Category: Liturgy

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#ConsecrateLife #SimplyJubilee Benedictine Spirituality Gospel Jubilee Lectio Divina Liturgy Monastic Life Rule of St Benedict Scripture

Forgiven and Forgiving.

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Today I’m reflecting on forgiveness. It’s central to our human experience. Both our need to be forgiven and our need to forgive are deeply rooted in the reality of our daily lives, in both big and small things. It’s impossible to live connected to other people without at some point needing to both forgive and be forgiven.

This reality is reflected all the way through Scripture. As we continue to celebrate the jubilee of consecrated life, I’m reflecting on these words from the Our Father:

“Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us.”

These words are so familiar that we sometimes overlook their significance. Yet, they have the power bring the healing that can reset our broken relationships.

St Benedict recognises this when he says that the Our Father should be said by the superior at Lauds and Vespers “because thorns of contention are likely to spring up”. It allows us to acknowledge before God that, whatever our intentions, we will have been hurt by others in the course of the day, and we will have hurt them.

St Benedict wanted the community to be reminded regularly both of their need for forgiveness and their need to forgive others in the course of their daily life.

These two are intimately linked. We begin by acknowledging our own need for forgiveness. When we know ourselves held in the loving forgiveness of God then we are able to reach out and offer forgiveness to the people who have wounded us.

Where are you being called to offer and accept forgiveness today?

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Christ Discernment Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Monastic Life Prayer Prophetic voices Saints Scripture St Therese of Lisieux

Love at the heart of the Church

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Today we are celebrating the feast of St Therese of Lisieux. She entered Carmel at 15 and died at 24. Once she entered Carmel she never left, she built no career, had no wealth and little influence. Even after her death, when her saintliness is recognised, she is often presented with an overlay of sentimentality and sweetness.

Her spirituality is often called “a little way” and that can make it tempting to dismiss her in these challenging times we might be tempted to look for a saint who is more obviously heroic than this young woman. To do that would be to greatly undervalue St Therese’s message.

Saint Therese was a woman of faith, courage, wisdom and discernment. Her little way takes us to the heart of the gospel. In a time when the church placed little value on love she was courageous in putting it at the heart of Christian life. Reflecting on St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians she writes:

“Love, in fact is the vocation which includes all others; it is a universe of its own, comprising all time and space – its eternal… My vocation is love… I had discovered where it is that I belong in the Church, the niche God has appointed for me. To be nothing else than love… That’s to be everything at once.”

She was able to see the one thing that she could do that had the power to change the world, one small act at a time. In these times when we are overwhelmed by the suffering we see in every area she offers us a way of making a difference. By choosing to show love in a world that often feels hateful our actions can affect real and lasting change.

Where are you being called to put love at the heart of your life today?


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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Saints Scripture

Knowing Christ

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Today we’re celebrating the feast of St Gregory the Great. The gospel poses the question at the heart of Christian life. Jesus asks his disciples what people are saying about him. It highlights Jesus’ humanity, like all of us he wonders what people think of him, and how much impact his message is having them.

He gets a varied response from the disciples. Some people say he’s John the Baptist, or Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Brushing this mixed bag aside he asks the disciples:

“But you…who do you say I am?”

This question moves the discussion to a deeper level. Directed, not to the crowds who hear him in the market place or synagogue, but to the people who left everything to follow him. It requires a deeper response than the comments the disciples have passed on.

I can imagine the silence that fell as the disciples realised this and pondered their response. As usual it is Simon Peter who has the courage to break that silence as he says:

“You are the Christ…, the Son of the living God.”

As the rest of the passage unfolds we see how life changing this response is for Peter, and for St Gregory the Great. It’s left me pondering my own response to the question. Each time it arises it has the potential to be life changing for us too. Whenever it comes up we’re called to give it our whole attention so that we, like Peter and St Gregory, can answer it from the depths of our hearts.

Who do you say Christ is today?

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

With hearts made new.

