Category: Christ

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Prayer Scripture

Overshadowing

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Today celebrating the feast of the Annunciation I’m struck by the mixture of calm, serenity, and chaos that it portrays. It’s generally depicted in art and literature as a beautiful moment of calm encounter between Gabriel and Mary, between heaven and earth, leading to Mary’s act of obedience.

That is certainly one aspect of the gospel, but as I reflected on it today I’m very aware that there is also another side to it. The news the angel brings to Mary must have been both surprising and overwhelming to a young, unmarried woman who was not expecting to become pregnant.

It must have seemed to her that she was facing at best a challenge and at worst a disaster. Yet in the midst of the upheaval she was able to find a way through the chaos to say yes. I’m especially struck by the angel’s response when she asks, “How can this be?” He replies:

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…”

His words take me back to the Spirit hovering over the waters at Creation drawing life out of chaos. That’s a comforting image image in these times when so much of our world seems to teeter on the brink of chaos.

In our dark and frightening times this image offers hope and encouragement. I find it helpful to remember that however chaotic our situation the Spirit hovers, overshadowing us and promising new life.

Where do you need the Spirit’s overshadowing in your life this Lent?

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Invitations and conversations.

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As I’ve listened to the Sunday Gospels over the past few weeks I’ve been struck by the themes of revelation and recognition that have gone hand-in-hand. As the stories of the Samaritan woman, and the blind man unfolded it seemed to me that this process has come about through challenging and honest conversations between Jesus and those he encounters. Those conversations required deep thought, honest reflection and an openness to change.

This week, as we encounter Martha grieving for her brother, that pattern continues. Martha, a follower of Jesus already, is clearly a woman of faith, used to the theological reflection and conversation.

She is capable of standing her ground with Jesus, and even of questioning him. She is also capable of allowing his response to transform her whole life. It is through their hard, challenging conversation that Jesus is both revealed and recognised as Christ:

“I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though the day they will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

Central as this revelation is it is not enough by itself, and he requires a response from Martha, asking her:

“Do you believe this?”

The recognition of her response completes the revelation as she proclaims:

“Yes Lord… I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God, the one who was to come into this world.”


I’m left wondering about the implications of this for our own conversations with Jesus. If we are to come to the life changing recognition that Jesus is the Christ we too have to risk engaging in challenging conversations with him, acknowledging our uncertainties and allowing his revelation to transform our lives.

Where is Christ calling you into conversation with him this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Divine Office Lectio Divina Lent Prophetic voices Rule of St Benedict Scripture Uncategorized

Celebrating St Benedict

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Today we’re celebrating the feast of the passing of St Benedict. This post from the archives takes me back to the heart of the Rule, the call to listen…

Lent is the time for turning back to God. It encourages us to reassess our practices and to recommit ourselves to those that will draw us closer to God. With this in mind I’m reflecting on this from the prophet Jeremiah:

“Listen to my voice, then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Follow right to the end the way I mark out for you, and you will prosper.”

His words take me back to the Rule of St Benedict. He begins his rule by saying:

“Listen carefully to the master’s instructions and attend to them with the ear of your heart.”

We all know that listening is central to our faith. We also know how that in the hubbub of challenges and anxieties that make up daily life we can easily miss that gentle voice of God calling us. St Benedict and Jeremiah both call us to take the time to tune the ear of our hearts to resonate with that gentle call.

Lent is certainly a good time to practice this listening, but there’s more to it than that. The listening that they require is a life changing experience. It starts with the attentive listening with the ear of our heart and moves on to action that affects every part of our life.

St Benedict carries on saying that having listened to the master’s instructions we are to “faithfully put into practice” what we hear.

Jeremiah’s call to listen and follow makes the same point. The listening we are called to is to is to shape how we live. The way we treat one another, the way we work, the way we treat our tools and utensils are all to be formed by this attentive listening to God in every circumstance.

As we move through Lent what are you being called to faithfully put into practice?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Prophetic voices Saints Scripture

St Joseph

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Today is the feast of St Joseph. On the surface he seems a shadowy figure. A background figure in the gospel who supports Mary and the child Jesus and brings stability and respectability to an otherwise difficult situation. Yet, if we look beyond that image we find a different story. I’m reflecting on these words from a hymn for his feast:

“His love was humble, flame of God’s own fire,
A light to guide the path he trod alone;
Like Abraham, like Moses he believed,
And went in faith to find a land unknown.”

