Category: Gospel

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

Enduring in love.

Photo by Brittani Burns on unsplash.com

As we approach the end of the liturgical year the readings are full of challenge and warning. They are extremely honest about all the things that might tempt us away from that call, and how hard they will be to resist. In the northern hemisphere at least, as we approach the darkest, coldest part of the year, they seem to be reminding us of all that would lead us astray.

In the unsettling times we live in, with so many conflicting views and opinions circulating, these warnings seem to be particularly relevant. It’s hard to know who to believe, or which source to trust.

Jesus warns his listeners precisely of this danger:

‘Take care not to be deceived,’ he said ‘because many will come using my name and saying, “I am he” and, “The time is near at hand.” Refuse to join them.”

His words call us to stay focused on the values of his kingdom despite the distractions and temptations that come our way. He warns us that this will not be an easy choice. It will lead to misunderstandings and even persecutions. But he does not leave us without hope. Having been completely honest about the challenge and difficulties he reminds us of the hope that will sustain us:

“You will be hated by all people on account of my name, but not a hair of your head will be lost. Your endurance will win you your lives.’”

He reminds us that whatever we face in life we are held in the embrace of a loving God who will not allow even one hair from our heads to be lost.

As we approach the end of the liturgical year where do you most need the loving embrace of God in your life?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

Encounter on the margins.

Photo by Saif Memon on unsplash.com

For the past few days I’ve been reflecting on the story of the ten lepers that we heard earlier this week. Usually I reflect on the gratitude/ingratitude of the lepers, but this time I’ve been taken in another direction, and have been sitting with this:

“On the way to Jerusalem Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.”

It made me aware of how often Jesus is a marginal figure in the Gospels. His teaching, his lifestyle, the people he chooses to engage with all mean that he often walks a fine line along the borders of his day. He chooses to embrace this risky endeavour, knowing that as well as risk it gives insights and opportunities that might otherwise be lost.

Part of our call to follow Jesus is a call to the risk being on the margins. It’s a call that can leave us feeling like outsiders, alienated and even abandoned. Yet, it also carries hope, possibilities and blessings.

It can give us insights and perspectives that we might otherwise miss. Being open to that when we feel the vulnerability of marginalisation isn’t easy. It requires the openness to change that Ezekiel talks about when he says:

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

This is one of my favourite texts, yet it’s also a hard one. To allow our hearts to be released from their protective covering of stone isn’t easy. It may only be possible if we are able go out to meet Jesus in those border places.

Where is Christ calling you to explore the border places in your life?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

Being Ready

Photo by Thought Catalog on unsplash.com

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?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Prayer Scripture Uncategorized

Perseverance in prayer

Photo by Claudia Love on unsplash.com

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?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Saints Scripture Uncategorized

Christ’s Peace

Photo by Tamara Menzi on unsplash.com

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?

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

Forgiven and Forgiving.

Photo by Masjid MABA on unsplash.com

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?

Categories
Christ Discernment Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Monastic Life Prayer Prophetic voices Saints Scripture St Therese of Lisieux

Love at the heart of the Church

Photo by Berkan Küçükgül on unsplash.com

Today we are celebrating the feast of St Therese of Lisieux. She entered Carmel at 15 and died at 24. Once she entered Carmel she never left, she built no career, had no wealth and little influence. Even after her death, when her saintliness is recognised, she is often presented with an overlay of sentimentality and sweetness.

Her spirituality is often called “a little way” and that can make it tempting to dismiss her in these challenging times we might be tempted to look for a saint who is more obviously heroic than this young woman. To do that would be to greatly undervalue St Therese’s message.

Saint Therese was a woman of faith, courage, wisdom and discernment. Her little way takes us to the heart of the gospel. In a time when the church placed little value on love she was courageous in putting it at the heart of Christian life. Reflecting on St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians she writes:

“Love, in fact is the vocation which includes all others; it is a universe of its own, comprising all time and space – its eternal… My vocation is love… I had discovered where it is that I belong in the Church, the niche God has appointed for me. To be nothing else than love… That’s to be everything at once.”

