Category: Divine Office

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Eastertide Lectio Divina Liturgy Resurrection Saints

A song of love.

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Today, I’m reflecting om this from the writing of St Augustine:

“We are told to sing to the Lord a new song. A song is a thing of joy and, if we think carefully about it, a thing of love. So those who have learned to love a new life have learned to sing a new song.”

Every Eastertide I’m touched by its tone of joy, hope and new life. In the midst of war and uncertainty across the world, it has an added poignancy. So much suffering and harshness don’t incline us to think about singing any sort of song, much less one that’s full of joy and hope. It’s tempting to brush it aside as too hard, too challenging for these dark times.

St Augustine wasn’t calling us to cover our pain with a sticking plaster, or to put on a brave face. He lived through times that were at least as challenging and as painful as ours. It’s from the midst of that suffering that he finds the courage to call us to sing this new song of joy and hope.

So I’m reflecting on what kind of new song we can sing in the midst of these troubled times. It seems to me that our new song has to have an element of lament. It has to allow us to grieve for all who are suffering in the world. It has to allow us to express the uncertainty of these times and the fear that engenders.

St Augustine points out that the reason for the joy and hope is love. So alongside our lament and uncertainty our new song has to carry something of joy and hope because it is based on love. Even in these hard and challenging times love still has the power to comfort, console and strengthen.

It can help us to bear what we thought would be unbearable and lead us through situations that seemed impossible. Whatever we have to face love, and the new life it offers, will sustain and support us, enabling us to find ways to heal our broken world with love’s new song.

What is the new song the Lord is calling you to sing this Eastertide?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Saints Scripture

Into a land unknown

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Today is the feast of St Joseph the worker. 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.

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 Divine Office Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Resurrection Scripture Uncategorized

Resurrection Joy

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All through the Easter Octave we revisit the story of the resurrection again and again. Each time we hear it from a fresh perspective, hearing a different response and picking up a different nuance. This can sometimes feel frustrating and confusing, but there is a gift in all this variety.

If nothing else, they show us how how impossible it is to completely capture or understand the reality of the resurrection, and is good for us to know that.

They’ve gone to the tomb early Mary Magdalen and “the other Mary” they’ve come through earthquake and an encounter with an angel, before running off full of “awe and great joy” to share their news with the disciples. Their encounter with the resurrection is full of drama and movement, quite different from John’s account where Mary meets the risen Christ alone in the quiet of the garden.

When they encounter Jesus on the path he says to them:

“Do not be afraid; go tell the disciples that they must leave for Galilee; they will see me there.”

“Do not be afraid” is a theme that runs through the resurrection gospels, it begins almost every encounter with the risen Christ. I’m struck that Jesus acknowledges and calms their fear, yet doesn’t allow it to prevent him from sending them out to proclaim the resurrection. This is also true for us, the risen Christ knows our fears, our doubts, the uncertainties we live with. In the midst of all that he invites us to rejoice in his resurrection and to proclaim its reality with our lives.

Where is the risen Christ bringing joy into your life today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Divine Office Holy Saturday Holy Week Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Scripture Triduum

In the empty spaces.

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The 46th word in my Lent lexicon is:

EMPTINESS.

After the high drama of Good Friday People often talk of holy Saturday as a “tomb day”, a time to sit with the emptiness that follows death, to allow the events of Good Friday to sink in. I recognise the yearning for that and its wisdom yet, it’s not an experience I recognise from monastic life.

In practice for many of us Holy Saturday is very much a hybrid day, we are aware of its emptiness, the mourning and the uncertainty. We also have to acknowledge that the Easter vigil is fast approaching and that Easter liturgies and treats do not plan themselves. So it is also a day of preparation and anticipation that can be very busy.

As we move through this hybrid day I’m reflecting on these words from the lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah from this morning’s Office of Readings:

“The favours of the Lord are not all past, nor his kindnesses exhausted; every morning they are renewed: great is his faithfulness. My portion is with the Lord says my soul, and so I will hope in him.”

Even in the midst of his lamentation Jeremiah is able to acknowledge the kindness and faithfulness of God, and to put his hope in that. His words speak to me of the hybrid reality of the day.