They speak not of a shadowy figure, but of a man of great faith, courage, humility and trust. He follows in the line of Abraham and Moses who left everything to follow God into the unknown.

When we think of the blessing of welcoming, we think in positive terms. St Joseph shows us that we’re sometimes called to welcome circumstances that are difficult or challenging. Drawing on the faith of his ancestors when his life and expectations are completely turned upside down St Joseph is able to put himself in God’s hands, trusting that God will lead and guide him. It can’t have been an easy choice, it will have required both humility and courage.

It’s impossible to think of this without reflecting on the seemingly insurmountable challenges our world faces today, both at home and abroad. As we see lives disrupted and communities destroyed by war St Joseph becomes a valuable role model.

He reminds us that however dark and uncertain our lives, we are called to put ourselves into the hands of God who will lead us through the darkness into the light of his love.

What gives you the courage to trust yourself to God today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Prayer Prophetic voices Scripture

Christ on the margins

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This week I’m reflecting on the blessing of welcoming. I’m aware of how often we’re called to recognise Christ by welcoming what we consider marginal. We see that in today’s gospel. It’s a man who is outcast, ignored and undervalued who recognises and proclaims Christ to his people.

He is the last person anyone would have expected to speak and reflect theologically. We see this in the response of his neighbours, who no longer recognise him, and in the Pharisees who refuse to accept someone so marginal can presume to teach them anything about God.

The man doesn’t crumble under their badgering questions, instead he faces them confidently, reflecting on his experience with Jesus in the light of his Jewish faith, saying to them:

“We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but God does listen to people who are devout and do his will. Ever since the world began it is unheard-of for anyone to open the eyes of someone who was born blind: if this man were not from God he couldn’t do a thing.”

As the man moves from claiming that he only knows Jesus’ name to proclaiming and worshipping him as Christ he welcomes him with a truly open heart. It may be that his marginal position helped him to recognise Jesus as the Christ, and give him the freedom to worship him.

This gospel challenges me to be attentive to those parts of myself that I push aside, allowing them to point me towards Christ in ways that I might not expect or be entirely comfortable with.

It also challenges me to be attentive to the people we marginalise today, leaving me with an uncomfortable question, would we respond any better than the Pharisees should any of them proclaim Christ to us?

How is Christ calling you welcome the marginal in your life today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Prayer Scripture

In need of mercy.

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Today’s gospel presents a stark contrast between two men who have gone up to the temple to pray. The first is a Pharisee, the second a tax collector. The Pharisee is confident and sure of himself. He is aware of his position in the community and in his faith.

He is certain that his religious practices place him in good standing with God. He expects his prayers to be heard and responded to. He is completely unaware of any sin or failing in himself or his life

The tax collector, on the other hand, is all too aware that his job makes him a bit of an outcast in his community. He knows that it leaves him in situations that can sometimes be morally ambiguous. Unlike the Pharisee, he comes to prayer all too aware of his failings and his sin saying:

“God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Jesus is very clear that it was the tax collector, who knew his failings and his need of God who went home at right with God.

In telling the story to an audience that is sure of its virtue Jesus is presenting a challenge. He’s inviting them, and us, to develop a new attentiveness. He is challenging us to look beyond the surface of our religious practices.

He is asking us to be attentive to how those practices enable us to develop a more compassionate and kind heart.

How are your lent practices helping you to grow in compassion and kindness?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture Uncategorized

Attentive to the call of love

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Today’s gospel, the conversation between Jesus and one of the Scribes, is a call to be attentive to the real essentials in life. That’s an important message for us living as we do in times of distraction and shortening attention spans. It highlights two essential aspects of faith that we’re called to be attentive to, love and respect for others.

It’s not clear if the scribe is trying to catch Jesus out on this occasion, or if he is genuinely seeking understanding. Either way, Jesus decides to take the question at face value, treating it a genuine request for greater understanding, and giving the scribe the benefit of the doubt. Having being asked by the scribe about the first of the commandments he replied:

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart…You must love your neighbour as yourself.”

