LECTIO DIVINA returning back home Chapter Six (continued) Monastic library catalogs of the medieval period reveal that nearly every monastery owned at least one copy of some writing of Origen, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose and St. Augustine among the corpus of the Church Fathers. The importance of the patristic writers is in their commentaries on the Bible and the science of the spiritual life and its theology and practice. All of this is found in the medieval monastic vocabulary and its terminology in the notion of "theoria" which is not translated as "theory" but rather, as "prayer". The medieval change in meaning of terms is also found in the word "metanies" which during the Middle Ages meant to bow before the altar or to offer penance for since by kneeling. The orginal biblical meaning of "metanoeo" found 34 times in the Greek New Testament means to "repent" in the sense of "returning back home". Western monks took the Greek terms from the Eastern monastic tradition on which all monasticism is firmly founded and developed them with Western nuanced meaning. The same is true for the term "philosophia". Western monks share this term with our Eastern brethren. "The Greek Fathers had defined the monk's life as "philosophy according to Christ" and "the only true philosophy," or even simply as "philosophy". (128). Western monks often speak of "philosophia caelestis" or the philosophy of heaven that allows humanity to discern wisdom and live according to reason in the Light of Christ. Lectio divina is the discernment of wisdom and rationality revealed by God in His divine scriptures. Jean Leclercq, O.S.B., The Love of Learning and the Desire For God. A Study of Monastic Culture. (NY: Fordham University Press, 1961, 1974) ISBN 0-8232-0406-5 * * * _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!