Category: Lectio Divina

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Beatitudes Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

Living the Beatitudes.

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Beautiful and inspiring as they are the beatitudes are one of the most challenging texts in Scripture. They turn all our expectations of life on their heads. They detail the whole range of human experience. We all know the experience of mourning and weeping. We all experience poverty of some sort, whether physical, spiritual or emotional. We all know hunger in some way, whether that’s physical hunger or an inner spiritual hunger. We have all been mocked, excluded and derided.

When caught up in the experience of these things our first thought is not likely to be that we are blessed. The challenge of the beatitudes is that the things Jesus calls blessed we tend to see as, at best, misfortune:

“Happy are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name as criminal, on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy, for then your reward will be great in heaven.”

The blessing comes, not in the circumstances themselves, but in the fact that whatever we are going through, God is with us, transforming the experience by God’s ever present love. That is not an excuse for those of us who are are not experiencing, poverty, hunger, mourning or exclusion to walk away from those who are.

It can be tempting to think that we can leave their situation to God. That is never the way of the gospel. If we want to live a life based on the beatitudes we are called to reach out to those in need, to offer support, to share what we have, to alleviate suffering in whatever way we can.

Where are you being called to live the beatitudes in your life today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Scripture

Choice & discernment

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Today’s gospel is a call to look within ourselves, to explore the things that motivate us, to pay attention to condition of our hearts. It’s a call to discernment. Jesus says to his disciples:

‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a person from outside can make them unclean; it is the things that come out of a person that makes them unclean. If anyone has ears to hear, let them listen to this.’

When life is uncomfortable and challenging it’s easy to look outside ourselves for the reason. We blame circumstances, other people or the situations we find ourselves in. Without denying that there may be things in all of these areas that need to change, Jesus also points us to the real source of our lives. It is what is within us that shapes us. It’s the condition of our hearts that draws us towards good or bad.

Jesus invites us to look within, to examine the motivations of our hearts. His words echo the book of Deuteronomy and it’s call to choose life:

“I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live…”

In offering us life Jesus asks us to discern the things within that would draw us towards life. He asks us to nurture those things and to turn away from the things that would lead us away from life, those things that injure us and others.

His call to to discover the best within ourselves and to bring that to our encounters and interactions. To do this we need to put aside the judgement, envy, pride & malice that would draw us away from all that is life giving.

Where is Christ calling you to listen & discern today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Monastic Life Rule of St Benedict Saints Scripture Uncategorized

The power of love.

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Today is the feast St Scholastica, sister of St Benedict and the patron saint of Benedictine women…It’s a feast about the power and importance of love.

We hear it in St Gregory the Great’s account of her last visit with St Benedict. At St Scholastica’s request they stay up all night “conversing of holy things”. This means Benedict has to spend the night outside his monastery. He initially refuses her request until her prayer results in such a fierce storm that he is compelled to stay with her. St Gregory comments:

“It is not surprising that the woman…was more effective than he [St Benedict] was on that occasion. For according to the saying of John, “…God is love.” So it was entirely right that she who loves more should accomplish more.”

The gospel is the story of Martha and Mary, so often seen in opposition. Mary is prayerful and contemplative and Martha as active and practical. The reality is more complex; they are both aspects of love. If we are to truly seek God, we need both of them, not in a hierarchy, but working together in union and tension.

We can see them come together in St Scholastica. She can only have recognised the significance of this last meeting with St Benedict if she had been a woman of prayer. She would also have been used to a life of practical service of others. She will have recognised the tension between them in her own life as Martha and Mary must have done. It may be that it was this that enabled her act out of love in praying for the extra time that she and her brother needed together on this last visit.

Where are you called to act out of love today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture Uncategorized

Called to follow

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In today’s gospel Jesus calls his first disciples. Catching sight of a group of men washing out their fishing nets by the lakeside, he tells them to put out their nets for a catch. Simon’s initial response seems to suggest he wasn’t so impressed by that idea. Yet, something about Jesus makes Simon think twice, and while his response begins with suspicion it quickly moves on:

“Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.”

