Category: Lent

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Gospel Holy Week Lectio Divina Lent Palm Sunday Scripture

Sing Hosanna.

Image © Turvey Abbey

The 40th word in my Lent lexicon is:

HOSANNA.

Palm Sunday resounds with hosannas as Jesus entered Jerusalem surrounded by joyful and hopeful followers. The joy reflects the ancient hope that has sustained the people through generations of occupation and suffering:

“Blessed is he who comes to free us, David’s son our Lord and King! Sing hosanna, sing hosanna, all your love and worship bring.”

Yet we know how quickly those hosannas turn to the jeers that leads to crucifixion and death. The people have come out full of hope and expectation. When their need isn’t instantly met in the way they expect it soon turns to anger and frustration.

This movement is mirrored in our liturgy where we move almost immediately from celebrating this triumphal entry to listening to the reading of the Passion. All this can make it tempting to dismiss those Palm Sunday hosannas as superficial, even false.

This misses an important point. The hosannas of Palm Sunday remind us that we don’t have to wait until life is perfect to praise God. Even when life is fragile, uncertain, even when we are angry and frustrated and our needs are not being met we can sing hosanna.

Beginning holy week singing hosannas helps us to focus. It reminds us that although in this week we face the worst we can do and the worst we can be that is not the end of the story. We can carry those Palm Sunday hosannas in our hearts as we move through the darkness of Holy Week and Good Friday until we come out into the new light of resurrection.

What hosanna are you being invited to carry through this Holy Week?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Gathered in.

Photo by Ian Branch on unsplash.com

The 39th word in my Lent lexicon is:

GATHERED.

In today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah God promises to gather God’s people together. God seeks out the people who have been scattered by exile and brings them back to a place of safety and flourishing. God creates a home for them where they can rediscover their true identity as the people of God:

“I shall gather them together from everywhere and bring them home…they shall be my people and I will be their God.”

It’s a beautiful image offering hope and promising peace. It’s easy to imagine how it must have spoken to the longing of the scattered and exiled people of Israel. It also speaks to our experience. If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we too are broken. The challenges and activities of daily life can leave us feeling fragmented and scattered.

To get through the day we have to present ourselves in many different ways, move in many different directions and often spread ourselves very thinly. While much of this is unavoidable it doesn’t help us towards the wholeness and singleness of heart we desire.

God promises to seek us out, to bring our broken selves back together, tenderly gathering the fragments, healing as and restoring our wholeness.
Part of the work of Lent is to admit our fragmentation and to allow the healing touch of God into our lives to bring us back to wholeness.

Where are you aware of Christ drawing you back to wholeness this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Lectio Divina Lent Psalms Scripture

Cry out to God.

Michael heuss on unsplash.com

The 38 word in my Lent lexicon is:

CALLED.

There are two aspects of “CALLED” that we reflect on during Lent. The first is God’s call to us. We hear this repeated throughout Lent from Ash Wednesday’s call to return to the God who loves onwards. It is with us throughout Lent.

There is another aspect of “CALLED” that is equally important in Lent. It’s a time for us to acknowledge our need and to call out to God for help. At the burning bush God promises Moses that the cries of suffering people are heard.

We hear this again and again throughout Lent as the people struggle through their desert experience. But the invitation to call on God in times of need and suffering is not only a part of our history, it is an invitation made to each one of us today. Today’s responsorial psalm repeats this invitation:

“In my anguish I called to the Lord; I cried to God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears.”

We all face hard times, we all suffer and sometimes feel overwhelmed by our suffering just as the ancient Israelites did. The psalmists’ words are a timely reminder that we too can turn to God in our times of need, trusting that God will hear us and respond to our call.

That offers consolation when we are all too aware of our vulnerability in the face of our challenging and uncertain times.

Where do you feel the need to call out to God for help in your life this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

The call of faithful love.

Photo by john ko on unsplash.com

The 37 word in my Lent lexicon is:

COVENANT.

We are a covenantal people. All through our faith history God is calling us into relationship, seeking away of binding us to God’s self in an everlasting relationship of love and faithfulness. It starts with the call of Abraham and goes on through our faith history.

Today’s first reading, the call of Abraham revisits the beginning of this covenantal relationship with God. In a passage full of commitment and promise God says to Abraham:

“I will establish my Covenant between myself and you, and your descendants after you, generation after generation, a Covenant in perpetuity, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.”

