Scripture Meditation: Cassian on Rumination: Chewing the Cud of Scripture
Teaching on Scripture Meditation from John Cassian: Cassian on Rumination: Chewing the Cud of Scripture
This is a spiritual discipline on rumination and repetition, drawing on Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2-3 and Psalm 119:15.
John Cassian (d. 435) used the agricultural metaphor of rumination to describe Scripture meditation. He reported that the Egyptian monks "ruminate" on Scripture the way cattle chew their cud: "They constantly turn over in their minds the verses they have memorized, chewing them and extracting their nourishment throughout the day." This metaphor captures something essential: meditation is not a single act but a repeated process of returning to the same text.…
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