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Today we’re celebrating feast of St Bernard Tolomei, the founder of the Olivetan congregation. He was a 13th century lawyer who, with a few friends, left the city to live as hermits in the hills outside of Siena. However, things did not turn out quite as they planned.

Having being led out into one of those “desert places” where God speaks to the heart, they were called back into the city to nurse the victims of the plague in 1349. It was there that St Bernard fell ill and died.

This morning at Lauds we sang this from the prophet Ezekiel:

“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

It seems to me to sum up both the essence of St Bernard’s life and of the call to contemplation that we all experience. Bernard was led to seek a life of contemplation and prayer. In turn his life of prayer softened the stoniness of his heart enabling him to leave his solitude to care for those in need.

His life suggests that there is no division between a contemplative life and one of active service, they are two parts of a whole. It is our time spent with God that enables and sustains our service to others. It is the love we discover in the heart of God that softens our stony hearts and enables us to love our sisters and brothers.

Where is God softening your heart today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Scripture

Celebrating the Assumption

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Today as we’re celebrating the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary I’m revisiting Luke’s account of the Visitation. It’s a beautiful encounter of two women connected by family ties and by the unusual, miraculous circumstances they find themselves overtaken by. It shows us Mary at the beginning of a life’s journey that culminates in the Assumption.

The young Mary can have had no idea of where this journey would lead her. Yet, despite her trepidation she is already full of the Spirit. She has the courage to use the words that have been passed down through her faith sing of the greatness of the God who has transformed her life:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit exults in God my saviour…”

It is easy to imagine that Mary knew how her life would unfold. We easily forget that she didn’t have our gift of hindsight. She had no idea of how her “yes” would shape her life and all our lives. She was a young girl stepping out into the unknown, hanging on to a promise from God that she didn’t fully understand.

It must have taken huge amount of courage and trust to take that step, singing God’s praises and trusting that the promise would be fulfilled.

In our own uncertain and challenging lives and times we are called to follow her example, trusting in dark times that God’s promise will also be fulfilled in our lives in ways beyond our dreams.

Where is Christ inviting you to step out in trust today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Scripture Uncategorized

Discerning treasure.

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We live in a world that presents us with a dizzying array of choices in almost every situation. There are times when this give us a sense of control but it can also be a burden. When presented with such variety it can be hard to know which to choose.

In many situations this may be fine, but if we are seeking to live a meaningful, prayer for life it is not enough. In today’s gospel Jesus reminds us that the choices we make matter. He says to his disciples:

“Sell your possessions and give alms. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, treasure that will not fail you, in heaven where no thief can reach it and no moth destroy it. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

He has already told us that we have no need to fear, even in our fearful times, because the Father has already given us the kingdom. But that gift requires a response from us. If we want to be able to accept and embrace that kingdom we have to practice discernment. We can no longer make surface choices based on our passing moods or whims.

Instead, our choices have to be based on the self-knowledge that comes from true discernment. Jesus asks us to learn to know our own hearts, to be open and honest about our true desires, and to base our choices on those.

Then, however whatever we face we will have a solid basis for the choices we make. Then, we are able to make them freely, knowing that the desire of our hearts and our actions will align with the values of the kingdom.

Where is Christ calling you to discernment today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Scripture Transfiguration

Transfiguration

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The Transfiguration is a beautiful feast. It gives us an insight into the mystery of God. It shows us how God’s glory can break through into our ordinary lives, transforming them and enabling us to see them in a new light. Yet it’s also full of challenge. Like Peter, when we glimpse that glory we want to stay with it.

We long to be held in the shelter of God’s presence, protected from the storms and hardships of our lives. Tempting as that is it misses the point of the Transfiguration. Those moments of intense encounter with God are not places to hide away but ones to draw courage from so that we can face the turmoil of the challenging lives and times we live in.

It seems to me that the key to the Transfiguration is in these words spoken from the cloud:

“This is my Son, the Chosen One. Listen to him.”

