This results in more than a visual memory of the written 
     words. What results is a muscular memory of the words 
     pronounced and an aural memory of the words heard. The 
     meditatio  consists in applying oneself with attention to 
     this exercise in total memorization; it is, therefore, 
     inseparable from the lectio.  It is what inscribes, so to 
     speak, the sacred text in the body and in the soul.

          This repeated mastication of the divine words is 
     sometimes described by use of the theme of spiritual 
     nutrition. In this case the vocabulary is borrowed from 
     eating, from digestion, and from the particular form of 
     digestion belonging to ruminants. For this reason, reading 
     and meditation are sometimes described by the very 
     expressive word ruminatio . For example, in praising a 
     monk who prayed constantly Peter the Venerable cried: