Category: Lectio Divina

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture Uncategorized

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?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture Uncategorized

Generosity of heart

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We live with the expectation and hope that the blessings we receive are always positive. We expect them to bring us all we need to live well. Today’s gospel challenges that idea.

We hear the story of a rich man who can indulge every whim and every desire without a thought for the cost. It might seem that he is the very epitome of the blessing. Lazarus on the other hand appears to us to be cursed rather than blessed. He is so poor that he is reduced to begging, and is ignored and reviled by all.

As the story unfolds this is questioned. The rich man’s wealth doesn’t open his heart, it hardens it. He’s perfectly comfortable ignoring Lazarus begging at his gate. When they die the tables are turned, 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 return to earth to warn his family to change their ways. 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.”

The blessing of gospel living is that we already know the call of the risen Christ. His call is to let go of all that would harden our hearts. He calls us to allow our hearts to become as generous and open as his.

What are you being called to let go of to grow in generosity of heart this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Rule of St Benedict Saints Scripture

A gospel blessing.

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Love is at the very heart of the blessing of gospel living. It can be easy to see this love as an ideal, a valuable principle that we acknowledge then leave on a shelf as we go about the important daily business of living. If that is how we understand love it is unlikely to be a blessing to us or to others.

For love to be a blessing it has to be both the valuable and beautiful principle, and a practical reality in our daily lives. Jesus makes that clear to his disciples in today’s gospel. Turning all our expectations on their heads he says:

“Anyone who wants to be great amongst you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

His words make it clear that love of gospel living has to affect how we treat others. In chapter 4 of the Rule on the tools of good works St Benedict makes the same point. He reminds us “never do to another what you do not want done to yourself.”

Together the gospel and the Rule bring the blessing of gospel living back to a very basic practice that we can live each day, to treat others as we would like to be treated.

I wonder how life might change if that became the guiding principle of all our interactions. While that might prove costly the blessing of gospel living offers the hope that it will also be a life enhancing experience.

Where are you being called to treat others as you would like to be treated this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Beyond appearances

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Today’s gospel speaks to the heart of what appears to be a very modern dilemma. Jesus is warning his disciples not to fall into the trap of being beguiled by appearances. He warns them against behaving in ways which attract attention and focus on the externals, saying:

“Everything they do is done to attract attention, like wearing broader phylacteries and longer tassels, like wanting to take the place of honour at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues, being greeted obsequiously in the market squares and having people call them Rabbi.”

In an age that seems to be obsessed by appearances his words have a particular resonance. While he wasn’t talking about social media, we all recognise the similarities. Valuable as social media is it constantly presents us with images of “the perfect life” that we are all meant to be living.

This is attractive and beguiling, but not necessarily life-giving. As anyone who spends time on social media is aware this can lead us to be harshly judgemental of others and of ourselves.

This means that what could be a valuable tool becomes a burden to ourselves and to others. This is not the way of the gospel and it carries no blessing with it.

Jesus is quick to show his disciples another way of being. Having told them how not to behave he carries on:

“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 call us to reflect on how we engage with social media. The call of gospel living is not to make ourselves the centre of attention, but to focus on serving others. It’s blessing for our image obsessed age is that it sets us free from worrying about appearances and from the anxiety and judgement that can come with that.

How is your use of social media reflecting the blessing of gospel living this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Prophetic voices Scripture

Living fearlessly

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I’ve been slow to write a reflection today. That’s partly a reaction to the world situation. We woke up this morning to a world even more immersed chaos that was yesterday. It made my plan to spend the second week of Lent focusing on the blessing of gospel living seem at best irrelevant. As I watch conflict and chaos spread across the world it’s almost impossible to discover any blessing in life.

This is the natural response in such frightening and unsettled times. We tend to turn in on ourselves, seeking protection and turning away from hope. In such situations it quickly becomes hard to notice the blessing that God continues to lavish on us even in the hardest of times.

In that state of mind this line in our Lauds Canticle from the prophet Isaiah leapt out at me:

“Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name you are mine. Should you pass through the sea I will be with you; or through rivers, they will not swallow you up.”

This wasn’t written to people living safe and stable lives. It was written to a people in exile who had lost their families, their livelihoods, their culture, even their faith.

This caused me to think again about gospel living. If Isaiah’s words could be a blessing for people in exile they can be a blessing for us in our challenging circumstances today. The blessing of living for today is that however dark and frightening our times, however overwhelming our circumstances we are held in the heart of the loving God who will never leave us.

As we begin the second week of Lent do you need to feel that you are held in God’s heart?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Prayer Scripture Uncategorized

Learning to ask

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As I’ve reflected this week on the blessing of BEGINNING. I’ve been struck by the sheer variety of reasons there are for making beginnings. Some are forced on us by circumstances beyond our control.

Others are made freely and willingly because we feel the need for change. Whether our beginnings are caused by necessity or inspired by dreams and desires they often seem to grow from an awareness of neediness. With this in mind I turned to today’s gospel and was struck by this:

“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Ask, and it will be given to you, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.’”

It’s one of the most hopeful, and challenging verses of Scripture. The hope lies in the promise of needs met and an openhearted welcome. The challenge is to admit our neediness, to confess that we have needs and desires that we are incapable of fulfilling by ourselves. That can be a hard thing to do in our society that expects us to be high achievers in every area of life.

The gospel offers an alternative view. Instead of seeing neediness as a failure today’s gospel offers us the opportunity to see it as a new beginning, an invitation to openness and honesty.