Despite his tiredness and possibly his better judgement he does as Jesus asks, and brings in such an enormous catch that they can barely carry it. Then Simon recognises he is in the presence of God and falling to his knees he says:

“Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.”

This is often our first response too. It seems incredible that God should want to engage directly with us, and the first thing that comes to mind is how unworthy we are. That awareness is necessary and it can stop us from responding freely to the call.

Jesus, who already knows Simon’s faults and failings, response in a way that helps him beyond his sense of unworthiness by telling him not to be afraid. Hearing this response:

“They left everything and followed him.”

They can’t possibly have known what this would mean for their lives. Yet they they took the risk of stepping out into the unknown. Jesus offers us the same invitation. He asks us to sidestep our doubts and fears, and to put aside all that would stop us from following him.

What is Christ asking you to put aside in order to follow him today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture Uncategorized

Called by faith

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As I reflect on Jesus’ encounter with the woman with the haemorrahage Brene Browns’ description of courage as “putting our vulnerability on the line” comes to mind. In her determination to get close to Jesus the woman overrides all the taboos of her condition and reaches out to touch Jesus, convinced that he can bring her healing. When he notices her touch and she has to reveal herself she does so in fear and trembling:

“The woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her.”

She crosses the boundary of all the norms that would make her invisible, allowing herself to become visible in his presence. Jesus sees her as she truly is. He sees her fear and her vulnerability. He notices her courage and her faith, and in the light of his love she is transformed.

Both her fear and her courage resonate with me in our own challenging times. When life is harsh and frightening we are tempted to deny our vulnerabilities, suppressing or ignoring them. It seems to me the gospels suggest a different route.

The call of the gospel is to put that vulnerability on the line, to admit it freely and allow it to be seen, to have the courage to admit our need and to ask for help. If we can do that then maybe, with the woman we’ll be able to hear and respond to Jesus’ promise:

“My daughter, your faith has restored you to health; go in peace.”

Where is Christ calling you to let your vulnerability be seen today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Christmastide Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Presentation Scripture

The light of hope

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Living in times that are challenging, uncertain, even frightening it can be hard to keep hold of hope. It feels much easier to give in to despair and to allow darkness to have the upper hand. There is so much to worry and concern us that it can even feel like hope is at best naïve and at worst pointless. Today’s feast, the Presentation of the Lord is the last feast that touches on Christmastide. It promises us that even in the darkest times there is light, and that however dark it gets the light will not be overwhelmed.

The prophetess Anna encapsulates this hope. She was a woman who based her whole life on hope. Widowed after seven years and living constant threat that comes of being in a country occupied by a foreign power she knew suffering and challenge. She’s sustained by a deep and lasting faith that the Lord will fulfil the promises made to her people. She spent her life in the Temple, praying, waiting, and hoping. Like Simeon, she recognises that the child presented by Mary and Joseph is no ordinary child, he is the long-awaited Messiah:

“She came by just at that moment and began to praise God; and she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.”

She knew what it meant to keep on hoping even when hope seemed lost in the long shadows of hopelessness. It is out of these shadowy and sometimes painful experiences that she is able to recognise the presence of Christ, the promise light of the world in the most unlikely of circumstances.

As we celebrate the feast of the Presentation what helps you to keep the light of hope alive in your life?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Scripture

Sown in love

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Jesus tells us that the parable of the sower is a call to attentiveness:

“Listen, anyone who has ears to hear!”

It calls us to pay attention to the word of God wherever we encounter it. It invites us to allow that word allow it to sink deep within us, so that it can take root and sustain us whatever challenges we face.

It’s a call to pay attention to the condition of our hearts. Jesus tells his hearers that the condition of our heart affects how we receive the Word when we hear it. It might fall by the wayside and so have no chance to take root at all. We all live busy lives with a myriad of concerns to deal with every day. These can push the word to the wayside so that when we hear it we have no time or energy to reflect on or nurture it.

It might fall on rocky ground, those parts of our hearts that have become hardened because we have been hurt and built a protective shield that the word can’t penetrate. It might fall in that part of our hearts that are true so taken up with the challenge of living that it gets choked by our concerns before it can blossom.

