Category: Gospel

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Divine Office Gospel John the Baptist Lectio Divina Liturgy Scripture

From the margins

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Today we’re celebrating the birthday of St John the Baptist. From his very beginnings John is marginal, he marks the boundaries between the Old Testament and the New Testament. He calls us to look back to the rich tradition of the Old Testament with its covenant and promise, and forward to the new hope offered by the coming of Christ.

While being on the margins brings insight, wisdom and the clarity of view that those in more central positions can miss, it is an uncomfortable and often dangerous position.

Those on the margins are often ignored, misunderstood or even despised. They make us feel uncomfortable or even threatened. John the Baptist knew that all too well. Reflecting on this I was struck by these words from the hymn we sang at last night’s vigil:

“How shall we hear the Word if we despise the voice…”

They carry something of the urgency of John’s original message. They remind me that the voices that call us to be open to the transforming power of the Word are not necessarily ones we are comfortable with. If we want to hear the Word in our times we have to turn towards the voices of those on the margins today.

We have to ask ourselves whose voices are despised, silenced, ignored. Then, responding to John’s instruction, we have to listen to them and allow them to point us towards Christ.

Where are you being called to hear the Word from challenging directions today?

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

Trusting joyfully in Christ

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Today we’re celebrating the feast of Sts Thomas More and John Fisher. They lived in times that were brutal and frightening, full of betrayal and mistrust. As they faced their martyrdom the words of today’s gospel must have had a particular resonance for them:

“They will hand you over to be tortured and put to death; and you will be hated by all nations on account of my name.”

Neither these disturbing words nor their arrest, imprisonment nor martyrdoms distracted them from trusting in God’s love. They may have felt overwhelmed and frightened by their situation. They certainly wished it could have been different. Yet through it all they were able to keep hold of St Paul’s words to the Romans:

“We are filled with joyful trust in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have already gained our reconciliation.”

The joyful trust Paul describes is easy when life is good. In those times it’s easy to believe that God’s love is poured out into our hearts. It’s not so easy in the reality of the world today, with all its terrors and uncertainties. The harshness of daily life can smother the love, joy and trust that are the heart of the gospel.

It’s when life is at its hardest and most challenging that we need that joyful trust. The harsher our world becomes the more we need the transforming love of God to be poured into our hearts to nurture and sustain us both in our personal struggles and in our interactions with others.

I’m grateful for Paul’s reminder that whatever challenge and uncertainty we face we can trust that God’s love will be with us, sustaining, comforting, healing.

What helps you to keep trusting Christ’s promise in difficult times?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

Freed from Fear.

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Today’s gospel addresses a powerful human emotion, fear. It’s something we all have personal experience of in a myriad of different ways. We know how fear can undermine our plans and our lives.

We know it’s power to imprison and even destroy. I think that is always part of human nature. It’s especially true in the challenging and uncertain times we live in, when so much that we thought we could rely on suddenly seems uncertain and unsafe.

We are not the only people to have lived in such times. Jesus’ disciples also lived in fearful times as members a small nation occupied by a much more powerful one. They would have known just how precarious and uncertain life can be. In that situation Jesus had a very clear message for them:

“Do not be afraid.”

Knowing the precariousness of life, and the additional dangers that his disciples will face by following him he tells them that they should not be afraid. He encourages them to be brave and bold in proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. He reminds them that they are precious in the sight of God, and deeply cherished and loved:

“Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.”

His words offer an antidote to fear. They remind us that whatever we face, however threatened we are we are held in the loving heart of God. This doesn’t mean we won’t suffer or be persecuted. It doesn’t mean we will be afraid, challenged or hurt. It does mean, as Julian of Norwich reminds us, that none of this will overcome us.

Where in your life do you most need to hear Jesus telling you “do not be afraid”?

