Category: Liturgy

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Resurrection Scripture

Holding on to hope.

Photo by Nareeta Martin on Unsplash

Today we hear the story of the resurrection from the perspective of two disciples returning from Jerusalem. As they walk along the road they discuss all that has happened in the previous few days Jesus comes and walks alongside them. Their sadness overflows as they tell him all that had happened finishing with:

“Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free…“

Those few words express all the pain, disappointment and disillusionment that comes when hopes and dreams are shattered. Their response to Jesus’ question shows us something we already know in our hearts; hope is absolutely essential to human life. We all know that from our own experience, from the times when we have been so hurt, let down or disappointed that we feel completely hopeless.

We recognise what a deadening feeling that is, and so we can identify with these sad and despondent disciples. In response to their despair Jesus takes them on a journey through Scripture, showing them that, contrary to appearances, their hopes had not deceive them. Eventually, with hearts burning within them, they recognise him as the risen Christ.

As we face the challenges and hardships of life we can draw hope from their story. In times when life seems hopeless the risen Christ can appear at our side. His presence can remind us that the hope he offers does not deceive us. His promise of love and of new life will sustain us as we face the challenges of daily life.

Where is the presence of the Risen Christ offering you hope today?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Resurrection Scripture Uncategorized

Resurrection Joy

Photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash

All through the Easter Octave we revisit the story of the resurrection again and again. Each time we hear it from a fresh perspective, hearing a different response and picking up a different nuance. This can sometimes feel frustrating and confusing, but there is a gift in all this variety.

If nothing else, they show us how how impossible it is to completely capture or understand the reality of the resurrection, and is good for us to know that.

They’ve gone to the tomb early Mary Magdalen and “the other Mary” they’ve come through earthquake and an encounter with an angel, before running off full of “awe and great joy” to share their news with the disciples. Their encounter with the resurrection is full of drama and movement, quite different from John’s account where Mary meets the risen Christ alone in the quiet of the garden.

When they encounter Jesus on the path he says to them:

“Do not be afraid; go tell the disciples that they must leave for Galilee; they will see me there.”

“Do not be afraid” is a theme that runs through the resurrection gospels, it begins almost every encounter with the risen Christ. I’m struck that Jesus acknowledges and calms their fear, yet doesn’t allow it to prevent him from sending them out to proclaim the resurrection. This is also true for us, the risen Christ knows our fears, our doubts, the uncertainties we live with. In the midst of all that he invites us to rejoice in his resurrection and to proclaim its reality with our lives.

Where is the risen Christ bringing joy into your life today?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Easter Vigil Lectio Divina Liturgy Resurrection Triduum

In the early morning.

Photo by Jonathan Marchalon unsplahh.com

My head is full of the riches of our Easter vigil. It’s my favourite liturgy of the year, I love how it ties everything together, laying out the story of our salvation in word, action and sacrament. I find myself revisiting it over and over during Eastertide, allowing different aspects of it to enrich and nourish me. Today, This morning I’m reflecting on this from an Easter hymn by St John of Damascus:

“Let us rise in early morning
and instead of ointment bring
Hymns and praises to our Master
And his resurrection sing.”

I’m touched by the wisdom that it has carried through the centuries, passed from one generation of Christians to another, sometimes lost and forgotten, only to be rediscovered and valued anew.

It’s a call to sing the praises of the Risen Christ continually, whatever we are living through, whatever the prevailing view of our society. Nothing can separate us from his love, and nothing can undo the wonderful and mysterious reality of his resurrection.

However challenging or uncertain life is, he will be there inviting us to go out to meet him. Each year the challenges we face seem to become more daunting, leaving us more aware of our fragility. Yet however difficult our lives are, the risen Christ is there calling us.

He invites us to follow Mary of Magdala out into the dark of the early morning to meet him, to rejoice in his presence and to carry his love to our needy world.

As we begin to move through Eastertide where is the Risen Christ inviting you to go out and meet him?

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

In the empty spaces.

Photo by Anton Maksimov on unsplash.com

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?

Categories
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?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Psalms Scripture

Yearning for God.

Photo by Gary Bendig on unsplash.com

The 20 word in my Lent lexicon is:

YEARNING.

It’s inspired by psalm 41, today’s responsorial psalm. Generally, I tend to overlook the responsorial psalm, looking first for insights in the other scripture readings. I often miss out on real wisdom and insight by doing that. So today I’m reflecting on these words:

“Like the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul is yearning for you, my God.”

It speaks to that longing that we all feel deep within us most of the time. Sometimes it feels like we’re always looking for something that we never quite find or that we’re always slightly dissatisfied with what we have. It can be unsettling and frustrating at best.