It’s a call we deeply want to respond to with our whole hearts. Yet throughout our faith history this is a story of covenants made and broken. The brokenness comes from us, not from God.

We are the ones who are constantly turning away, forgetting our calling, looking for easier “false gods” to follow. Every time this happens God who is ever faithful offers us a new covenant, a way back into the relationship we truly cannot live without.


Lent offers us the opportunity to reflect on this covenantal relationship, to acknowledge where we have wandered away from it, causing it to fragment. It’s a time that calls us to turn back to God, to admit what we have broken and to renew that covenant.

As Lent prepares us for the new creation of Easter it gives us the opportunity to try once again to imitate the everlasting faithfulness of God.

Where is God calling you back into a new relationship this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture Truth

Freed by Truth.

Image by lechenie-narkomanii pixabay.com

The 36th word in my Lent lexicon is:

TRUTH.

Truth matters. Our relationships and societies rely on basic underlying truths that are generally accepted and agreed upon. If we are to live well and flourish we need to be able to discern what is true and what isn’t. This applies to personal, institutional and societal relationships. If we don’t know who or what to believe it becomes impossible to trust, and to live with hope.

It seems to me that this was once a fairly straightforward concept. We could mostly recognise truth. Even with disagreements and differences we could mostly agree on what was true. In recent times that seems to have become less and less the case.

We live in a “post-truth society” without ever stopping to ask ourselves if that leads to human flourishing or what essential human qualities it undermines. It does protect individualism, so that “my truth” can be different to “your truth” and neither of us has to give way of compromise.

Jesus addresses truth in today’s gospel, Jesus takes a different view:

“If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples, you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free.”

The truth he speaks of is not optional. Can lead us to true freedom, a freedom that is not about self-interest or individualism, but about the common good. He’s not talking “post-truth”, that cuts out the need for engagement or compromise.

The truth he offers us will challenge us and call us to let go of many things we hold dear, and it will lead us to true freedom.

How is Christ’s truth leading you to freedom this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Letting go of grumbling.

Photo by Hugo Fergusson on unsplash.com

The 35 word in my Lent lexicon is: GRUMBLING. Throughout the Rule St Benedict warns the community of the dangers of grumbling. It’s not to be tolerated in any circumstances. He even tells us that obeying with grumbling is no better than disobeying.

At first glance this can seem a bit excessive, but a few moments honest reflection helps us to see his point. We can all see how undermining grumbling can be in our lives and our relationships

On their journey through the desert the Israelites did their fair share of grumbling. They grumbled because they had no food, and God provided food, they grumbled because they had no water and God provided water. Then they grumbled because they didn’t like the food they were given.

Their grumbling had devastating circumstances for their communities, until they recognised the error of their ways and turned back to God, admitting their sin and their need. This created a space where God could offer them healing:

“Make a fiery serpent and put it on a standard. If anyone is bitten and looks at it, he shall live.’ So Moses fashioned a bronze serpent which he put on a standard, and if anyone was bitten by a serpent, they looked at the bronze serpent and lived.”

Their experience reminds us that we too can turn back to God, asking God to replace our grumbling with gratitude. In the healing light of God’s love, we can discover a new way of looking at things that leads us to appreciate what we have instead of grumbling about what we don’t have. In a world that tends to feed dissatisfaction learning be satisfied can be a real challenge, and can bring us to a new and life giving freedom.

Where are you been called to put aside grumbling this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Recognition.

Photo by Jeremiah Lawrence on unsplash.com

The 34 word in my Lent lexicon is:

I AM.

It takes me to the heart of the mystery of God, to God’s response to Moses when he asks God’s name at the Burning Bush. It recalls the mystery and wonder of the God who dwells in the heart of the pillar of fire, and the darkness of the cloud that leads the Israelites through the desert.

It’s echoed that striking moment in the gospel when Jesus asks the disciples who the crowds say he is. Their initial answer ranging from John the Baptist to Elijah doesn’t satisfy him, and he narrows his question down until Peter answers “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God…”

It’s a question that the gospel regularly presents each of us with, especially in Lent as we seek to follow him more closely. As we draw closer to Holy Week John’s gospel offers us an answer as Jesus seeks to reveal himself to the crowds. In today’s gospel he says:

“‘I am the light of the world… I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am going…I may be testifying on my own behalf, but the Father who sent me is my witness too.”