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Christ Discernment Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Prayer Rule of St Benedict Scripture Uncategorized

In the secret of our hearts

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In today’s gospel Jesus warns us against seeking attention and admiration for our faith and our good deeds. It’s a message that very much goes against the wisdom of age, which encourages us to seek notice and attention in every situation. It’s a call to live humbly. Humility is essential in Benedictine spirituality.

It’s not easy, it requires self-knowledge, self-awareness, self acceptance and self-love. It calls us both to accept our limitations and our giftedness, to acknowledge that we are both made of dust and the beloved children of God. As I reflected on this I was touched by these words from the gospel:

“When you pray, go to your private room and, when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.”

It seems to me that Jesus shows us the best way to learn to live humbly. He calls us to come alone into God’s presence, to spend time in a quiet, private, intimate space with God. It’s not an easy or comfortable place to be. Like the desert, it can be a place where we both wrestle demons and discover angels.

Entering that private place where God is we can come to acknowledge our weakness and our failings, learning to accept them lovingly as God does. We can discover the precious gifts that God has given us and discern how best to use them in the service of others. The secret place where we encounter God is a place of challenge, it is also a place of consolation, healing and encouragement.

How do you draw strength from your times alone in God’s presence?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

Recognising the Kingdom

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In today’s gospel Jesus sends out his disciples to proclaim the Good News around the towns and villages. Having given them power to cast out demons and cured the sick he goes on to tell them:

“As you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.”

His words are a call to attentiveness, they remind us that the kingdom is not an abstract concept for us to reflect on and theologise over. While the promise of the kingdom definitely has a futuristic element, in that we can’t yet see it in its fullness, it can also be a reality in the daily lives we live.

As we face the stresses and strains of our own lives, and the many challenges of our world it can be hard to believe that. Yet, Jesus promises us that if pay attention and we live by the values of the gospel we will see the kingdom grow in our midst. By imitating his actions we can make the kingdom he promises a reality today.

His words call us to pay attention to what we see going on around us, to where we see the values of the gospel being lived by the people we encounter. He also calls us to pay attention to our own actions.

He invites us to reflect on how we treat others, especially the most needy and vulnerable. He asks us to think about where we are called to be kind and compassionate, where we are called to offer hospitality, and to welcome those who are different.

Where is Christ inviting you to recognise the kingdom today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Sacred Heart Scripture

Centred on love

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Today we are celebrating the feast of the Sacred Heart. It’s a feast that celebrates the love that is the core and foundation of the Christian life. It reminds us that we are called into being by love, for love’s sake, to live in love and to share that love with others.

In the first reading, from the book of Deuteronomy, Moses the people of this, saying to them:

“The Lord set his heart on you and chose you…”

This choice is not made because of any power, wealth, talent or skill that the people had. It’s a choice made purely out of love. In his first letter St John takes this a step further. He reminds us that we too called by and held in love. He adds on that this love should change as so that we learn to love one another as much as God loves us:

“Since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another.”

His are call to action. While it is good to be aware being held in God’s love, it is not enough. That knowledge should lead us to reach out to others in love. In the gospel Jesus shows us a practical way of making that a reality. He says to his disciples:

“Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.”

In our harsh and challenging times this feast offers us the opportunity to reflect on what we might do to lighten the burdens and give rest to the people we encounter in daily life.

As we celebrate the feast of the Sacred Heart where are you able to lighten the burdens of those around you?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Prophetic voices Scripture Uncategorized

Treasures, new and old.

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We are fascinated by novelty. There is a particular attraction in something new, something we’ve never come across before. Novelty is often captivating and exciting. Without it so much of human development and flourishing would have been impossible.

However, there is another side to this that is particularly pertinent in this age of ever-increasing technological development. Sometimes as we are caught up whatever the next new thing is we lose sight of the value of what we already have. We seem to think that something new invalidates all that went before. In today’s gospel Jesus warned his disciples against this very attitude:

“Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved.”

In the excitement of listening to Jesus’ preaching of the kingdom it would be easy to think that the Law and the Prophets, are no longer relevant. Instead, Jesus tells them that his kingdom is built on the teaching of the Law and the Prophets that they already know and love. It’s not either/or, it’s both/and.

