Category: Lent

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Divine Office Lent Liturgy Scripture Uncategorized

Sacred space

The encounter between God and Moses at the burning bush is one of my favourites, it sets the tone for the whole of Lent. There are certain places that we think of as “holy”. There are places we go to deliberately to seek God.

It might be a church or a prayer room, or a corner of our house that we use as a prayer space. There can also be places outside where we feel it is easier to connect with God. We sometimes call these “thin places”, they are often places of great natural beauty.

Moses is in the midst of a very ordinary activity on an ordinary day. He’s not in any place that’s officially marked as holy or religious or anywhere particularly beautiful.

It’s in the ordinary that God reaches out to Moses, using his curiosity about the “strange sight” of the burning bush to draw him into a conversation. As soon as Moses draws close God call out to him:

“Take off your shoes…for the place on which you stand is holy ground.”

Lent gives us the opportunity to reflect on what that means in today’s fragmented world. God offers Moses a promise and a challenge. The promise is that God will be with him whatever he faces.

God also challenge him to go out of his comfort zone in ways he could never have imagined. We also receive that promise and are challenged to move beyond the boundaries where we feel safe and comfortable.

Where are you being invited to discover the promise & challenge of holy ground in your life this Lent?

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Practicing Love

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We always start Lent full of hopes and plans. We plan our Lent practices with care, giving serious thought to what we will do or give up. We do this with the best intentions, looking for what will draw us closer to God in this special time.

We have high hopes for what these practices will accomplish in our spiritual lives. These practices give us a sense of purpose and focus that we desperately need in the midst of life’s that can be very distracting and dissipating.

Yet for all their value it can sometimes feel that these practices can become distractions themselves. We can become more focused on completing the practices than on their ultimate purpose. Today’s 1st reading is a call to look beyond the outward signs of our Lent practices to their ultimate purpose.

The prophet Isaiah writes:

“Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me – it is the Lord who speaks – to break unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke, to clothe the those you see to be naked and not turn from your own kin? Then will your light shine like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over.”

His words remind us that our Lent practices are not only for our own personal benefit. This is especially true in these challenging and hard times. They are to change our hearts so much that they also alter our behaviour. Whatever they are they should lead us to reach out to those in need.

They should soften our hearts so that we feel our neighbours’ pain. They should lead us to be kinder, more compassionate, encouraging and supportive. They should lead us to lighten the burdens of those we encounter in whatever way we can.

How are your Lent practices enabling you to help those around you?

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Making a choice

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Lent is a call to refocus our attention on the really important things in life. It acknowledges that the stresses and strains we face every day can draws away from our true purpose. We can get so caught up in these that we forget the truly important things, and turned towards things that are not good for us. In today’s first reading God calls Moses to give the people a choice that will call them back to their true purpose:

“I set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live in the love of the Lord your God, obeying his voice, clinging to him; for in this your life consists…”

His words are just as relevant for us, especially in Lent. All our Lent practices aim to bring us back to what is truly life giving. They remind us that the only truly life-giving choice is to turn to God, the source of all life so that we can live in God’s presence and shape our life by God’s love. The gift of life however does not come automatically.

As Moses points out we have to actively choose what is life-giving. On the surface that seems easy, but it is not always that straightforward. Often, at the outset at least the life denying choice appears easier or more comfortable, while the life-giving choice can feel harder and more challenging.

Our Lent practices help us discern what is truly life giving. They can help us decide what we have to let go of so that the things that are truly life giving can find the space to flourish and grow.

How are your Lent practices helping you to choose life?

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Ash Wednesday – Turning back to God

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Ash Wednesday always feels like a wake up call. It reminds us of how far we have slipped in our intention to live as people of God, how far we have moved from the values of the Kingdom that we’re called to make a reality. Watching all that is going on in our world today, that wake-up call seems even more urgent than usual. It makes the words of the Prophet Joel that we heard at Mass seem particularly relevant.

“Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks – come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning. Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn, turn to the Lord your God again, for God is all tenderness and compassion…”

His words seem to sum up both what we are going through and what we need to do to about it. Our world once again seems full of suffering. Everywhere we look we discover the heartbreak that is always part of war.

The suffering already seems endless and insurmountable. We can very quickly begin to feel hopeless, numbed by the pain and unable to act.

