Author: Sr Judith

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

Being Ready

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Waiting is one of the hardest things we have to do in life. The end of the year is fast approaching. The Autumn colours, the cooler temperatures, the darker mornings and evenings are all pointing in that direction.

The same is true of today’s gospel. Its call to be alert and ready, waiting and prepared for the coming of the Lord reminds me that Advent is just around the corner. I’m struck by this in today’s gospel:

“You too must stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Waiting is generally an uncomfortable experience, it’s often frustrating and stressful. It brings us face to face with the uncertainty we live with, with all those aspects of life that we can’t control.

It compels us to admit our lack, our limitations and our neediness. We can find a myriad of activities from constant busyiness to endless online connectivity to distract us from the discomfort it brings.

The gospel calls us away from those distractions. It invites us to embrace our times of waiting, giving our full attention to it, acknowledging its discomfort, and actively seeking the blessing it promises. As I reflect on this passage one of our Advent antiphons is running through my mind:

“Stand erect, hold your head high because your liberation is close at hand.”

It helps me to put this challenging call to wait into a wider context. This call to be ready comes with a promise. We stand ready, waiting for this promise to be fulfilled, trusting that the Lord will come to set us free from all that would distract us.

Where are you being called to be ready for the coming of the Lord today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Prayer Scripture Uncategorized

Perseverance in prayer

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Today’s gospel, the parable of the unjust judge, speaks so powerfully to our current situation that it could have been just written. Jesus tells his disciples the story of a judge who is refusing to give justice to a widow. However often the persistent widow is ignored or turned away she comes back, insisting on the justice that is her right. Eventually, the judge surrenders saying:

“Maybe I have neither fear of God nor respect for man, but since she keeps pestering me I must give this widow her just rights, or she will persist in coming and worry me to death.”

Looking around our world, there are so many awful situations that we can do little to change, that we might be tempted to give up. We can be tempted to surrender and hopelessness, so even praying begins to feel pointless and useless.

Jesus uses this parable to see the exact opposite. He reminds his disciples, and does, that rather than surrendering to hopelessness, these are precisely the situations where we need to persevere in prayer and hope:

“Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart.”

There are so many painful situations in our world that seem unresolvable. There are so many places where cruelty and exclusion seem to be overwhelming our impulses to goodness and kindness. In all the pain and suffering of these circumstances Jesus challenges us to persevere. He calls us keep on speaking up for justice, fairness, kindness and compassion.

He challenges us to continually remind ourselves and others that all human beings of equal value in the sight of God. Most of all he reminds us to underpin all of our actions in these areas with constant and persistent prayer.

Where are you being called to continual prayer today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Saints Scripture Uncategorized

Christ’s Peace

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Today were celebrating the feast of St Luke, author of some of the best-known and most loved gospel stories. It’s not surprising then that today’s gospel focuses on the sending of the seventy-two to preach the Good News through the towns and villages.

Jesus gives them very specific instructions, telling them what to take and how to behave as they travel around the country. On their journey they are called to trust themselves completely to the providence of God and the kindness of strangers.

But he doesn’t send them out completely empty handed. He gives them a gift to pass on to the people they encounter:

“Whatever house you going to, let your first words be, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if people of peace live there, your peace will go and rest on them; if not it will come back to you.”

As we see communities torn apart by war and conflict across the world it’s hard to imagine a time when that peace has been more needed. This peace is no quick papering over of cracks. It requires that we do a certain amount of inner work to be able to receive it.

If we are to be people of peace, we have to allow our hearts to be changed. We need to risk letting the stories of the other change us. We have to be willing to let go let go of much that we cherish. We have to accept that we are not right about everything and to be willing to compromise.

Where is Christ calling you to change so that you can accept his peace today?

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Christ Divine Office Lectio Divina Prophetic voices Saints St Teresa of Avila

The gift of love.

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In these increasingly challenging and uncertain times it can be easy to despair and to lose hope. At such times it can be helpful to look for inspiration from the lives of others who’ve also faced challenges. Today, we’re celebrating the feast of St Teresa of Avila, Carmelite nun, reformer, theologian and Doctor of the Church.

She faced her many challenges with courage and perseverance. There’s much in her writings and in the example of her life to inspire and encourage us. I came across this from her writings:

“Whatever we think of Christ, let us always bear in mind that love of his which drove him to bestow upon us so many gifts and graces. Let us bear in mind to how great is the love God has shown us, since God has given us in Christ such a pledge of that love which God has for us; for love calls for a return of love.”