His disclosure tells us that his true identity is in his closeness to the Father. This both answers the question and draws us deeper into it. How does Jesus’ union with the Father change our view of him?

Does it affect our view of ourselves? These are not questions with easy answers, they require deep and repeated reflection. As Jesus defines his “I AM” for our we might find our response changing and growing through the myriad challenges and joys of life.

As we journey through Lent where are you recognising Christ?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Beginning again.

The 33 word in my Lent lexicon is:

A NEW BEGINNING.

In some ways way could describe all of Lent as a new beginning. It’s what we’re offered first on Ash Wednesday as we’re invited to turn back to the gospel and to begin to live it more faithfully. That offer is repeated throughout Lent as we follow Jesus on his journey towards his passion and ultimately Resurrection.

Today’s readings touch on this theme of new beginnings. In the first reading Isaiah promise that the Lord is about to do “a new deed” creating a new way through the wilderness where God’s people can both travel and live safely.

In the gospel, the woman taken in adultery is offered a new beginning by Jesus in what initially seemed like the most unlikely of circumstances. Having challenged and seen off her accusers Jesus says to her:

“Neither do I condemn you…go away, and do not sin any more.”

While his words offer her a hope that must have seemed unimaginable a few minutes before. Yet the offer also carries a challenge, as Chaim Potok points out “all beginnings are hard.”

Whether we’re faced with a small beginning or a major one like this unnamed woman it’s never easy to begin again. We can’t accept the offer of a new beginning unless we let go of our sin, however safe and familiar it feels, and to step out into the unknown. As we start the 5th week of Lent we too are invited to risk embracing a new beginning in our lives.

Where is Christ challenging you walk away from your sin and make a new beginning this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Letting go of prejudice.

Photo by Anita Jankovic on /unsplash.com

The 32 word in my Lent lexicon is:

PREJUDICE.

At first glance prejudice is not a word we’d necessarily connect with Lent. Yet in today’s gospel the conversation between Nicodemus and the Pharisees give an almost perfect example of prejudice.

Joining in a conversation about who Jesus is Nicodemus points out that the Law requires that no one is judged without a fair hearing:

“But surely the Law does not allow us to pass judgement on anyone without giving them a hearing and discovering what they are about?”

The response is not positive. Those who have already condemned Jesus in their mind do not want to be reminded of the requirements of the Law which they are flouting. Knowing they cannot win their case by engaging with Nicodemus at that level they immediately brush his query aside, saying:

“Are you a Galilean too? Go into the matter, and see for yourself: prophets do not come out of Galilee.”

They have an old prejudice against Galileans, and they use this to move the conversation on, enabling them to cast Jesus as an outsider, someone less deserving of consideration than they are.

It’s always easy to dismiss the Pharisees as an ancient group that have nothing to do with us. But often I think their role is to hold an uncomfortable mirror up to us. We know the chilling outcome of their prejudice.

This calls us, not to criticise them, but to look at our own lives. It calls us to ask what prejudices we carry? What people we belittle or see as outsiders? What people do we see as less valuable than ourselves? In our very challenging times these are questions we cannot afford to ignore.

What prejudice is Christ challenging you to let go of this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Learning to wait.

Photo by Immo Wegmann on unsplash.com

The 31st word in my Lent lexicon is:

WAIT.

At the very end of today’s gospel St John writes:

“They would have arrested him then, but because his time had not yet come no one laid a hand on him.”

His words touch on the sense of control and calm that Jesus seems to develop as we get closer to Holy Week and the passion. It’s something that is especially striking in John’s Gospel.

Although the crowd are angry and want to arrest him there is something in Jesus’ demeanour that stops them. It’s not the first time in Scripture that we’ve been told that Jesus slipped away because it wasn’t his time.

It marks a significant difference between his attitude and that of the crowd around him. All of them can feel the tension rising as Jesus travels round the country preaching and teaching. The crowd, acting in a perfectly understandable way, want to push things to a head, to take action, to force the situation.

Jesus, while he is equally aware of the tension, and possibly more aware of where it will lead, also knows that there is a right time for things to develop and move forward. So he is able to wait in the tension, knowing that his time will come.

Waiting is one of the hardest things to do even when life is straightforward and easy. It quickly becomes almost impossible as soon as life gets tough, painful, tense or stressful. In those situations any action seems preferable, because it’s less uncomfortable than waiting. Lent calls us to the uncomfortable practice of waiting.

Where is Christ asking you to learn to wait this Lent?