Ruminatio: Meditating on Scripture - Chewing the Word
Chewing the Word - Ruminatio: Meditating on Scripture
In the ancient monastic tradition, there is a beautiful practice called Ruminatio.
Ruminatio means “chewing” or “ruminating” on the Word of God. The image is wonderfully simple: just as we chew our food slowly so our bodies can receive its nourishment, we return to a short phrase of Scripture again and again, allowing it to nourish our hearts.
For me, this is the beauty of meditating on Scripture. I don't have to produce a profound thought or find an answer to every question. Sometimes, one little word is enough. I turn it over in my heart, listen, and let God meet me there.
Long before I learned about Lectio Divina through the Domestic Church movement, or discovered other forms of Christian meditation, I think I was already practicing something very close to what the ancient monks called ruminatio - slowly “chewing” on the Word.
I had no idea that this had a name.😊
I had discovered, in my own very ordinary way, that some words of Scripture could bring me back to peace and joy. I used these beautiful, deep sentences from the Bible - like promises, declarations, little pieces of truth strong enough to carry me when my own thoughts were not carrying me very well.
Some of them feel almost like a two-edged sword Hebrews 4,12
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword...”
I could repeat a single verse again and again while walking, lying awake in the middle of the night, resting during an illness, sitting in pain, or simply going about the ordinary things of the day.
Sometimes I would say it aloud. Sometimes only in my mind.
Usually I wasn't even trying to “meditate” on it. I was simply holding onto the words.
And perhaps that is one of the simplest forms of ruminatio: letting a word from Scripture stay with you long enough to become more than a sentence you have read.
The Jesus Prayer
The Jesus Prayer is a short prayer repeated again and again:
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
You can repeat it slowly, coordinated with your breathing, too, not as a technique that magically produces peace, but as a way of giving your wandering mind one gentle place to return.
The Jesus Prayer has a long history in Eastern Christian spirituality, particularly within the tradition of hesychasm, and it became associated with praying continually and attentively in the presence of God.
The prayer rope, or chotki, is often used to help keep count of repeated prayers. Prayer ropes can have different numbers of knots or beads - including 33, 50, 100, or more so the 100-bead form is one variation rather than a fixed rule.
There is something beautiful here that I recognize in my own experience: the heart sometimes needs a small handful of words that it can return to. Not because repeating them is a formula, but sometimes the same truth needs to be heard by us more than once.
Perhaps this is also where psychology meets prayer. When we slowly repeat words that feel safe, meaningful, and true, they can become familiar not only to our minds but to our whole embodied experience. Over time, a truth we have returned to again and again can become something we instinctively reach for when fear, stress, or uncertainty rises - almost as if the body has learned the words along with the heart.
My own Little Collection of Scripture Verses
And so, over the years, I have had my own little collection of Scripture verses - words I have “chewed” on for different reasons and in different seasons. Words I have carried with me when I felt incapable, overwhelmed, or simply not enough: Philippians 4,13
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
When I needed to remember that mercy was not far away:
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
The Jesus Prayer itself is not a Bible verse in this exact form, but it brings together biblical words and themes, especially the cry for mercy found in the Gospels, such as the prayer of the blind man in Mark 10,47
“Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”
When weakness became the very place where I had to stop pretending I was strong 2 Corinthians 12,9
“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
And sometimes, when fear or uncertainty tried to convince me that I was alone - Romans 8:31
“If God be for us, who can be against us?”
I love this one because it doesn't require me to solve the whole situation. It simply turns my face back toward God. And that, I think, is what I was doing all those years without knowing the word ruminatio. I was taking a sentence from Scripture and carrying it with me. Letting it meet me where I actually was - on a walk, in the dark, in pain, in gratitude and in joy, while washing dishes or while waiting. While my mind was racing in twenty different directions, I repeated them - my favourite words from Scripture. When I had no beautiful prayer of my own, I simply borrowed God's words and gave them back to Him.
Perhaps that is why these little sentences became so precious to me. I was simply staying with a Word that had already found me - for me, it is a way of praying as I go through the day.
Chewing the Word
In the monasteries, monks would often memorize Scripture and quietly repeat it throughout the day, not to analyze every word or rush toward an explanation, but to let the Word become part of their inner life. A phrase might accompany them while they worked, walked, or rested in the silence of prayer.
Ruminatio is giving Scripture time to speak to us.
We take a word, turn it over in our hearts, listen to its sound, notice what stirs within us, and gently return to it. Sometimes a word brings comfort; sometimes it reveals a wound, awakens gratitude, or invites us to see something differently. And sometimes nothing seems to happen at all. That is all right, too. We are not trying to force an insight. We are simply making room for the Word to take root.
“Do not be afraid.” (Luke 1,30)
Imagine sitting quietly with these words spoken by the angel Gabriel to Mary.
Do not be afraid.
Read them slowly. Then stay with just one word.
Do not…
What am I holding on to that God is gently asking me to release?
Be…
What does it mean to be here, in this moment, with God?
Afraid…
What fear have I been carrying alone? Can I bring it into His presence?
Then return to the whole phrase:
Do not be afraid.💛
Perhaps you hear it differently now, not as a command to stop feeling fear, but as an invitation to remain with God in the midst of it.
You might whisper the words a few times, breathe quietly, or simply sit with them. If another word or feeling arises, welcome it without needing to explain it.
And when you finish, carry that little phrase into your day. Let it accompany you as you make coffee, tend your garden, or face something that feels uncertain.
That is Ruminatio: meditating on Scripture, allowing a few words of God to travel from the page into the heart, and from the heart into everyday life.
So perhaps we could take a little walk together. You and me, a Bible verse tucked quietly into our hearts.💛
Imagine us on that quiet forest path, flowers growing all around us, our baskets on our arms, and one little sentence from Scripture tucked into our hearts. We can simply walk, talk, listen, and let the words come back to us again and again. Maybe today one verse will be enough. Maybe just one little phrase. We can carry it with us through the rest of the day and see where God meets us in it.
I would love to walk this way with you - woman to woman, heart to heart, one little Word at a time. And who knows? Perhaps, somewhere along the way, you will notice that the words you have been repeating are beginning to repeat themselves in you.
Thank you for walking with me through these words and for spending a little time here at The Blessed Word.💛
Until our next walk...
Blessings & Hugs, BE 💕
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