It seems to me that the emptiness of Holy Saturday calls us to imitate God’s kindness to others as we get on with the many preparations for Easter, and to ourselves as we seek small moments of quiet during the day.

In the emptiness of Holy Saturday where are you aware of the Lord renewing your capacity for kindness?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Divine Office Good Friday Holy Week Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Scripture Triduum

Hope in a dark place

The 45th word in my Lent lexicon is:

DEATH.

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In many ways it sums up the essence of Good Friday, the day compels us to look death in the face with all the pain and suffering that brings. At Office of Readings on Good Friday we sing the Lamentations of the Jeremiah. This morning I was struck by their opening lines:

“All of you who pass this way, look and see, is any sorrow like the sorrow that afflicts me?”

It perfectly sums up Good Friday, especially in such hard and uncertain times when we all carry so much suffering and when our society often seems determined to choose death over life. In such times the cross is the only place that can hold our suffering and our fear of death.

Yet, in Lauds I found the Lamentations were given a new and broader perspective by these verses from the Byzantine liturgy:

“How can you die, Christ our Life?
How can you lie in the tomb?
By your death you will destroy the power of death,
And you will raise the dead from their tombs.”

They echo the heart breaking sorrow of Jeremiah, giving us a place to acknowledge our own heartbreak and suffering. Yet, they also carry us beyond that. They point out that our faith doesn’t stop at the cross. The cruel death of the Cross is a staging post on our journey to new life in the resurrection.

They remind us that the Christ who lay in the tomb is already risen. He is with us in the sufferings and uncertainties of our times and will lead us through that to the new life that his resurrection promises.

As we face death before the cross this Good Friday where are you inspired by the hope of the new life Christ promises?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Gospel Holy Week Lectio Divina Lent Palm Sunday Scripture

Sing Hosanna.

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The 40th word in my Lent lexicon is:

HOSANNA.

Palm Sunday resounds with hosannas as Jesus entered Jerusalem surrounded by joyful and hopeful followers. The joy reflects the ancient hope that has sustained the people through generations of occupation and suffering:

“Blessed is he who comes to free us, David’s son our Lord and King! Sing hosanna, sing hosanna, all your love and worship bring.”

Yet we know how quickly those hosannas turn to the jeers that leads to crucifixion and death. The people have come out full of hope and expectation. When their need isn’t instantly met in the way they expect it soon turns to anger and frustration.

This movement is mirrored in our liturgy where we move almost immediately from celebrating this triumphal entry to listening to the reading of the Passion. All this can make it tempting to dismiss those Palm Sunday hosannas as superficial, even false.

This misses an important point. The hosannas of Palm Sunday remind us that we don’t have to wait until life is perfect to praise God. Even when life is fragile, uncertain, even when we are angry and frustrated and our needs are not being met we can sing hosanna.

Beginning holy week singing hosannas helps us to focus. It reminds us that although in this week we face the worst we can do and the worst we can be that is not the end of the story. We can carry those Palm Sunday hosannas in our hearts as we move through the darkness of Holy Week and Good Friday until we come out into the new light of resurrection.

What hosanna are you being invited to carry through this Holy Week?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Psalms Scripture

Yearning for God.

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The 20 word in my Lent lexicon is:

YEARNING.

It’s inspired by psalm 41, today’s responsorial psalm. Generally, I tend to overlook the responsorial psalm, looking first for insights in the other scripture readings. I often miss out on real wisdom and insight by doing that. So today I’m reflecting on these words:

“Like the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul is yearning for you, my God.”

It speaks to that longing that we all feel deep within us most of the time. Sometimes it feels like we’re always looking for something that we never quite find or that we’re always slightly dissatisfied with what we have. It can be unsettling and frustrating at best.

We can try to fill that gap with money, possessions, career or success. In my experience that works to some extent. For a while we can feel fulfilled and satisfied by those things, but after a while we begin to realise that those are not enough. Underneath the apparent satisfaction we become aware of a niggling feeling we want something more regardless of how well we are meeting the goals we set for ourselves.

