"the meditative reading of Scripture was understood by the first generations of monastic Christians to be an arduous physical activity, undertaken as penance and ascesis. By the labor of reading [(lectio divina)], the struggling ascetic might learn to purify his troublesome will and fortify himself against the unwholesome distractions of an incessant mental chattering (the logismoi, interpreted as demonic promptings).
". . . Meditative reading was [only] the first step in a long pilgrimage from the 'region of unlikeness' towards the condition in which the divine image would shine forth fully restored."
Carol Zaleski, "Attending to attention," in Faithful imagining: essays in honor of Richard R. Niebuhr, ed. Sang Hyun Lee, Wayne Proudfoot, and Albert Blackwell (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995), 140 (127-149). Zaleski gives a handy list of her authorities.
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