Category: Christ

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Becoming servants

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The fourteenth word in my Lent lexicon is:

SERVANT.

In today’s gospel Jesus calls his disciples once again to a life of service. He warned them against the hypocrisy of thinking themselves above others and therefore expecting special treatment and concessions.

However uncomfortable the thought we have to admit that we all recognise the temptation in our lives. It’s the way of the world, especially maybe of our own time with it’s concern with appearance and influence.

Beguiling as that can be we are all too aware that it is not the way of the Kingdom that Jesus has come to establish. Instead he comes as a servant, showing us a new way of being, a way of service that asks us to put the needs of others before our own.

During his ministry Jesus gives us plenty examples of what it means to serve as he travels the country, healing, listening & calling people to follow him. Lent give his call to service a greater resonance as we follow him to Jerusalem and the service that won us new life.

In today’s gospel Jesus invites his disciples turn away from the ways of the world and follow his example. He tells them:

“The greatest among you must be your servant. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

His words are also an invitation to us. He calls us to turn away from the ways of our times and to follow his example of service. He challenges us to avoid the false dazzle of the limelight and instead to look for ways we can serve others.

Where is Christ inviting you to find ways of serving others this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture Uncategorized

Called to be compassionate.

The thirteenth word in my Lent lexicon is:

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COMPASSION.

We’re called to be compassionate as God our Father is compassionate. It’s always an important part of our call. In these challenging times when our structures seem so precarious it is even more essential to learn how to be compassionate.

There are so many ways we can misunderstand, misconstrue and judge others harshly that it can come to seem the norm. It can be difficult to take a stand against it, yet in today’s gospel Jesus makes it clear that being judgemental can never be the way of the gospel. His Kingdom is to be built on love and compassion:

“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves; grant pardon, and you will be pardoned.”

His words are a call to a new way of being. It’s a way that has the potential to change and renew our relationships and our communities. But it has to begin with an inner transformation. The call to be compassionate requires us to weed out the attitudes that would incline us to harsh judgements of others.

It calls us to put aside our hurt and our anger enough to give others the benefit of the doubt. It invites us to believe the best of others even if that’s not on display. It seems to me that the best way to move towards this is to acknowledge our own need for compassion. Once we admit to ourselves that we can cause hurt it becomes much easier to be compassionate when we see others do the same.

Where is Christ inviting you to learn to be compassionate this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture Transfiguration

Transfiguration

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The twelfth word in my Lent lexicon is:

TRANSFIGURATION.

It describes that mountain top moment when God’s glory breaks through into the ordinary lives of Peter, James & John allowing them an insight into the mystery and wonder of God. Peter’s response tells us how moved they are by it:

“Master, it is wonderful for us to be here…”

God’s glory can break through into our ordinary lives, as it did for the disciples. It can transform the ordinariness and enable us to see them in a new way. This has the potential to delight and strengthen us, it is also a challenge.

Like Peter, when we glimpse that glory we want to stay with it. We long to be held in the shelter of God’s presence, protected from the hardships of our lives. Tempting as that is, it misses the point of the Transfiguration. Those moments are not places to hide away from the challenges of the world. They are moments to draw courage from so that we can face the turmoil of the challenging times we live in.

The key to the Transfiguration is in these words spoken from the cloud:

“This is my Son, the Chosen One. Listen to him.”

It’s a call to listen to Jesus that requires we are both open to those intense moments of transformation and willing to move on from them. It’s a call not only to listen, but to respond to his words, allowing them to shape our actions and encounters. It’s a call to leave the places where we feel safe and comfortable and follow him, learning to respond to life’s challenges with love, kindness and compassion.

Where is Christ transfiguring your life this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Challenged to love.

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The eleventh word in my Lent lexicon is

LOVE

At first glance it’s hard to see how this might be a challenging Lent word. Surely to love and be loved is good? It is, and yet, as I reflect more deeply I become aware of the challenges that love presents.

