“So how do you pray Napoleon?”
How I do Lectio Divina
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This is my layman’s guide to Lectio Divina - in other words, it is just the way I do it. Everything is bound up in it, discursive prayer, vocal prayer, mental prayer, reading, (in fact that’s what Lectio is, sacred reading) imaginative prayer, etc. Teresa of Avila’s divisions or stages of prayer are all contained therein, so the Carmelite form of mental prayer is adapted easily to this school of prayer. Mental prayer, meditation - its in there - no matter what they tell you. I had a priest tell me once the rosary was a poor substitute for mental prayer. Get over it. It’s the most contemplative prayer on earth.
So Lectio is basically, reading, tasting the word - extracting all of its fruit as it were; meditating the word - which is akin to ruminating (chewing) and savoring the word. Which leads to prayer - our conversation with Christ - through petitions, reflections, whatever - conversation. Sometimes simply repeating the word or expressions of love is the only converse. Then contemplation of the word. Contemplation is a grace from God, we can only prepare ourselves for it. In the process of Lectio Divina, it may be inclusive in the prayer part, especially when the soul is quiet enough to apprehend the presence of God, or enter into a deeper recollection of the spirit, after quieting the senses. Taking from the prayer either a word or remembrance of the prayer, even an ejaculation, to ponder in one’s heart throughout the day.
That is what I have been attempting to illustrate in my series of the Station of the Cross. I have only used the form of Lectio Divina to illustrate how it may be practiced.
The layout: 
First is Lectio or reading.
Recollected reading, repetitive reading. (Reading you familiarized yourself with the night before.) Reading that becomes a listening to the Word, a savouring of the Word.
Second, Meditatio or meditation. Not my meditations, but those of the one praying - you will have your own meditations on the reading. Sometimes meditation is simply repeating or fixing one’s attention upon the Word, ‘as you would a lamp shining in a dark place’ as St. Peter says.
Third is Oratio, or prayer. Vocal, mental, what have you. The Word speaks to you, as “deep calls unto deep” - it cannot but return to God from the depths of our soul; therefore, we respond with our words, desires, aspirations - even groaning in the Holy Spirit who makes our petitions and intercedes for us.
Fourth is Contemplatio, or contemplation. Never mind about stages of prayer, mansions, and consolations, realize there is a common mystic prayer accessible to all. Many experience it after Communion in profound recollection of the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Reading the Word nourishes this communion, extends it as it were, from one communion to the next. Allow His power at work in us to accomplish infinitely more than we can ask or desire. Throughout the day, return to this recollection. Let it accompany us, and from time to time, return to the Word we fed upon in our prayer, or ‘activate’ it through repetition of a prayer, a word, the Holy Name, what have you.
How can the Rosary be like Lectio?
Most people know the mysteries by heart, and even the scriptures associated with each mystery. (If not, maybe we should.) At the beginning of each decade we announce, or as it were, mentally read the mystery. We enter into the mystery in and through our consideration, or meditating upon it. We then continue with the prayers, the oratio. As in the Jesus prayer, frequent repetition somehow self activates the prayer within us, thus leading to a form of contemplation. That is, contemplative awareness of God, Christ, the Mother of God, and deep recollection of spirit.
Anyway - that is what I call Lectio or mental prayer, and it is how I pray. Though my Stations are not pure Lectio Divina, it bears something of the form of it. Of course, I’m no expert on prayer, nor a contemplative, but I think many people waste time over the ’how to’ stuff, as well as the stages of prayer. Just pray, don’t worry.