She was able to see the one thing that she could do that had the power to change the world, one small act at a time. In these times when we are overwhelmed by the suffering we see in every area she offers us a way of making a difference. By choosing to show love in a world that often feels hateful our actions can affect real and lasting change.

Where are you being called to put love at the heart of your life today?


Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture Truth

Waking to the truth.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on unsplash.com

Today’s gospel is an uncomfortable read for those of us who live with more than we need. In his lifetime the rich man has more than he needs, he can indulge every whim and every desire without a thought for the cost. His wealth does nothing to increase his generosity or understanding of those who struggle to meet their basic needs. He seems perfectly comfortable ignoring the Lazarus begging for a few scraps at his gate.

When both men died the tables are turned, and Lazarus is held and cherished “in the bosom of Abraham” while the rich man is tormented in Hades. His agony awakens him to the truth and he begs that Lazarus returned to earth to warn his family to change their ways, but Abraham tells him that even if someone were to return from the dead, they would not believe him:

“If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.”

We can sanitise this and dismiss it as a morality tale, but it is much more than that. It’s a call to all of us who live with plenty to examine our attitudes to what we have. Unlike the rich man, we have someone who rose from the dead to show us the way of life. The call of Christ, the call of the gospel is not to gather riches, not to look after ourselves, but to share whatever we have, however little, with others.

Where is Christ calling you to share your gifts generously today?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

A risky discipleship.

Photo by Galen Crout on Unsplash

It can be hard to feel hopeful when life is tough. In challenging and uncertain times we tend to tense up and close in on ourselves. We find it hard to be hopeful, trustful or aware of our blessings. We look for ways of maintaining the status quo, and keeping ourselves safe Understandable as that is Scripture calls us to a different way of being.

In his own challenging and uncertain times Jesus sends the Twelve out to preach the Good News with nothing except his authority. Instead of allowing them to look for ways to protect themselves he challenges them to risk embracing the uncertainty:

“He instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses. They were to take sandals, but he added, ‘Do not take a spare tunic.’”

We are so familiar with this passage that it’s easy to sanitise it. We can assume it’s for the disciples, but not for us today. We can allow the challenges of our lives today to overshadow that call, using those legitimate demands to avoid it. We are also called to the radical trust and hope of discipleship. That can be easier when life is good, when our nations and societies seem stable and secure.

It becomes much more difficult when we live with fear and uncertainty across the globe. Yet, while the details might look different to the instructions to the Twelve, the underlying call is the same. We too are called to live with radical trust and hope in the midst of much that would undermine that.

Where are you being called to radical trust in Christ in your life today?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture Truth

With undivided heart.

Photo by Linda Ferns on unsplash.com

Today’s gospel is an uncomfortable read. It describes a dishonest steward, willing to cheat his master to ensure a comfortable & financially secure life for himself. He knows himself well enough to know he’s incapable of either manual work or begging. So, he sets about cutting the bills of his master’s debtor.

This is not to relieve them of their debt, but to ensure that they owe him a favour that he can call in at another time. All his self-knowledge only leads him to greater selfishness. Instead of criticising him his master expresses grudging admiration for his understanding of the ways of the world.

We all recognize the truth of this. We too live in a world, where looking after our own interests takes precedence over anything else. We live with the consequences of a worldview that values success over either truth or compassion.

While Jesus recognises this reality, he is determined to ensure that his disciples understand that this is not the way of his Kingdom. His disciples have to be alert to the ways of the world, but not to live by them. He says to them:

“No servant can be the slave of two masters: they will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.”

He makes it clear that his Kingdom has no space for divided loyalties or double dealing. We have to follow him with whole and undivided hearts. Such a wholehearted commitment to the Kingdom rules out the duplicity the steward exhibits.

Where is Christ calling you to a wholehearted commitment to him today?