When life is difficult it seems surprisingly easy for us to lose sight of God’s love. The day-to-day struggles, the seemingly insurmountable challenges and anxiety leave us little energy to discover or reflect on that love. Yet, it is precisely at those times when life is hardest and most challenging that we need to be held and sustained by that love.

The love St Teresa speaks of is not the love of cinema or romantic novel that promises those happy ever after endings that are so beguiling, it is much stronger and deeper than that. Christ doesn’t promise that we won’t be hurt or disappointed, that we won’t feel pain or suffer.

Instead, he promises that whatever sufferings we face, whatever breaks our hearts and disappoints us, he will be there loving and sustaining us through it all.

Where do you need to be aware of the greatness of God’s love for you today?


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#ConsecrateLife #SimplyJubilee Christ Jubilee Lectio Divina Scripture

With renewed hearts.

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In my last post for the #JubileeOfConsecratedLife I’m reflecting on this from the prophet Ezekiel writes:

“I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh instead.”

His words bring me back to the heart of the Christian call and our Jubilee celebrations, the call of love. We are called into being by a loving God. Throughout our lives we are called to grow in that love, allowing it to shape our actions and relationships.

Inevitably the challenges and struggles of daily life draw us away from that goal. We act in ways that are less than loving. We put ourselves before others, considering our lives as more valuable than theirs, our needs as more worthy of being met.

Even while we do this, we know in our hearts it’s not good for us. We know that all humans flourish best when resources are equally shared, when everyone has what they need to live well. Our families, our communities, our societies work best when everyone has access to all they need to live with security and dignity.

A jubilee allows us to reset this balance. It calls us to undo the injustices that have crept in over the years. It’s a chance to return freedom to those who have been enslaved and to return stolen or lost property to those who have lost it.

Our jubilee celebrations call us to allow God to turn our stony hearts back into hearts of flesh so that we can respond with love and compassion to our neighbours once again.

Where do you most need God fill your heart with love and compassion?

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#ConsecrateLife #SimplyJubilee Benedictine Spirituality Gospel Jubilee Lectio Divina Liturgy Monastic Life Rule of St Benedict Scripture

Forgiven and Forgiving.

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Today I’m reflecting on forgiveness. It’s central to our human experience. Both our need to be forgiven and our need to forgive are deeply rooted in the reality of our daily lives, in both big and small things. It’s impossible to live connected to other people without at some point needing to both forgive and be forgiven.

This reality is reflected all the way through Scripture. As we continue to celebrate the jubilee of consecrated life, I’m reflecting on these words from the Our Father:

“Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us.”

These words are so familiar that we sometimes overlook their significance. Yet, they have the power bring the healing that can reset our broken relationships.

St Benedict recognises this when he says that the Our Father should be said by the superior at Lauds and Vespers “because thorns of contention are likely to spring up”. It allows us to acknowledge before God that, whatever our intentions, we will have been hurt by others in the course of the day, and we will have hurt them.

St Benedict wanted the community to be reminded regularly both of their need for forgiveness and their need to forgive others in the course of their daily life.

These two are intimately linked. We begin by acknowledging our own need for forgiveness. When we know ourselves held in the loving forgiveness of God then we are able to reach out and offer forgiveness to the people who have wounded us.

Where are you being called to offer and accept forgiveness today?

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#ConsecrateLife #SimplyJubilee Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Jubilee Lectio Divina Scripture

A justice rooted in love.

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Today I’m reflecting on justice. As an ex-primary school teacher every time this word comes into my mind I hear a myriad of children’s voices calling “Miss, that’s not fair!” I remember making the same complaint myself.

Like most of us I also remember the pain of discovering the reality that life often isn’t fair. Rather than just being a childish dream, this early concern with fairness suggests that we carry in our hearts a deep sense of fairness from when we are very small.

It might get thwarted and bent out of shape, but I believe that somewhere deep within our hearts we recognise and value true justice. However self-centred or self-serving we become we carry the knowledge within us that humans flourish best when everyone is treated with justice.

Justice is not straightforward. We don’t have to look very far before we see our human justice being abused and misused, despite our best efforts. Reflecting on justice reminds us that God is not like us, as Isaiah tells us:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways, declares the Lord. For the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.”

