Category: Lectio Divina

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Lectio Divina Saints Scripture Uncategorized

For the glory of God.

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I’ve been reflecting on the second reading from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. He writes:

“Whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

This seems such an obvious statement that it hardly needs to be said. Of course, we would want to be doing everything for the glory of God. Yet, reflecting on putting it into practice we soon realise it’s not that straightforward. We have to discover for ourselves what that might mean in our circumstances. In this short passage St Paul gives some idea of what it means in his situation:

“I try to be helpful to everyone at all times, not anxious for my own advantage but for the advantage of everyone else, so that they may be saved.”

Once again this seems very obvious, and we can easily agree that this is what strive to do. Yet to achieve this is not always straightforward. We can’t always know what will be the most helpful in any given situation. We can’t assume we know what people will need. If we are to model ourselves on Christ we have to take the time for prayer and discernment. We have to listen to people to tell us what will help them.

We also have to listen to ourselves to discern if we are in a position to offer that help. If we are to do everything as St Paul suggests “for the glory of God” we need to be generous in listening and responding. We also need to be honest and humble in admitting that we might not be able to meet every need that is presented to us.

What might it look like to do everything for the glory of God in your situation today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Lectio Divina Liturgy Rule of St Benedict Saints Scripture Uncategorized

Held in love.

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A post from the archives for the feast of St Scholastica:

Today we are celebrating the feast of St Scholastica, the sister of St Benedict and the patron saint of Benedictine women…It’s a feast about the power of love, and that keeps coming up in the readings. In his first letter to the Corinthians St Paul writes:

“Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins, but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.”

St Paul captures the essence of love and why it is so essential to our lives. He expresses both the ideal we strive towards and the practicalities of how we make that ideal a reality in our daily lives.

We also hear 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.”

St Scholastica’s actions speak of an aspect of love that we often forget, self-love. This can be a real challenge, not least because we are aware of its dangers. St Scholastica had the awareness to know her need of love, and the courage to admit it. If we are to strive towards St Paul’s ideal of love, we need to be ready to accept the patience and kindness that love offers us as well as offering it to others.

Where are you being called accept the love you are offered today?

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Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture Uncategorized

Bridging the Gap

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I’ve been reflecting on Jesus’ encounter with the Syrophoenician women. It turns all my expectations on their heads, and each time I revisit it it offers me a new challenge to reflect on. I expect Jesus to be kind loving and accepting of those who ask his help regardless of their backgrounds, to welcome the outsider and the stranger. In this passage Mark presents a different Jesus, at least at its beginning. When the woman, clearly a foreigner, first approaches him his reaction is to turn her away in a manner that must have caused offence, saying to her:

“It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.”

The woman could have gone away at that point, hurt and rejected, but she didn’t. Courage or desperation compelled her. She stayed and argued with Jesus until she changed his mind:

“‘Ah yes, Sir, she replied, ‘but the house-dogs under the table can eat the children’s scraps.'”

Her courage in standing her ground and arguing her case is transforming for her and for Jesus. She makes him see things from a new perspective and he changes his mind, saying to her:

‘For saying this, you may go home happy: the devil has gone of of your daughter.’

It’s left me reflecting on how we respond to people who we perceive as “other”. Our temptation is generally to turn away, to block them or disregard their opinions and experience. This gospel suggests another way, that we take the time to bridge the gap between us, to listen to their perspective, and to risk allowing that to change us.

Where are you being challenged to listen to another’s perspective today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Christmastide Gospel Holy Spirit John the Baptist Lectio Divina Scripture

Called to life and hope

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Today we’re celebrating the Baptism of the Lord, the feast that brings the Christmas season to an end. As it celebrates the first public appearance of Jesus it refocuses our attention in a new way. The humility and openness of John the Baptist turns our attention towards Jesus:

“Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals.”

His action takes an already growing sense of expectancy in the crowd and points it towards its source and hope. He shows us the one we are to follow, to imitate, to grow into. As she reflects on Mark’s account Sr Verna Holyhead writes:

“This gospel is a declaration of who Jesus is to Mark’s church, a statement of their self-understanding as disciples of the new messianic times who are sons and daughters of the Father because they are baptised into the Spirit-filled and Beloved Son, and commissioned to serve in his name.”

Her words remind me that we, like those first disciples, are called to reflect on who Christ is for us today. Like the early Church we will struggle to understand and accept the implications of that for our lives. The reflection will necessarily challenge us. It will lead us through deep and tumultuous waters as we struggle to let go of all that would prevent us from embracing the new life Christ offers

Jesus, the beloved and favoured one, has come to challenge and transform us with his costly gift of love. As he rises from the waters of his baptism he calls us to follow him through it’s depths into the light of life and hope.

How is Christ calling you to follow him today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Christmastide Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture Uncategorized

Delights and challenges.

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Today we’re celebrating the feast of Epiphany. Together with the Baptism and the wedding at Cana it’s part of a trio of epiphanies that recognise Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Son of God. It’s full of awe, wonder and joy. Yet there’s another side to it. There’s challenge, threat and uncertainty there too. The magi find the Christ after a hard, and sometimes dangerous journey that’s summed up in T. S. Eliot’s poem, “The journey of the Magi”:

“A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.”

Their journey brings them joy and delight as the gospel makes clear:

“The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child and his mother Mary, and falling to their knees did him homage.”

Yet that doesn’t cancel out the difficulty, challenge, suffering and hardship, they face but manifests in the midst of all those hard realities of life. Generally, I think we’d prefer that joy and delight would cancel the hardship, but it is just possible that, by not doing so, the gospel offers us a greater hope and a greater joy.

This way it takes account of the hardships and suffering we all live with, and tells us that it’s in the midst of those that we’ll discover the joy the Magi followed the star to discover. In our challenging and uncertain times that seems to me to increase the hope by acknowledging the hardship and telling us that however hard our journey we can discover and delight in the presence of Christ who chooses to dwell in our midst.

Where is Christ inviting you to delight in his presence in your life this Epiphany?