Category: Lectio Divina

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Eastertide Lectio Divina Resurrection Scripture

An open heart.

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Today’s first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, introduces Lydia, a devout business woman from Thyatira. She is in the purple dye trade, which was very much at the luxury end of the clothing market of the day. She’s a skilled, successful woman, capable of running her business and household.

This gives us an interesting and valuable insight into the lives of women at the time which deepens our understanding of the people who made up the early Church. But, fascinating as that is, it’s not the most interesting, important or exciting thing Luke tells us about Lydia. He writes:

“The Lord opened her heart…”

The interesting thing about Lydia is that the Lord spoke directly to her heart and changed her life forever. Building on the devout faith she already had Christ opens her heart to a new and deeper reality, a faith based on the good news of resurrection.

We don’t know all the details of how that change played out through the rest of her life. We only see it’s beginnings in the fact that she and her household were baptised and in her compelling Paul and Barnabas to come and stay with her.

Her story fills me with hope. She teaches me that, if we allow him the opportunity, the risen Christ can open our hearts to the new life his resurrection offers. If we allow him into our hearts he can change the daily reality of our lives just as much as he changed Lydia’s.

Where are you being open your heart to the risen Christ this Eastertide?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Eastertide Gospel Holy Spirit Lectio Divina Liturgy Resurrection

Living in hope.

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Hope is surely one of the most precious gifts we can have. Like so many other gifts it’s easily taken for granted when times are easy. When life is going smoothly hope comes naturally to us. It’s easy to be hopeful when we feel secure and are sure of the direction our lives are taking. It becomes a much more challenging prospect when we live with the anxiety of caused by uncertain times. Yet it is precisely in the most challenging times in life that we most need hope.

As I listened Jesus preparing his disciples for his departure in today’s Gospel I’m struck by he recognises their need for hope, promising that he will not leave them to face the trials of life alone. He tells them:

“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.”

He knows that they will face trials, uncertainty and persecution. They will face situations that they will not be able to cope with alone, ones that take them beyond the limits of their human resources. It’s in those circumstances that the Spirit comes to sustain them. The Spirit can offer a solid basis for their hope, even when all around them seems hopeless.

As we face a myriad of challenges, uncertainties and struggles the Spirit dwells in us, promising us that our hopes will not be disappointed, offering us a certainty we can rely on whatever storms life throws in our direction.

Where do you need to discover the hope the Spirit promises this Eastertide?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Resurrection Scripture

For the healing of the nations

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Today I’ve turned my attention to the book of Revelation. It’s far from being my favourite Biblical text. I generally find it an uphill struggle. Yet even as I wrestle with it I have to admit that it contains some hidden gems that offer me hope and inspiration. I’m reflecting on this from yesterdays’ Office of Readings:

“On each side of the river there was a tree of life, which bears fruit twelve times a year, once every month; and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.”

These words carry a promise and a hope that is desperately needed today. Our world is deeply broken and fractured disputes and conflicts. The resulting violence has huge costs for ordinary people, destroying lives and communities, undermining human dignity and efforts to flourish and grow. It’s hard to imagine a time that needs the healing the text offers more than our own.

It can be tempting to assume that the writer of Revelation wrote these words of hope at time when life was, calm, peaceful and straightforward for his community. That’s not the case. He was writing to a community facing great suffering and persecution. In such times he could encourage his community to find hope in the promise of the risen Christ however desperate their circumstances were.

This adds a new layer of hope to his words. However broken and fractured our world is, and whatever we face as a result his words offer us hope. They promise that the risen Christ is there offering our fractured nations hope and healing.

Where do you see signs of the hope and healing the risen Christ is offering us this Eastertide?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Resurrection Rule of St Benedict Scripture

Chosen to bear fruit.

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“You did not choose me: no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last…”

We live surrounded by choices that often require a lot of time, thought and effort. This can give us a sense of control, but if I’m honest it can also feel overwhelming and limiting. As is so often the case Jesus’ words draw me to a deeper reality that is both truer and more liberating. Going to the heart of our Christian vocation they recall the words of psalmist quoted by St Benedict:

“Is there anyone here who yearns for life and desires to see good days?”

I find these gospel words both hopeful and humbling. They remind me that my role is to listen and respond. They call me back to humility, telling me that control is not in my hands, but in the hands of Christ. They fill me with hope as they tell me I am already chosen, Christ has already chosen me, and each one of us, and is waiting with love for us to respond to his call to life.

How are you listening and responding to the call of Christ in your life today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Resurrection Scripture

Abiding in the love of Christ.

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Today I’m reflecting on this from St John’s gospel:

“Remain in my love… I have told you this so that so that my own joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. “

It touches on the deepest desires of our hearts, to know ourselves loved. We can easily finish the concept of love. We can use it lightly to talk about favourite foods or activities. Or we can sentimentalise it, focussing only on the positive feelings that feeling loved arouses. Those feelings are important and essential for all of us, but the love Jesus offers is something much deeper than that.

His love offers us the deep assurance we seek, promising to accept us as we are, with all our faults and failings.  Yet, Jesus offers an invitation and challenge beyond that. This love is willing to put itself aside. Jesus illustrates that in his total self giving, putting himself aside for love of us.

He invites us into this love, calling us to live as he does. He challenges us to live in a way that calls us to put ourselves aside for the Good of others. It’s a call St Benedict echoes, telling the community to choose what is better for others rather than ourselves.

It’s a call we can live in both big and small ways. It can mean anything from supporting someone through a crisis to greeting a passer by with a smile when we don’t feel like it. It is in practising this self giving love where we can that we will discover the joy Jesus promises.

