Start your morning with Biblical meditation.

This is a Markdown-based Shortcut for iOS and Mac that steps you through the Lectio Divina meditation based on the technique outlined from the C.S. Lewis Foundation. Through a series of prompts you will pray, meditate, reflect, and apply. The Shortcut will guide you through these steps and prompts, allowing you to focus on journaling your thoughts and experiences.

As you study, your progress is saved via iCloud Drive and you can pick up where you left off on another Apple device. You can opt in to log Mindfulness Minutes in the Health app based on how long your study went from start to finish.

When you are done, you can save a specially-formatted version of your writings into Day One, Bear, or Craft, or share as plain Markdown into your favorite note taking app.

When the Shortcut first launches, you will be guided through a first-run setup that allows the user to determine if they want the YouVersion Bible app to auto-open, what note taking apps to quick-save to, if the Shortcut can check for updates, and if the user wishes to log Mindfulness minutes. Once set up, the Shortcut will run and prompt you to follow each step in the Lectio Divina study.

Features

Log your thoughts and findings as you read scripture
Save your writings to Day One, Bear, Markdown, or Rich Text
Progress saves as you go (if you close the app at any time, it will pick up where you left off)
Progress saves across devices through iCloud
Log Mindfulness Minutes to the Health app based on how long your study was (only available on iPhone)
Check for new version updates once a week
Use Markdown to format your notes

Requirements

If you’ve enabled “open Bible app,” you need to download the YouVersion Bible app.
If you’ve enabled “Mindfulness focus,” you need to have added the Mindfulness focus in your device’s settings.

Options

Enable Mindfulness focus on launch
Automatically open the YouVersion Bible app on launch
Enable logging Mindfulness Minutes in the Health App
Enable or disable automatic check for updates
Set your preferred “save” apps

How to Install

Download the Shortcut above. Tap the “Add Shortcut” button in the sheet that pops up.

If you’re upgrading from an earlier version, tap on the “Replace” option.

Find the Shortcut you just added in the Shortcuts gallery.

Tap and hold on the Shortcut until a menu pops up. Tap the “Share” button.

Tap on the “Add to Home Screen” option in the Share Sheet that appears.

Adjust the Shortcut to your specifications and then tap “Add” in the top right.

How to Use

On your first run you’ll have to complete the first-run setup. You can always run this again later.
After first run, opening the app will immediately start the study.
Follow the prompts as you study. Whenever you move onto the next step, your progress is saved.
The prompt on screen is the area of study you should focus on. Tapping “OK” or “Done” will advance you to the next section. Tapping “Cancel” will stop the Shortcut.
If you wish to pause on a section and would not like a prompt on the screen, you can swipe it up to close it.

Gallery

FAQ

Why is this asking me to connect to lectiodivina.andreasjr.com?

This should only happen if you’ve opted in for automatic updates! This is just Apple verifying you want to connect to my server to check for updates. Nothing of yours gets sent to my server. The app just reads a link to determine if the server version is newer.

Where does my stuff go?

Nowhere! Everything is saved to your iCloud Drive, in the Shortcuts folder under “Lectio Divina.” Nothing is shared to our servers. Your entry is only shared if you choose to share it.

Can I study on my iPad and still log Mindfulness Minutes?

You can! As long as you have iCloud Sync enabled, once you’ve completed your study on your iPad, run the Shortcut from your iPhone. Your start and end times are recorded, and the Shortcut will be able to detect if you’re on an iPhone and need to log your minutes.

I’m getting an error when this Shortcut runs.

If you enabled the Mindfulness Focus auto-switch feature and are receiving an error, you might not have added the Mindfulness focus to your device’s settings. To do this, open the Settings app. From there, navigate to the Focus section. Inside Focus, tap the “+” icon in the top right of the window. Tap on the Mindfulness focus, and confirm that you want to add it. After you’ve done this, try running the Shortcut again.

I’m still getting problems. How do I reset my settings?

All settings for this Shortcut are stored in Files App → iCloud Drive → Shortcuts → Lectio Divina → settings.json. You can either change the settings in this file, or delete the file and run the Shortcut again. This will trigger the First Run process.

I’m STILL getting problems!

I’m curious. Please contact me and we can get this sorted out!

Will you support my favorite note taking app?

Probably! Send me a message and I’ll try to work it in. I personally use Notion, which is something I’d like to build in at some point. Until then, Copy as Markdown works quite well.

Release Notes

2.2 — Released: February 28, 2023

Specifies to install YouVersion Bible app.
Allows you to set your favorite “save apps.”
Added Apple Notes and the system share sheet as save locations.
Can detect when you’ve upgraded and will prompt you to run setup again.
Re-architected the prompts to be clear on what the next action is.

2.1 — Released: February 19, 2023

New: Log Mindfulness Minutes in the Health app

2.0

New: Set options to enable Mindfulness focus or open the Bible app
New: Check for updates to the Shortcut
New: Need to redo your study? You can delete that day’s progress and start over.
New: Shortcut asks for Bible passage and saves it to the output.

1.0

First release
Steps user through steps of Lectio Divina
Saves progress as user follows path