In these circumstances it seems to me that our first and most important step is to turn back to God with our broken hearts and broken lives, seeking compassion and forgiveness for ourselves and for one another.

Maybe then, knowing ourselves ourselves the recipients of God’s healing compassion we will be able to find ways of sharing that compassionate love with all who are broken hearted today.

As we start our journey through Lent what heartbreak are you being called to bring into the compassionate love of God?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Divine Office Holy Saturday Holy Week Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Scripture Triduum

In the empty spaces.

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The 46th word in my Lent lexicon is:

EMPTINESS.

After the high drama of Good Friday People often talk of holy Saturday as a “tomb day”, a time to sit with the emptiness that follows death, to allow the events of Good Friday to sink in. I recognise the yearning for that and its wisdom yet, it’s not an experience I recognise from monastic life.

In practice for many of us Holy Saturday is very much a hybrid day, we are aware of its emptiness, the mourning and the uncertainty. We also have to acknowledge that the Easter vigil is fast approaching and that Easter liturgies and treats do not plan themselves. So it is also a day of preparation and anticipation that can be very busy.

As we move through this hybrid day I’m reflecting on these words from the lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah from this morning’s Office of Readings:

“The favours of the Lord are not all past, nor his kindnesses exhausted; every morning they are renewed: great is his faithfulness. My portion is with the Lord says my soul, and so I will hope in him.”

Even in the midst of his lamentation Jeremiah is able to acknowledge the kindness and faithfulness of God, and to put his hope in that. His words speak to me of the hybrid reality of the day.

It seems to me that the emptiness of Holy Saturday calls us to imitate God’s kindness to others as we get on with the many preparations for Easter, and to ourselves as we seek small moments of quiet during the day.

In the emptiness of Holy Saturday where are you aware of the Lord renewing your capacity for kindness?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Divine Office Good Friday Holy Week Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Scripture Triduum

Hope in a dark place

The 45th word in my Lent lexicon is:

DEATH.

Image ©Turvey Abbey

In many ways it sums up the essence of Good Friday, the day compels us to look death in the face with all the pain and suffering that brings. At Office of Readings on Good Friday we sing the Lamentations of the Jeremiah. This morning I was struck by their opening lines:

“All of you who pass this way, look and see, is any sorrow like the sorrow that afflicts me?”

It perfectly sums up Good Friday, especially in such hard and uncertain times when we all carry so much suffering and when our society often seems determined to choose death over life. In such times the cross is the only place that can hold our suffering and our fear of death.

Yet, in Lauds I found the Lamentations were given a new and broader perspective by these verses from the Byzantine liturgy:

“How can you die, Christ our Life?
How can you lie in the tomb?
By your death you will destroy the power of death,
And you will raise the dead from their tombs.”

They echo the heart breaking sorrow of Jeremiah, giving us a place to acknowledge our own heartbreak and suffering. Yet, they also carry us beyond that. They point out that our faith doesn’t stop at the cross. The cruel death of the Cross is a staging post on our journey to new life in the resurrection.

They remind us that the Christ who lay in the tomb is already risen. He is with us in the sufferings and uncertainties of our times and will lead us through that to the new life that his resurrection promises.

As we face death before the cross this Good Friday where are you inspired by the hope of the new life Christ promises?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Holy Week Lectio Divina Lent Maundy Thursday Scripture Triduum

A new commandment

The 44th word in my Lent lexicon is:

LOVE.

Image © Turvey Abbey

It’s the second time this word has made an appearance in my lexicon, but it seemed worth revisiting. Listening to Paula Gooder’s reflection on the women of Holy Week I was touched Susanna’s words to the other women after Jesus and the disciples head to Gethsemane, leaving a sense of dread behind them:

“That’s the problem with extravagant love, it brings with it extravagant heartbreak.”

Her words seem sum up all everything this Holy Week journey, and indeed the whole gospel is about, the call to love with all its delights and costliness.

This love is symbolised on Maundy Thursday by Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. It’s an act of love, service and fellowship that touches my heart every year. It recalls the thousands of services we are called to perform for each other every day. Its simplicity and practicality encapsulates everything from loading the dishwasher to listening to and supporting the broken hearted.

As we carry out the action in our liturgy we hear these words from John’s Gospel:

“I give you a new commandment: that you love one another just as I have loved you.”