It takes us back to the heart of the gospel and reminds us that love is the core of our faith. Jesus responds with love to the scribe’s question, answering sincerely and respectfully, and ending the conversation by saying:

“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

Our challenging times make it very easy to hear a criticism in every question and to respond with defensiveness or even aggression so that we lose sight of love and the relationship falters.

This draws us away from the call to love that is the heart of the gospel. Jesus shows us another way to respond, keeping his attention focussed on loving and respecting the scribe.

Where are you being called to be attentive to the call of love this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Saints Scripture

Listen with the ear of your heart.

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In the first reading the prophet Jeremiah calls the people to listen attentively to God’s voice and to follow God’s teaching. He writes:

“Listen to my voice, then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Follow right to the end the way that I mark out for you, and you will prosper.”

These words can only fill us with hope, and our hearts recognise that they have the potential to lead us in the way of life. Yet, even knowing that, we don’t, as Jeremiah points out, actually do it. He goes on to describe what happens to the people when they don’t listen attentively to God. Of the things he describes the one that struck me most was:

“Sincerity is no more, it has vanished from their mouths.”

It surprised me, I would never have thought of lack of sincerity as being a sign of not being attentive to the voice of God. Yet, it is undeniably an issue in our contemporary world.

We live in an openly “post truth” society that often seems to value appearances over either accuracy or trust. In every area of our lives it’s extremely difficult to work out what is true and what isn’t.

Sincerity doesn’t seem to be an attribute we value very much any more. It’s easy to assume that we can do nothing to change this, it’s simply the way the world is.

Jeremiah suggests that’s not the case, suggesting that we can grow in sincerity by listening attentively to the voice of God in all the circumstances of our lives. I can’t help wondering how that would alter our post truth society.

Where is God calling you to listen attentively for his voice this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Prophetic voices Scripture

The gift of mercy

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The gift of mercy is part of the blessing of gospel living that is especially important today. In our public spaces we see situations where no apology is acceptable. There is no way back from a mistake, no make a fresh start or second chance.

Alongside that there are people who seem immune to any sort of sanctions, however they act they never have to face the consequences. Both signal a devaluing of this essential quality of gospel living.

In that situation we’re called to pay even more attention to them. They offer us both challenge and hope Its challenge is in its call to admit our faults & failing, to confess that we all need mercy in our lives. We both stand in need of God’s mercy and are called to be merciful towards others.

Another challenge of mercy is that it can only come as a gift, we can’t demand it, earn it or get it for ourselves. The most we can do is ask for it when we recognise our need strive to be open to receive it. Mercy also offers us hope. In today’s first reading the prophet Micah writes:

“What god can compare with you: taking fault away, pardoning crime, not cherishing anger for ever but delighting in showing mercy?”

His words remind us, not only that God knows our faults and is willing to be merciful, but that the mercy is offered freely and generously, with delight. The source of God’s mercy towards us is love, the love that holds us in being, the love at the heart of the gospel.

Where are you being offered God’s mercy this Lent?

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Margins and keystones

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We live in an age of spin, and quick fixes. Across the globe political leaders tell us they can solve everything. All our problems, personal, national and international can be resolved easily, with no compromise, no pain, no sacrifice.

In our hearts we know this can’t be true, yet we desperately want to believe it, so we allow ourselves to be beguiled by those promises. In that climate the honesty and directness of Jesus in the gospel offers a refreshing and challenging alternative. That is one of the blessings of gospel living.

He tells the story of the vineyard owner whose tenants beat his servants and kill his son. His words are a reminder that to follow Christ is to choose a hard path. It’s not a choice that will make us popular or lead us to the centres of power. Instead, he offers the exact opposite:

“It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the keystone.”

The call of the gospel is a call to the margins. We can accept that in principle. It becomes harder when we have to look at what this means in practice. We are called to stand on the edge, to be with the marginalised and rejected.

It means we encounter Christ in those people who disagree with us. We discover Christ’s presence in those whose behaviour and lifestyles make us uncomfortable. It is by standing with those marginalised people that we discover the blessing gospel living can offer us.

Where is Christ calling you to stand with those on the margins this Lent?