That underlying discontent can be uncomfortable. We can be tempted to push it aside, trying to fill the gap with more of the same, but that doesn’t often work. Instead we can sit with the discontent & discover its true source is our desire for God. Once we can acknowledge that it can lead us to seek God’s presence in our lives in new & enriching ways.

Where is your yearning for God leading you this Lent?

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Faithfulness and trust.

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The fifteenth word in my Lent lexicon is:

FAITHFULNESS.

It has particular resonance today as we celebrate the feast of St Joseph. It seems to perfectly sums up this man who is sometimes dismissed as a shadowy figure. In the gospel he appears as a background figure who supports Mary and the child Jesus bringing stability and respectability to an otherwise difficult situation.

Yet, so often the apparently background figure has a more important role than we realise at first glance. Joseph is man of faith, from a long line of people who waited through the centuries for God’s promise to be fulfilled, keeping hope alive even when facing disappointment.

When his life and expectations are completely turned upside down St Joseph finds the courage to draw on their faith. So that in the face of what must have seemed like a shattering blow he’s able to remain faithful and follow God’s call into the unknown as his ancestors did.

“When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do.”

It can’t have been an easy choice, it will have required both humility and courage as well as faithfulness and trust. 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 and uncertainty St Joseph becomes a valuable role model. He reminds us that however dark and uncertain our lives, we are called to remain faithful and willing to follow God into the unknown.

What helps you to be faithful to God’s call this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Saints

A generous heart.

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The sixth word in my Lent lexicon is:

GENEROSITY.

One of the three pillars of Lent practice is almsgiving. It’s a call, not only to share what we have, but to do it to with an open and generous heart. Today we’re celebrating one of our congregational saints, St Frances of Rome.

She brought up a large family and did a great deal to help the poor and the sick of Rome, sharing her resources of time and money with generosity and sensitivity. She is one of a very small number of married women who are saints.

Her generosity is obvious in her almsgiving, in the hospital she built, in the priest she funded to visit plague victims and in her generous almsgiving. But I see it most clearly in the way she cared for the poor. After she washed and mended their clothes she wrapped them in lavender before returning them to their owners:

“These she washed and mended with care and thoroughness, as if they were to be used by the Lord himself, then she folded them carefully and put them away in lavender.”

This small detail acknowledges that generosity is not just about meeting material needs, but about recognising and honouring the humanity of those who have less than us. Frances recognises this. The gospel for the feast is the story of the prophetess, Anna. Luke tells us that:

“She never left the Temple, worshipping day and night with fasting and prayer.”

Frances also spent time in prayer. It is this that enables her to develop the open hearted generosity that touched so many lives.

Where are you learning to be generous this Lent?

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Fasting, a Lent challenge.

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The third word in my Lent lexicon is:

“FAST”

Often the first question anyone asks us about Lent is “what are you giving up? Fasting carries a heavy weight of history and of personal experience. This can make it a particularly sensitive issue. It can be an area that’s open to judgement and misinterpretation. It’s a word I find challenging and I’m coming to it with some trepidation.

I find St Benedict’s chapter on Lent helpful in facing the challenge. Instead of prescribing a particular fast for everyone he gives a list of things that we might fast from, food, drink, sleep, talking, idle jesting. He openly acknowledges that people have varying needs and capabilities. He knows that what might be manageable for one isn’t possible for another. His words carry a call not to judge ourselves or others harshly, allow people the freedom to choose the “fast” that will most help them on their spiritual journey.

In today’s first reading the prophet Isaiah gives another perspective on fasting:

“Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me – it is the Lord who speaks –to break unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke, to share your bread with the hungry, and shelter the homeless poor, to clothe the person you see to be naked and not turn from your own kin? Then will your light shine like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over.”

While this is deeply challenging it is also helpful. It reminds me that our spiritual practices have to have a knock-on effect in the way we live our lives. They are not just for our personal benefit.

They are to draw us out of ourselves towards our neighbour, to help us become kinder and more compassionate. It seems to me that as Isaiah calls us to fast from the thoughts and behaviours that would harden our hearts to those around us.

How are your Lent practices helping you to become kinder and more compassionate?