It can be hard to hold those two together. It’s so much more exciting to abandon the old and rush forward to embrace the new. That is not the way of the Kingdom. It requires a slower approach, one that allows us to reflect on what can be let go of because it no longer serves us well and what we need to carry forward as we embrace the challenges of our present age.

What part of our faith heritage do you most need to to help you embrace the challenges of the present?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Communion Corpus Christi Eucharist Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Prayer Prophetic voices Scripture

United in love.

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Corpus Christi being celebrated on two different days gives me another opportunity to revisit its rich readings.

“Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

His words are full of hope, speaking to the unity we all desire. It’s a unity that has two dimensions. There is the personal union with Christ that we are all called to, but desirable as that is it is not enough. So alongside that there is a call to unity with our sisters and brothers.

The call to follow Christ, while it is deeply personal, is not individual. It’s a call to community. As Benedict reminds us we go to Christ “altogether”.

In a world where we are all too aware of our disagreements and divisions, both in society and in the church,St Paul’s words can seem impossibly idealistic. When we look at the divisions between our churches his vision can seem like an unachievable dream.

With this in mind I turned to the readings for the 10 Sunday of ordinary time. I found that they laid out a pathway to the unity St Paul speaks of. In the first reading the Prophet Hosea reminds the people that God calls them to be people of love:

“What I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts.”

This gives me a deeper understanding the unity at the heart of Corpus Christi. It is first a call to build a community of love that is inclusive and welcoming to all who seek God.

As we celebrate Corpus Christi how are you being called to help build the church into a community of love?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Communion Corpus Christi Discernment Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Truth

In Christ’s Presence

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A post from our archives for the feast of Corpus Christi. As we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi I’m reflecting on the nature of Eucharist. The Scripture that comes to mind is the Emmaus story. Although it’s not part of the feast’s liturgy it seems to me to capture something of its essence.

It acknowledges the despair and hopelessness of the disciples as they trudged home disappointed and unsettled by all that has happened. We can identify so strongly with those feelings in our own lives that we almost feel the weight of it all as they pour out their story to Jesus. They remind me that Eucharist offers us an opportunity to bring our brokenness, hurt and disappointment into the presence of Christ.

Jesus responds to their despair by taking them through the Scriptures already know, reminding them of the passages that speak about the Messiah. As he does this their hearts are ignited, and through their sadness they glimpse something so good that they don’t want to let it go, so they invite him to stay with them. Full recognition only dawns as they sit down to eat together and:

“He took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognised him…”

It seems to me that the essence of the Eucharist is an invitation rediscover the reality of Christ’s presence in every part of our lives, in our liturgies, in our communities, in all our relationships and activities.

As we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi where do you recognise the reality of Christ’s presence in your life?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Prophetic voices Resurrection Scripture Truth

A step into the unkown

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Today’s gospel finds Jesus disputing with the Sadducees. They come to him with a series of hard questions, hoping to trap him into speaking out against the Law. Jesus knows what they are up to and takes the conversation beyond those arguments to a new level.

Their arguments are based on the assumption that life after resurrection will be in some way a continuation of the life we already know. We have to admit that there is a certain amount of appeal in that assumption, even as we face the unknown we hope that there will be something familiar to cling onto.

Jesus however takes them beyond that assumption, reminding them that life after resurrection will not be a copy of life on earth. Yet, even as he removes that assurance he offers them a deeper, truer hope, reminding them of Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush:

“God spoke to him, and said: ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’” God is God, not of the dead, but of the living.”

It seems to me that his words are a call for us to leave behind all that would prevent us from embracing the new life offered by the resurrection. He invites us to let go of the ways that would hold us bound.

His invitation echoes that of Deuteronomy when God calls the people to choose life. If we are to be free to choose the new life Christ offers us we have to be prepared to let go, and to step out into the unknown.

Where is Christ calling you to step into the unknown today?