Where are you called to abide in the love of Christ today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Resurrection Scripture

At home in Christ

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Each time we revisit today’s gospel I discover something new in it. Sometimes the “new” message is something that has touch my heart in the past that I need to be reminded of again. Other times I’m struck by something that seems so completely new that it’s as if it’s only just been added to the text as I read it. Today I’m reflecting on these words, which seem completely new to me. Jesus says to his disciples:

“Make your home in me, as I make mine in you.”

His words touch a deep yearning within us. We all have an inbuilt yearning for home. We all need a safe place where we can be accepted and nurtured, a place where we feel that we can belong, flourish and grow. That yearning seems especially sharp in times like these when so much that we assumed was solid has turned out to be fragile and uncertain.

The more aware we are of life’s challenges and fragility the more we recognise our need for a safe place. As the circumstances of the past few years erode our sense of safety and security Jesus’ words become a beacon of light, offering us love and hope. However fragile and uncertain our circumstances we can still find a safe place in him, a place where we can be held nurtured, grow and bear fruit.

How are you finding your way home to the heart of Christ this Eastertide?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Resurrection Scripture

The peace of Christ.

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In today’s gospel Jesus offers his disciples the gift of peace:

“Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you.”

We always need this gift of peace. We can sometimes lull ourselves into a sense of false security, accepting a surface status quo as peace, ignoring the conflicts that lie beneath it. In reality, however much we disguise it, there is always some situation in our personal lives or in our societies that needs the healing touch of peace.

Having said that there also seems to be times when our need for peace is more obvious and urgent. There are times when those conflicts and disagreements that have simmered under the surface breakout bringing violence and destruction in their wake. We are living in such a time now.

There are so many places today facing war and conflict. We can no longer ignore the huge costs of these conflicts to ordinary people. The destruction they bring to ordinary lives and communities is truly horrific.

This gives Jesus’ offer of peace a new and deeper meaning. When our own fragile attempts at peace making feel our only hope is to trust in the peace he offers. His peace is universal; it is offered without judgement or partisanship. If we are to have any hope of healing our war-torn world, we each have to open our hearts to accept the peace he offers. We have to it to shape our life, and share it with others in ways that change and rebuild broken relationships.

Where is Christ challenging you to accept and share his piece this Eastertide?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Eastertide Gospel Holy Spirit Lectio Divina Liturgy Resurrection Scripture Uncategorized

A promise & a hope.

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Eastertide a dynamic season. From Easter Sunday onwards there’s lots of movement, disciples running to and from the tomb, setting out on journeys as soon as they reach home to share the news of the resurrection, moving around the area sharing this Good News with anyone who will listen.

All this activity is grounded in their intimate, personal and life changing encounters with the risen Christ. For several weeks the risen Christ has revealed the resurrection and deepening our understanding of who the he is. Now, approaching Ascension there is a new movement. Jesus says to his disciples:

“I have said these things to you while still with you; but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.”

Jesus is beginning to prepare his disciples, and us, for another departure. Once again he is leaving them, this time to return to his Father. As we move towards the Ascension he makes it clear that he’s not leaving them emptied handed.

As well as their own personal experiences of him he has broadened and deepened their understanding of who he is. Now he promises them the Holy Spirit, the Advocate.

The Spirit will be with them to teach and support them, to give them the courage to face the challenges that will come. The Spirit will remind them of all Jesus said, all those things that might be forgotten in the emotion of the moment.

This is equally true for us today. In all the challenges we face Jesus promises us that the Spirit will be there with us.

What is your hope for the action of the Spirit in your life this Eastertide?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Resurrection Scripture

People of Love.

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In today’s gospel Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure by leaving them a blueprint for how to live by his example. He says to them:

“My little children, I shall not be with you much longer. I give you a new commandment: love one another; just as I have loved you, you also must love one another. By this love you have for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

He not talking about love in any abstract way, but as an action that changes our behaviour and our lives. He has just washed his disciples’ feet, showing them what love might look like in practice. He knows Judas is about to betray him, and Peter to deny him.

Yet he neither judges nor blames. Instead he chooses to remind them that their lives are grounded and held his love. and shows them how to allow that love to shape their lives and relationships.

He wants his disciples to be recognised firstly as a people who love one another. It’s a call to put the needs of others before our own, to put the common good before personal gain. We might be called to a myriad of small, hidden acts of love throughout the day. It might be something as simple as opening a door, offering a cup of tea or smiling at a passing stranger.

Or it might be that we’re called to love in some bigger way, sacrificing something that really matters to us for the sake of those we love. Either way our love is grounded in the love of Christ, and that gives us the courage and strength to be recognised as people of love.

Where is the risen Christ calling you to reach out in love today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Resurrection Scripture

New Horizons.

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All through Eastertide the gospels show us Jesus revealing himself to his disciples. Each revelation begins where the disciples are. It then takes them beyond that into new, uncharted and challenging territory. Jesus starts with their current understanding uses that to lead them to a deeper understanding of who he is.

Today it’s Phillip’s turn. When Jesus tells the disciples:

“If you know me, you know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen him.”

Phillip responds:

“Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied.”

Phillip’s response reflects dissatisfaction and desire, he wants more. Jesus doesn’t criticise him for that, instead he offers another, deeper revelation, telling Phillip:

“To have seen me is to have seen the Father…”

Jesus opens Phillip’s heart to the possibility of a new way of seeing God. He offers us the same opportunity. If we allow him to open our hearts, we will discover he is present with us in the midst of human life. We will find him alongside us in the midst of our daily activities, however mundane, frustrating or challenging we might find them. This is a promise full of hope, joy and encouragement.

This new understanding is also a challenge. If we are to discover God’s presence in the midst of daily life, we have to pay attention in a new way. We have to be alert and attentive. We have to risk being open and vulnerable to allow that presence to be revealed, and to respond to it.

As we move through Eastertide where is Christ opening your heart to his presence in our midst?