Part of the call of a Jubilee is to bring our understanding of justice closer to God’s. God’s justice is always firstly based on love. It’s the love that invites us into a covenantal relationship, and then offers us countless opportunities to find our way back to that relationship when we have wandered away from it. Our jubilee calls us to reflect on our understanding of justice and to ensure that, like God’s it’s based firstly on love.

How does the faithful love of God affect your understanding of what justice is?

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#ConsecrateLife #SimplyJubilee Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Jubilee Lectio Divina Prophetic voices Rule of St Benedict Scripture

Accepting freedom

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Today I’m reflecting on freedom. The biblical concept of freedom goes beyond that our human understanding of freedom. It is rooted first of all in our position as children of God. It’s an invitation to become the person God’s calls us to be. It also carries a challenge.

In the course of life’s ups and downs we encounter much that draws us away from that freedom. Much as we desire it, we find ourselves making choices that limit and curtail it. The prophet Isaiah promises:

“He has sent me… to proclaim liberty to captives, release to those in prison…”

Biblical freedom is communal as well as personal. One of the things I’ve learned in my time in the Monastery is that there is always a balancing act between individual freedoms and communal freedoms. No one is free to do exactly as they wish or need of the Rule at the expense of others. In chapter 72 Benedict says:

“No one is to pursue what the judge better for themselves, but instead what they judge better for someone else.”

Part of being free means that we have to choose to put aside some of our freedom for the good of others. In our individualistic times, with the concerns for personal freedoms and rights this can be a real challenge.

A jubilee calls us to revisit what it means to be free, to ask ourselves where we have set up barriers and limitations to this gift of freedom. It’s a time for asking what we have to let go of to allow ourselves to embrace in ways that are life-giving for us and for our communities.

What freedom is God inviting you to embrace today?

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#ConsecrateLife #SimplyJubilee Benedictine Spirituality Jubilee Lectio Divina Psalms Scripture

A jubilee of thanksgiving.

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As part of the Jubilee Year, a Jubilee of Consecrated Life will be held in Rome on 8-9th Oct. From 8th-12th Oct. I’ll be reflecting on some of the biblical concepts of Jubilee. A Jubilee is first of all a call to reset our relationship with God and with one another. There are many elements to this reset.

Today I’m reflecting on thanksgiving. In many ways this is the most obvious part of the biblical call to Jubilee. When we think about jubilees we think about celebrations, we think of times of rejoicing and happiness.

Our jubilees are times when we gather to enjoy each other’s company and to give thanks for each other, and for all we have shared. Our jubilees are first and foremost celebrations of our capacity to give and receive love. These words from Psalm 106 come to mind:

“O give thanks to the Lord for he is good; for his love endures forever.”

The psalmist takes us back to the source of that love, we are creatures of love because we are called into being and held in being by the love of God.

While this is a truth we all know and believe in our hearts, it’s one that easily gets brushed aside by the struggles and hardships of daily life. While that’s always true, it’s especially true in these challenging times we are living through. As we struggle with the demands of daily life it surprisingly easy to forget that we are loved.

When that happens it becomes very hard to treat others with love. The psalmist reminds us that a jubilee gives us an opportunity to remember and be thankful for the that love of God which never changes, and which is with us whatever we face.

What moves you to thankfulness in your life today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Holy Spirit Lectio Divina Scripture

In a spirit of love.

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We are living in challenging and disturbing times. All around us the structures and customs we relied on to hold our world steady seem to be under threat. Many of our values are being called into question and we are compelled to live with a great degree of uncertainty.

In such times it is so tempting to become hopeless, to lose faith in God and in the goodness of others. This leaves us feeling that there is nothing we can do that will make a difference. The voice that calls us in that direction can be powerful and compelling, but it’s not the voice of Christ.

St Paul and his companions knew equally hard and challenging times. They too lived in a violent and unequal world, and often suffered because of it. In his second letter to Timothy he writes:

“Beloved: I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.”

It’s easy to have faith when life is going well. It is much harder to have faith when the world seems dark and uncertain. Yet it is precisely when life is most challenging that we need to trust in that the spirit of power, love and self-control St Paul speaks.

It’s when life is hardest that we need to nurture that tiny flame. It’s when faith and trust seem the least likely response that we need to allow it to become the basis of all our interactions with others.

In these challenging times what helps you to sustain a spirit of love in your interactions?