Photo: The cover of 'Lectio Divina: Revelation and prophecy' by Barbara Birch,
Lectio Divina: Revelation and prophecy
By Barbara Birch
Barbara Birch grew up in the mainstream Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in the 1950s, but left in her teenage years. She went on to write or edit multidisciplinary books such as Creating Classrooms of Peace in English Language Teaching. She found Quakers in 1985. Among Friends, she was inspired to research the Bible that she didn’t understand in her youth. She began to practise sacred reading and writing using Thomas Kelly’s essay ‘The Light Within,’ from his book A Testament of Devotion.
So what is Lectio Divina? ‘Sacred reading and writing are slow and deliberate prayer practices, starting from a sacred text and leading to deep personal transformation. Lectio divina is one form of sacred reading and prayer practiced among Christian religious orders for hundreds of years.’
Linking this to Quakers, Birch writes: ‘Although there is no direct reference to monastic reading among the first generation of Friends, they did read deeply and devotionally with Spirit within… Isaac Penington (1616–79) described that way of reading when he wrote, “And the end of words is to bring men to the knowledge of things beyond what words can utter. So, learn of the Lord to make a right use of the Scriptures: which is by esteeming them in their right place, and prizing that above them which is above them.”’
‘I do not always need to use words.’
Here is a passage that displays Birch’s multidisciplinary learning and experience: ‘There is controversy about whether Jesus was literate or illiterate, because peasant boys like Jesus would not ordinarily have learned to read… However, illiterate people are highly intelligent and capable, so I imagine that Jesus was well educated in the Torah and rabbinic commentaries even if he could not read the scrolls. What was Jesus like? For one thing, he was multilingual, a native speaker of Aramaic, along with Hebrew, some Greek and possibly some Latin.’
These passages summarise the ultimate value of Birch’s book for me: ‘At present, I am not able to have an I/thou conversation with the Divine because it is dualistic. To me, the Divine is a cosmic and incarnate noninterventionist force of being, Presence, Satyagraha, Love, or Oneness, and I intentionally keep nonduality out of being… My sense of attunement is a different kind of conversation in relationship to the Divine Within.’
Then: ‘Repetition is a comforting and soothing soundtrack while going through my day, but I do not always need to use words, and the feeling stays as an undercurrent to my existence, attuning me to the Divine … [T]urn in humble wonder to the Light, faint though it may be. Keep contact with the outer world of sense and meanings. Here is no discipline in absent-mindedness. Walk and talk and work and laugh with your friends. But behind the scenes, keep up the life of simple prayer and inward worship.’
Birch is now working on a book to be titled Scriptio Divina, starting from her readings of Rufus Jones.