We are all too aware of how much we need love and how vulnerable that needy can leave us. We have experiences of receiving love that are life giving. We also have experiences of not receiving the love we needed and how damaging that can be for us.

Love requires us to put ourselves aside, to think first of what would be best for others. To do that with those most intimately connected to us is hard and challenging enough. Yet Jesus tells us that this not enough:

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be children of your Father in heaven, for God causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as good, and the rain to fall on the honest and dishonest alike.”

This call to love goes beyond our limited human ways. It calls us to love as God loves. It can seem almost impossible. If we struggle to love those who love us how can we love those who would harm or hurt us?

It’s a hard call especially when hate and mistrust seem to be gaining the upper hand in our communities and societies. In such times this call is even more important. Jesus calls us to risk an openness and vulnerability that goes beyond our limited human understanding of what love is.

Where are you being called to love your enemy this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Be reconciled

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The tenth word in my Lent lexicon is:

RECONCILIATION.

The call to reconciliation is essential. We can’t go through life without causing each other distress and pain. That means we have to find ways of forgiving one another, of becoming reconciled and rebuilding damaged relationships. This is true on every level of human life from personal relationships to international relations.

Reconciliation is not easy. When we have been hurt or wronged it’s really hard to see beyond that to be able to forgive and to rebuild damaged relationships. The temptation is to stay with our hurt and our pain rather than taking the risk of moving beyond it into a situation where we have to be open, trusting and vulnerable.

In today’s gospel Jesus makes it clear that, however hard it might be, the call to reconciliation is not an optional extra, it’s central to the call of the gospel and to building the kingdom. He says to his followers:

“If you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that someone has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with them first, and then come back and present your offering.”

He makes it clear that, however hard it might be we need to find ways of being reconciled with one another if we are to live well and flourish. This echoes our own experience; we know how destructive an unforgiving attitude can be both to relationships and to our inner life.

Reconciliation requires that we move beyond our own perspectives, allowing that there might be a bigger picture than we can see. It calls us to allow that someone else’s perspective might be as valid as our own. It asks asks to admit that being right might not be the most important thing.

Where is Christ calling you to seek reconciliation this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Courage to ask

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The ninth word in my Lent lexicon is:

ASK.

For such a small word it carries a huge weight. We live in a society that values independence. We are expected to succeed and that often translates into being able to meet all our own needs, physical, emotional & spiritual. Even as we know that can’t be true or even possible the expectation shapes us. We carry the weight of it with us every day. The result can be that asking at all can feel like a failure.

Today’s readings offer us a different reality. In the first reading Queen Esther, faced with a difficult and challenging situation finds the courage ask God for what she needs to be able to save her people.

In the gospel Jesus puts it very simply and directly:

“‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; those who knock will always have the door opened to them.”

He doesn’t expect us to meet all our needs by ourselves, he knows we’re not made to do that. Instead he encourages us to ask for what we need. His words offer us hope. In our culture, with it’s high value on independence, they are also a challenge.

He promises us that if we risk vulnerability in admitting our need we will be met with a loving and compassionate response. Lent is an invitation to trust that promise and to find the courage and humility to ask for what we need.

What do you need to ask God for this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Turning back

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The eighth word in my Lent lexicon is:

REPENT.

Repentance is an essential practices of Lent. It can be one of the most uncomfortable too. In order to repent, to turn back to God, we have to first recognise that we have turned away from God. We have to be aware that we have taken a wrong turn before we can take steps to correct it.

I suspect that however much we speak of a loving God who welcomes us back with open arms it’s a prospect we’re reluctant to trust in reality. However much we repent we’re afraid we won’t be welcomed back

Today’s first reading, from the Book of Jonah dispels that fear. When Jonah calls the people of Nineveh to repent for their sins and return to God they do as he asks. They take time out from their daily lives to pray and fast, they change their behaviour, trying to live good lives with all the effort and sacrifice that entails. The result couldn’t be clearer:

“God saw their efforts to renounce their evil behaviour, and God relented.”

