Rupert of Deutz and ‘holy reading’

A leisurely approach to the text, the cultivation of a quiet receptiveness which allows the Holy Spirit to speak in a man's heart as it will, patient reflection upon every detail of expression; these had long been the features of the ‘holy reading’ (lectio divina) of monastic life. At its best it led to a sharp and lively perception of the text and its meaning.

In the opening chapter of his Proslogion, written two decades before the end of the eleventh century, Anselm of Bec insists upon the importance of putting aside the distractions of business and creating a quiet place in the mind where there is peace to think about God. Rupert of Deutz, abbot of the Benedictine house at Deutz near Cologne from about 1120, emphasises the same need. He complains to Cuno, abbot of Siegberg (where he had been a master), that he has lately had no peace in which to think or write because of the cares of administration and the large volume of correspondence which has arisen in response to his published works. He compares himself to Zacchaeus, small of stature and weak, whom the crowds jostled and impeded, so that he could not force his way through to see Jesus (Luke 19:5).

Writing on that most difficult prophet Ezekiel, Rupert points out that the Holy Spirit had previously spoken only in the ears of the prophets, but in Ezekiel's prophecy we find pictures painted, ‘certain images, with which he may instruct more intimately the eyes of those who see’.