It’s a call to listen to Jesus that requires we are open to those intense moments of transformation, but are also willing to move on from them. It’s a call not only to listen, but to respond to his words, allowing them to shape our actions and encounters.

It’s a call to leave the places where we feel safe and comfortable and follow him whatever challenges life presents, and to learn to respond to those challenges with love, kindness and compassion.

Where are you being called to listen to Christ in your life today?

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

An open hearted welcome.

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Today we’re celebrating the feast of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, friends of the Lord, an important feast for Benedictines because of its link to hospitality. Luke tells us that Martha:

“Welcomed Jesus into her home.”

She offered him hospitality, a safe place to relax and have a meal with his friends in dangerous and uncertain times. However, John takes the hospitality she offers to a different level. He shows us a woman of faith, used to the theological reflection and conversation, and already a follower of Jesus.

Even as she grieves for her brother she is capable of questioning Jesus and of allowing his response to transform her whole life It is through their hard, challenging conversation that Jesus is both revealed and recognised as Christ:

“I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though they die they will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

Central as this revelation is it is not enough by itself, and he requires a response from Martha, asking her:

“Do you believe this?”

The recognition of her response completes the revelation as she proclaims:

“Yes Lord… I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God, the one who was to come into this world.”

I don’t think it would have been possible for Martha reach this recognition if she had only welcomed Jesus into her home. To recognise him as the Christ she must also have opened her heart to him.

By welcoming him into the very centre of her being she was able to allow him to transform her whole life. We too are called to offer the risen Christ hospitality in the depths of our heart, allowing him to enter and transform our lives with light, love and hope

How might inviting Christ into your heart change your life?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Resurrection Saints Scripture

Seeing the Lord

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Today we are celebrating the feast of St Mary Magdalene, one of the first witnesses to the resurrection, who was sent to tell the disciples that Christ had risen. It’s sometimes easier to say who she wasn’t than who she actually was.

Despite being portrayed through the centuries as the archetypal penitent woman, she’s not the woman taken in adultery. Nor is she the woman who poured oil on the feet of Jesus, anointing him for his burial.

Jesus cast out seven devils from her. So she is a woman marked by the pain of severe mental anguish. It may have been crushing anxiety, debilitating fear, depression or a myriad of other conditions that sap the joy and hope out of life.

Freed of her demons she follows Jesus, supporting him and the other disciples from her own resources. She stayed with him until the very end, standing at the cross with the other women when the rest of the disciples fled. She follows him, even after death, to see where his body has been laid.

Even when he is laid in the tomb her desire to be close to him draws her back to his tomb in the dark of the early morning. It is there, as she stands weeping, that the risen Christ appears to her, and commissions her to proclaim the good news of his resurrection to the other disciples, telling them:

“I have seen the Lord…”

Where is Christ inviting you to seek and proclaim his presence in your life?

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

Celebrating St Benedict.

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Celebrating the feast of St Benedict, I’m reflecting on Jesus’ call to service. He interrupts the disciples’ arguments about greatness by turning their perceptions upside down, telling them:

“The greatest among you must be as the youngest, the leader as the one who serves. For who is greater: the one at table or the one who serves? The one at table surely? Yet, I am among you as one who serves!”

His words remind his disciples that they are called to put the needs of others first. That was a startling call to his disciples. It can seem an even more challenging call to us living in a time when individual fulfilment and satisfaction are so much to the fore.

St Benedict puts the call to service at the very heart of his Rule, telling us that we should pursue what is better for others instead of for ourselves. He knows that this is not an easy call, and reminds us that we should bear patiently with one another as we strive to fulfil it.

Community life offers us many opportunities to practice both service and patience throughout the day, whether in big things or small. I often find it’s easier to do in the big things of life. When we know someone is facing something really difficult or challenging it’s easy to be loving and supportive.

It can be much harder in the myriad of little mistakes and annoyances that make up the bulk of most days. However hard it might feel St Benedict is clear that if we “long for life and to see good days” the only way is a life of loving service.

How are you being called to serve today?