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio.
According to Guigo, "Reading seeks, meditation finds, prayer asks, contemplation feels." He further notes that
"Reading puts as it were whole food into your mouth; meditation chews it and breaks it down; prayer finds its savour; contemplation is the sweetness that so delights and strengthens. Reading is like the bark, the shell; meditation like the pith, the nut; prayer is in the desiring asking; and contemplation is in the delight of the great sweetness. Reading is the first ground that that precedes and leads one into meditation; meditation seeks busily, and also with deep thought digs and delves deeply to find that treasure; and because it cannot be attained by itself alone, then he sends us into prayer that is mighty and strong. And so prayer rises to God, and there one finds the treasure one so fervently desires, that is the sweetness and delight of contemplation. And then contemplation comes and yields the harvest of the labour of the other three through a sweet heavenly dew, that the soul drinks in delight and joy."
An on-line version of the Ladder of Monks can be found at http://www.umilta.net/ladder.html.
The Twelve Meditations focuses on the interior life and psychological hindrances to solitude. Guigo holds up Christ as the exemplar of how one can lead a solidarity life in the midst of an active world. I do not know of a web site that displays the Twelve Meditations. However, both the Twelve Meditations and the Ladder of Monks have been translated in a book that is available today entitled "Guigo II: Ladder of Monks and Twelve Mediations."
What follows is a meditation or a brief passage that I chose from each of Guigo's Twelve Meditations. I encourage you to read them and practice the steps of Lectio Divina. Click here for the 12 brief meditations.
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