"There are two means by which we may be led into the higher forms of prayer. One is Meditation, the other is Meditative Reading.
By meditative reading I mean the taking of some truths, either doctrinal or practical — the latter rather than the former — and reading them in this way: Take the truth which has presented itself to you, and read two or three lines, seeking to enter into the full meaning of the words, and go on no further so long as you find satisfaction in them; leave the place only when it becomes tasteless. After that, take another passage, and do the same, not reading more than half a page at once."
— Madame Guyon (1648–1717)✦ Two or Three Lines
Guyon describes a method so simple it barely qualifies as a method at all. Two or three lines. Enter the full meaning. Stay as long as there is satisfaction. Move on only when it becomes tasteless. Not a page. Not a chapter. Not a reading plan. A few lines, held until they have given everything they hold.
This is what the mornings with Bowen looked like — fourteen days, one meditation at a time, each one held until it had spoken fully. And now with Guyon herself — a few passages each morning, brought here not because they were assigned but because they caught the heart and would not let go.
"That is what I do."
"It is not so much from the amount read that we derive profit, as from the manner of reading. Those people who get through so much do not profit from it; the bees can only draw the juice from the flowers by resting on them, not by flying around them.
Much reading is more for scholastic than for spiritual knowledge; but in order to derive profit from spiritual books, we should read them in this way; and I am sure that this manner of reading accustoms us gradually to prayer, and gives us a deeper desire for it."
— Madame Guyon (1648–1717)"The bees can only draw the juice from the flowers by resting on them, not by flying around them."
— Madame Guyon · Not the amount read. The manner of reading.✦ Resting, Not Flying
The bee that flies from flower to flower in haste gathers nothing. It must rest — settle its full weight on the blossom, stay long enough for the nectar to be drawn. Reading Scripture and devotional writers works the same way. The soul that covers ground quickly may gain scholastic knowledge, but the juice — the spiritual nourishment, the nectar that becomes honey — comes only to the soul that rests.
And the fruit of reading this way: it accustoms us gradually to prayer and gives us a deeper desire for it. The reading does not replace prayer. It creates appetite for prayer. The bee does not rest on the flower for the flower's sake. It rests for the honey that the resting produces.
"That is why the pastors are so important to me — they help me with my meditation."
"Reading gives us a deep desire for prayer."
"The other way is Meditation, in which we should engage at a chosen time, and not in the hour given to reading. I think the way to enter into it is this: after having brought ourselves into the presence of God by a definite act of faith, we should read something substantial, not so much to reason upon it, as to fix the attention, observing that the principal exercise should be the presence of God, and that the subject should rather fix the attention than exercise reason."
— Madame Guyon (1648–1717)✦ The Principal Exercise
Guyon makes a distinction that reorders everything: the subject of the reading is not the point. The presence of God is the point. The reading exists to fix the attention — to give the bee a flower to rest on — so that the heart can be in the presence. The subject serves the presence, not the other way around.
This is why Bowen and Guyon and James Smith and Chambers are not the destination of the morning devotion. They are the flower. God is the honey. The reading fixes the attention. The presence does the work.
Rest on the Flower
Two or three lines. Stay as long as there is satisfaction. Move on when it becomes tasteless. The bee draws juice by resting, not flying. The manner of reading matters more than the amount.
Deeper Desire for Prayer
Meditative reading does not replace prayer — it creates appetite for prayer. The reading accustoms us gradually to the presence of God. The flower leads to the honey.
The Principal Exercise
The subject fixes the attention. The presence of God is the principal exercise. Bowen, Guyon, Smith, Chambers — they are the flowers. God is the honey. The reading serves the presence.