That can feel pretty hopeless, except that Jesus offers us one more alternative. There is a place deep within our hearts that is open, waiting, receptive and trusting. When the word makes its way to that place it can take root and bear fruit that will sustain us whatever we face.
How are you preparing your heart to receive the Word today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Scripture

Promise and hope

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In today’s gospel Jesus is reading in his local synagogue. He reads from the prophet Isaiah:

“The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.”

They describe the the fulfilment of God’s promise that will be heralded by the coming of the Messiah, the source of hope for generations of Israelites, even when it felt like there was nothing left to hope for. I was struck both by the hope they offer and by how hard it can be to keep hope alive in the midst of difficult lives.

Jesus’ first audience in the synagogue must have known that truth from their own experience just as we do in ours. In his quiet, humble way Jesus points out a different reality. He reminds his hearers that the promise Isaiah speaks of has not been rescinded or forgotten, but is being fulfilled before their eyes:

‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’

Looking around them at the state of their world those first listeners must have struggled to accept his message. That’s equally true for us in our own troubling and challenging times. It can be hard to be hopeful, when life is tough it can even seem naïve or foolish.

It can feel like everything we read and everything we hear points us towards hopelessness. Jesus points in another direction. He tells us we are called to be people of hope whatever we face. It is the hope, that St Paul reminds us, cannot deceive us however troublesome the times.

As we face challenging and uncertain times what helps to keep hope alive in your life?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Ecumenism Gospel Lectio Divina Prayer Prophetic voices Scripture

Christian Unity

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As we celebrate the week of prayer for Christian Unity I’ve been reflecting this from St Paul’s letter to the Colossians:

“Clothe yourselves in heartfelt compassion, in generosity and in humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must do the same. Over all these, put on love. And may the peace of Christ reign in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body.”

His words are an inspiration and a challenge. They show us the best that the Christian community can be, and they remind us of how often we fall short of that ideal within and between our denominations.

This has particular resonance as I reflect on our ecumenical journey. We all stand in need of forgiveness, having misjudged and misinterpreted the insights, gifts and intentions of other denominations. At other times we have all been able to take the risk of reaching out towards other Christians in ways that have brought healing and moved us closer to unity than we could ever have dreamt of.

Many of our denominations and churches are dealing with internal situations that take most of their energy and resources. That is understandable and necessary, but it can make ecumenism feel like its on the backburner. My hope is that we have learned to love and respect each other enough be able to bear with one another in compassion, generosity and gentleness in a way that allows us the freedom to take the space to deal with internal issues without losing sight of the ground we have gained. Then, when the time is right we will be ready and able to take the next steps in our ecumenical journey together.

In this week of prayer for Christian Unity where are you inspired to be generous and compassionate?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Prayer Scripture Uncategorized

Time for prayer.

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Today’s gospel is all about service. It opens with Jesus leaving the synagogue going immediately to Simon’s house where he cures Simon’s mother-in-law. Immediately she gets up and begins to serve them. The evening sees Jesus serving again, as crowds of people come to him seeking healing. It must have been a long and tiring day, and all of us know that feeling. The next morning Mark tells us:

“Long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there.”

We tend to read this as a break in the pattern of service, Jesus taking time out to pray in order to return to serving refreshed and renewed. On one level that is is true, but the Gospels often have layers of truth. On another level I would suggest that Jesus’ act of taking time to be alone in God’s presence is also an act of service.

It is an act of self-care which allows him to draw the strength from God that he needs to carry on. It’s also an act of service to others, a reminder that part of what it is to be human is to need time to rest and recharge.

When the needs of the people we serve seem to be overwhelming we can feel pressured to keep going regardless of our own needs. Jesus doesn’t wait until every need is met, every person healed, every situation resolved before he takes the time he needs. It seems to me that he doesn’t expect us to do that either and that there is both an invitation and a challenge in that.

Where is Jesus inviting you to take time to pray in the midst of your serving others?