Today’s gospel offers us is the opportunity to come into the presence of Christ with all our failings, uncertainties and incompleteness. It promises us that in accepting the blessing this new beginning offers we will find ourselves welcomed into the loving heart of Christ.

What do you most need to receive from the loving heart of Christ this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Divine Office Lectio Divina Lent Rule of St Benedict Saints Scripture

A habit of listening

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Nothing speaks to the hard work of BEGINNING as much as developing a new habit. In today’s first reading Jonah, a reluctant prophet is challenged to develop a new habit of obedience. God calls to him:

“Up!…Go to Ninevah, the great city and preach to them as I told you to”

Perhaps having learned from his earlier disagreement with God Jonah obeys swiftly and without argument or prevarication:

“Jonah set out and went to Ninevah in obedience to the word of the Lord.”

His response can make obedience seem easy, straightforward and simple, but it’s more complex than that. It takes me back to the Rule of St Benedict which calls us to “unhesitating obedience”. This is not a call to simply do what we are told, though it sometimes requires that.

Rather the call to obedience is a call to listen and respond to the call of God. It requires discernment, both to hear the call and discover the response we need to make. In the first instance the call to obedience is a call to listen. Then it is a call to respond to what we hear.

We’re called to develop a habit of listening, to attune ourselves to God’s presence in every situation so that we learn to recognise God’s voice in our lives. From this listening we will be able to discern the response we’re called to make. It’s a process that requires practice. We will make mistakes, getting it wrong, trusting in God’s mercy, and being willing to try again and change direction if necessary.


Where are you being called to begin to develop a habit of listening this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Rule of St Benedict Scripture Uncategorized

A second chance

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In today’s gospel his disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. The words he taught them have become one of the best-known, most used, and most loved prayers in Christianity. We know it so well, saying it several times a day, sometime without a great deal of attention. As I reflected on it to date seemed to me a perfect vehicle for reflecting on the blessing of BEGINNING:

“Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us. And do not put us to the test, but save us from the evil one.”

There is a beginning in the call of today’s gospel to rediscover its many riches from its ordering of the universe to its trust in God’s mercy and love for us. Each day when we pray it offers us the chance to begin again by putting ourselves firmly in that loving and merciful presence. In his rules and Benedict says:

“The celebration of Lauds and Vespers must never pass without the superiors reciting the entire Lord’s prayer at the end for all to hear, because storms of contention are likely to spring up.”

His words remind me of how this prayer is constantly offering us the opportunity to begin again. It acknowledges that we will fail again and again, but it doesn’t give up on us. Instead, it reminds us of the loving mercy of God which is always offering us a new beginning.

The beginning it offers allows us the opportunity to reset our relationship with God and with one another. It doesn’t deny our failures to love God or each other. Instead it offers us, again and again, a second chance, an opportunity to do better next time.

Where is Christ offering you an opportunity to begin again this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture Uncategorized

Loving service

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Today’s gospel is a very direct reminder that our faith is to bear fruit in our lives. Jesus illustrates this by telling his disciples a story of how his kingdom will be. It’s an uncomfortable read, full of challenge.

It reminds us that having decided to follow Christ, and committed ourselves to his kingdom every aspect of our lives has to change. We have to change the way we see the world.

We are to discover Christ in everything, in creation, in our work and home lives, in the people we love, and perhaps most especially in the people we find challenging or difficult.

Jesus is very clear, when we encounter people in any sort of need, we encounter him. We are to treat them as we would treat Christ. This clearly surprised his first listeners, so much that he had to make it very explicit:

“I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these sisters and brothers of mine, you did it to me.”

We are so used to hearing this that it doesn’t have much of an impact on us. We know it from the Gospels, we hear it echoed in the Rule of St Benedict. We often acknowledge the sentiment without pausing to examine how our behaviour matches it.

Lent is a good time to revisit our behaviour. There is the possibility of a new beginning here. We can choose to look for ways to help and support those in need, to ensure that they are treated with dignity and respect.

Where is Christ inviting you to begin to look for ways to support those around you this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Rule of St Benedict Scripture

A hard beginning.

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Inspired by Sister Laurentia John’s book: “The Way of Benedict: Eight Blessings for Lent.” I’ll be reflecting on a different blessing each week in Lent through the lens of the Scripture readings and of the Rule of St Benedict.

The first blessing is BEGINNING. Chaim Potok’s book “In the beginning”, opens with this phrase, “all beginnings are hard…” This is something I often choose to forget. I prefer to focus on the promise, hope and possibility that a new beginning offers us.

However much our beginnings overflow with possibility, and they are also hard. Beginnings don’t come with guarantees. Each beginning requires us to step out in trust into the unknown, that is challenging and unsettling.

This is highlighted by today’s gospel. We see Jesus stepping out into a new beginning. Immediately after his baptism when he is acknowledged by God as “beloved son” we’re told:

“Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

It’s hard to imagine a harder beginning than that. Part of me wants to shy away from it, to look for a gentler start to this journey that we are called to imitate.

Yet Jesus doesn’t shy away from this hard beginning. He faces the challenge of each temptation head-on. His courage and perseverance lead him through the temptations until we hear:

“Then the devil left him, and angels appeared and looked after him.”

His example offers us hope. Whatever hard beginnings our own Lent brings, we can trust that we too will find blessings to sustain us on that journey.

What blessing do you most need to begin your journey this Lent?