We can try to fill that gap with money, possessions, career or success. In my experience that works to some extent. For a while we can feel fulfilled and satisfied by those things, but after a while we begin to realise that those are not enough. Underneath the apparent satisfaction we become aware of a niggling feeling we want something more regardless of how well we are meeting the goals we set for ourselves.

That underlying discontent can be uncomfortable. We can be tempted to push it aside, trying to fill the gap with more of the same, but that doesn’t often work. Instead we can sit with the discontent & discover its true source is our desire for God. Once we can acknowledge that it can lead us to seek God’s presence in our lives in new & enriching ways.

Where is your yearning for God leading you this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Monastic Life Rule of St Benedict Saints

Listen with the ear of your heart.

Photo by Anastasiya Badun on unsplash.com

Today we’re celebrating the feast of the Passing of St Benedict, so for my Lent word I’ve gone back to the wisdom of his Rule. The 17 word in my Lent lexicon is:

LISTEN

Listen is the first word in the Rule of St Benedict. It takes me back to the basics of the Christian call. We’re getting close to the halfway mark in Lent. I always think of this as a bit of a “dead” time in Lent. The novelty of our Lent practices has worn off, and we’re still a long way from the impetus of Holy Week.

This means that it’s the time when it’s easiest to let our Lent practices slip. In such times I find it helpful to go back to the basics. St Benedict opens the Rule with these words:

“Listen carefully to the master’s instructions and attend to them with the ear of your heart.”

The call to listen is at the heart of the Rule and of the gospel. We can’t follow the call of the gospel unless we allow ourselves to hear it. For that to happen we need to create space. We live surrounded by 24 hour sound. This can be very distracting.

If we are to allow God the chance to speak to our hearts, we have to switch off some of the other sounds that surround us, even the good & helpful ones. We have to create a quiet space where we can hear the gentle, loving voice of God calling us to follow.

What is helping you to listen to God’s voice this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Scripture

Holy Ground.

Image © Turvey Abbey

The 4th word in my Lent Lexicon is

HOLY GROUND

I’m reflecting on the encounter between God and Moses at the burning bush. 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.”

We too stand on holy ground. Whatever we are involved in we’re in the presence of God. 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?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Divine Office Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Rule of St Benedict Scripture Uncategorized

Fasting, a Lent challenge.

victoria-kubiaki-emPsZ6MBCUs-unsplash.jpg

The third word in my Lent lexicon is:

“FAST”

Often the first question anyone asks us about Lent is “what are you giving up? Fasting carries a heavy weight of history and of personal experience. This can make it a particularly sensitive issue. It can be an area that’s open to judgement and misinterpretation. It’s a word I find challenging and I’m coming to it with some trepidation.

I find St Benedict’s chapter on Lent helpful in facing the challenge. Instead of prescribing a particular fast for everyone he gives a list of things that we might fast from, food, drink, sleep, talking, idle jesting. He openly acknowledges that people have varying needs and capabilities. He knows that what might be manageable for one isn’t possible for another. His words carry a call not to judge ourselves or others harshly, allow people the freedom to choose the “fast” that will most help them on their spiritual journey.

In today’s first reading the prophet Isaiah gives another perspective on fasting:

“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 let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke, to share your bread with the hungry, and shelter the homeless poor, to clothe the person 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.”

While this is deeply challenging it is also helpful. It reminds me that our spiritual practices have to have a knock-on effect in the way we live our lives. They are not just for our personal benefit.

They are to draw us out of ourselves towards our neighbour, to help us become kinder and more compassionate. It seems to me that as Isaiah calls us to fast from the thoughts and behaviours that would harden our hearts to those around us.

How are your Lent practices helping you to become kinder and more compassionate?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Scripture Uncategorized

Choosing Life.

Photo by Austris Augusts on unsplash.com

The second word in my Lent lexicon is:

LIFE

I have to confess that “life” has never been the first word that comes to mind when I think about Lent. Yet, the the Anglo-Saxon root of the English word “Lent” can be translated as “spring” and that brings to mind all the new life connected with that time of year. Already when we start our Lent journey new life is pushing its way up through the earth.

We are surrounded by spring flowers and the beginnings of new growth wherever we look. On another level the whole purpose of Lent is to prepare our hearts to celebrate the joy of the resurrection, and there is no more a life-giving gift than that.

Today’s first reading echoes the theme of “life” as Moses offers the people a choice. He says to them:

“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…”

In many ways his words sum up the purpose of Lent. All our Lent practices aim to bring us back 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 this Lent?