This reading offers us real and practical hope for our own situation. God forgave the Ninevites when they sincerely tried to repent. We can hope that the same will be true for us if we also repent, turning back to God in trust and humility. Lent gives us the opportunity discover the steps we need to take to return to the presence of the God who is waiting to love, heal & forgive us.

Where is God calling you to repent this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Prayer Scripture

Prayer

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The seventh word in my Lent lexicon is:

PRAYER

Along with almsgiving and fasting prayer is one of the three pillars of Lent. Lent gives us an opportunity pay extra attention to our prayer life. It might be that we manage to take more time for prayer, or try a new practice. It might also be that rather than adding more we give ourselves more fully to the practices we already have.

In today’s gospel Jesus give the disciples some guidance about how to pray. He reminds them that they do not need many words to pray, that God already knows what they need:

“In your prayers do not babble as the pagans do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard. Do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

He then goes on to teach them the Our Father, a prayer we are all so familiar with that we can use it without much attention or thought. Valuable as a framework of words are prayer is about more than that. Jesus reminds us that prayer is as much about an attitude of heart as about the words we use.

The call to prayer is first of all a call to come into the the presence of God. When we pray we don’t have to know what to say or how to solve the issues we carry in our hearts problems. We only have bring ourselves into God’s presence and to wait there doing our best to be attentive to God and allowing God to take the lead. It’s a call to openness, humility and trust.

What helps you to open your heart to God’s presence in prayer this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

In the wilderness.

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The fifth word in my Lent lexicon is:

TEMPTATION.

We all know temptation. We experience it in ways that can be life changing. We also experience it in ways that seem so small as to be insignificant. The source of their power is that they begin by seeming attractive and appealing. This attraction can distract us from or true purpose and even our true desire.

In today’s gospel we see Jesus led by the Spirit into the wilderness:

“Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit through the wilderness, being tempted there by the devil for forty days.”

Jesus is tempted by the devil in ways that touch the most basic of human desires. As he struggles with hunger, the devil tempts him to turn stones into bread. As Jesus becomes aware of his weakness in the wilderness the devil offers him power.

At the end of a long period of solitude the devil tempts him to force God to rescue him. Jesus turns away from them all, seeing beyond the surface attraction of each. Eventually it’s the devil who gives up and leaves Jesus alone.

It can be hard to turn away from the attraction of our temptations, often we give into them before we even notice we’ve done it. It seems to me that what enables Jesus to dismiss his temptation is his focus.

He manages to keep sight of the bigger picture and so he can see that the temptations will distract him from that. He invites and challenges us to do the same when we face temptations.

What is helping you to turn away from your temptations this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Scripture

Holy Ground.

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The 4th word in my Lent Lexicon is

HOLY GROUND

I’m reflecting on the encounter between God and Moses at the burning bush. There are certain places that we think of as “holy”. There are places we go to deliberately to seek God. It might be a church or a prayer room, or a corner of our house that we use as a prayer space. There can also be places outside where we feel it is easier to connect with God. We sometimes call these “thin places”, they are often places of great natural beauty.

Moses is in the midst of a very ordinary activity on an ordinary day. He’s not in any place that’s officially marked as holy or religious or anywhere particularly beautiful. It’s in the ordinary that God reaches out to Moses, using his curiosity about the “strange sight” of the burning bush to draw him into a conversation. As soon as Moses draws close God call out to him:

“Take off your shoes…for the place on which you stand is holy ground.”

We too stand on holy ground. Whatever we are involved in we’re in the presence of God. Lent gives us the opportunity to reflect on what that means in today’s fragmented world. God offers Moses a promise and a challenge. The promise is that God will be with him whatever he faces. God also challenge him to go out of his comfort zone in ways he could never have imagined. We also receive that promise and are challenged to move beyond the boundaries where we feel safe and comfortable.

Where are you being invited to discover the promise & challenge of holy ground in your life this Lent?