Jesus’ love is complete and wholehearted. It takes a clear-sighted view of his disciples, seeing all their faults and still loving them. It’s extravagant and generous. It calls us to love in the same way, both accepting and giving love wholeheartedly and extravagantly.

It seems to me that those are equally challenging. As we begin to celebrate the Triduum I am aware of how much our broken hearted world world needs that transforming, extravagant love.

Where are you called to accept the extravagant, heart breaking love of Christ this Holy Week?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Gospel Holy Week Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Facing betrayal.

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The 43rd word in my Lent lexicon is:

BETRAYAL.

Even writing it I’m aware that it’s a harsh and unforgiving word. Yet, reading today’s gospel it’s hard to find any other word to describe what goes on. Judas, for whatever reason, has come to the conclusion that he will betray Jesus to the authorities. Once again, Jesus shows that he is fully aware of what is going on and of where it will lead:

“He said ‘I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me.’”

It’s easy to identify with Jesus in this passage. We all know how it feels to be betrayed, we know the hurt, disappointment and heartbreak that it brings. We know it shatters lives and relationships.

It’s easy to identify with the disciples, indignant at the suggestion that this could be any of them as they chorus their:

“Not I, Lord, surely?”

Any of us have ever been mistakenly accused of anything can understand the indignation and heart that they must have felt.

It is much harder to identify with Judas, the betrayer. It’s so tempting to put him on the outside, to make him a scapegoat for all our own faults. It’s easy to tell ourselves that we would never have acted as he did. But if we are honest we have to acknowledge that in the course of our lives we too betray both Christ and ourselves.

So this hard gospel, and this hard word holds a mirror up to us. It asks us both to acknowledge the times we have been betrayed, and the times we have been the betrayer.

What mirror is Christ challenging you to look into this Holy Week?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Gospel Holy Week Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Glory revealed.

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The 42nd word in my Lent lexicon is:

GLORY.

Glory is not necessarily the first word that would come to mind when we think in the darkness, fear and betrayal that mark Holy Week. In today’s gospel, as Jesus celebrates the Last Supper with his disciples, Judas prepares to betray him. Jesus is fully aware of this, and indeed tells him to get on with it.

It seems that already Jesus has a clear idea of where all this is heading, even if his disciples are still in the dark. We certainly are all too familiar with where this all leads, and there is very little in it that speaks to us of any human understanding of what glory might mean:

“Now has the Son of Man been glorified, and in him God has been glorified. If God has been glorified in him, God will in turn glorify him in himself, and will glorify him very soon.”

He calls us to look again at “GLORY”, and at what true glory might actually mean. It couldn’t be clearer that it doesn’t mean anything we might recognise. It’s not connected to fame, wealth, recognition or celebrity or anything else our culture might recognise as glory.

The glory he speaks of can only come from one source, a wholehearted commitment to doing the will of the Father. As we move through Holy Week It becomes more and more obvious that Jesus has made that commitment. We know what that looks like for him. In calling us to follow him he invites us to us to discover what that would look like in our own lives and to make the same commitment.

Where are you being called to glorify God in your life this Holy Week?

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The anointed one.

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The 41st word in my Lent lexicon is:

ANOINTED.

It’s a word that has deep roots in our faith history and in our liturgical practices. At baptism we are all anointed with chrism to share in Christ’s role as “priest, prophet and king.” We are anointed again at our death. Throughout the Scripture anointing marks someone as having a special role from God.

Today’s gospel opens a new perspective on anointing. In frightening and uncertain times the disciples gather at Martha’s house It offers them an oasis of hospitality and safety in the increasingly dangerous times.

In times of great danger questions and doubts that we thought we’d put to rest often resurface so it is easy to understand Judas’ distrust and questioning. I imagine he wasn’t the only one feeling that way.

In the midst of the tension Mary’s action provides a fresh focus. Her action doesn’t deny or banish the fear or the danger, instead it points to a deeper reality:

“Mary brought in a pound of very costly ointment, pure nard, and with it and anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair; the house was full of the scent of the ointment.”

Her anointing once again marks Jesus as the chosen one of God. Jesus tells his disciples that she has anointed him for his burial, acknowledging that he is facing death, and preparing his disciples for that. As the scent of her ointment fills the house her simple action is a sign that love is stronger even than death. As she anoints Jesus she reminds us that our Holy Week journey ultimately leads us through death to the new life of resurrection.

As we move through Holy Week how does the anointing of your baptism sustain you?