Category: Liturgy

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

Being There.

Image © Ally Barrett (www.reverendally.org) and used by permission

BACKGROUND READING MARK 15:1-41 AND
JOHN 19 17-37 OR JUST JOHN 19 17-37

Salome was one of women who followed Jesus through his passion and death to his resurrection.

Salome’s story is about remembering and forgetting. She remembers her friendship with Mary growing up in Nazareth. She remembers it falling apart after the angel’s visit, and being rediscovered after Mary, Joseph and Jesus returned from Egypt. She remembers how she initially followed Jesus for Mary’s sake, until his words touched her and she begins to follow for herself.

She remembers how, when they hear of Jesus’ arrest, they follow him to his trial and passion. She tells us that, with breaking hearts and dying hopes, they keep vigil at the cross while he dies.

Salome also knows what it feels like to be forgotten. She repeatedly reminds Peter and the other disciples that not all of Jesus’ followers ran away at his arrest. She admits that this might have been habit as much as virtue:

“It’s what I’ve always done. When disaster strikes and I don’t know what to do, I do what I normally do – day in, day out – until the moment comes when I do know what to do again. So, when we heard, when it felt as though the world was collapsing around us, we did what we’d been doing for the past few years. We followed him.”

When we come to the cross on Good Friday we are invited to remember the marginal. We are called to stand with those society rejects, ignores, and pushes aside. We are challenged to become one with them in Christ.

The cross also invites us to bring those parts of ourselves that we reject and ignore. We are called to bring them to the cross, to be welcomed into Jesus’ gaze of “pure love”.

As you stand before the cross this Good Friday where do you need to feel the pure love of Christ your life?
You can hear Salome’s story here:

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Communion Divine Office Eucharist Foot washing Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Maundy Thursday Scripture

Extragavant love… Extragavant heartbreak

BACKGROUND READING MARK 14: 12-25

Image © Ally Barrett (www.reverendally.org) and used by permission

Joanna was one of the group of women who follows Jesus. The wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, she was part of the group who used their personal resources to provide for Jesus. Feeling stifled by life at court she went to Capernaum to hear Jesus speak and became a follower.

Joining Jesus in Jerusalem for Passover Joanna was anxious and unsettled. She senses a dark shadow hanging over them. Jesus has started to talk about suffering, death and rising again.

This added to her sense of foreboding. She found a practical outlet for her stress, worrying about where they will celebrate the Passover. Eventually she snaps at Jesus:

“So where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”

To her relief, Jesus had it in hand. She went off with Susannah to make the arrangements and found everything as he said it would be.

They gathered to celebrate the Passover, drawing strength from the shared meal and remembering the story of their freedom. They received Jesus’ offering of his body and blood in the form of bread and wine, though they don’t understand its significance.

As Jesus left for Gethsemane with the disciples her discomfort turned to dread. Her friend sums up what they are facing:

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

Those words also touch the heart our Maundy Thursday liturgies that acknowledge both the best and the worst we can be. We all recognise the intimate link between the love and heartbreak.

How is the extravagant love of Christ helping you to face your heartbreak this Holy Week?
You can listen to Joanna’s story here:

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

The call of steadfast love.

© Ally Barrett (www.reverendally.org) and used by permission

BACKGROUND READING: PSALM 118 AND MARK 11:1-11

The first woman of Holy Week is Miriam. She is practical and down to earth. She doesn’t like living under Roman occupation but realises that her family’s well-being relies on her finding a way to live with it. She lives in Sephorris where she and her family make a good living as fish traders. They have travelled to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival.

She comes to this festival with mixed feelings. She loves the sense of togetherness and hope that the festival brings, but hates the jostling and disagreements that come with being part of a large and excited crowd.

A woman of deep faith she lives with the hope and expectation that the Messiah will come and set her people free. As she walks with the rest of the crowd she carries the image of the Messiah, weary, exhausted and quietly triumphant, riding towards Jerusalem. She puts her whole heart and soul into singing:

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good: his steadfast love endures for ever.”

Then she sees a surprising sight. Two people bring a donkey and a man got onto it, riding it she says “just like I always imagined the King would have done – except that it was a donkey and not that impressive”.

A little impatient with the gesture she initially him as another “wannabe Messiah”. Something in the man’s demeanour compels her to look again. It’s then that she sees past the externals and recognises the Messiah at the centre of this unlikely scene.

Where is Christ calling you to recognise his steadfast love in unexpected places this Holy Week?

You can listen to Paula Gooder read Miriam’s story here:

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Prayer Scripture

Overshadowing

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Today celebrating the feast of the Annunciation I’m struck by the mixture of calm, serenity, and chaos that it portrays. It’s generally depicted in art and literature as a beautiful moment of calm encounter between Gabriel and Mary, between heaven and earth, leading to Mary’s act of obedience.

That is certainly one aspect of the gospel, but as I reflected on it today I’m very aware that there is also another side to it. The news the angel brings to Mary must have been both surprising and overwhelming to a young, unmarried woman who was not expecting to become pregnant.

It must have seemed to her that she was facing at best a challenge and at worst a disaster. Yet in the midst of the upheaval she was able to find a way through the chaos to say yes. I’m especially struck by the angel’s response when she asks, “How can this be?” He replies:

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…”

His words take me back to the Spirit hovering over the waters at Creation drawing life out of chaos. That’s a comforting image image in these times when so much of our world seems to teeter on the brink of chaos.

In our dark and frightening times this image offers hope and encouragement. I find it helpful to remember that however chaotic our situation the Spirit hovers, overshadowing us and promising new life.

Where do you need the Spirit’s overshadowing in your life this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Prophetic voices Saints Scripture

St Joseph

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Today is the feast of St Joseph. On the surface he seems a shadowy figure. A background figure in the gospel who supports Mary and the child Jesus and brings stability and respectability to an otherwise difficult situation. Yet, if we look beyond that image we find a different story. I’m reflecting on these words from a hymn for his feast:

“His love was humble, flame of God’s own fire,
A light to guide the path he trod alone;
Like Abraham, like Moses he believed,
And went in faith to find a land unknown.”

They speak not of a shadowy figure, but of a man of great faith, courage, humility and trust. He follows in the line of Abraham and Moses who left everything to follow God into the unknown.

When we think of the blessing of welcoming, we think in positive terms. St Joseph shows us that we’re sometimes called to welcome circumstances that are difficult or challenging. Drawing on the faith of his ancestors when his life and expectations are completely turned upside down St Joseph is able to put himself in God’s hands, trusting that God will lead and guide him. It can’t have been an easy choice, it will have required both humility and courage.

It’s impossible to think of this without reflecting on the seemingly insurmountable challenges our world faces today, both at home and abroad. As we see lives disrupted and communities destroyed by war St Joseph becomes a valuable role model.

He reminds us that however dark and uncertain our lives, we are called to put ourselves into the hands of God who will lead us through the darkness into the light of his love.

What gives you the courage to trust yourself to God today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Monastic Life Saints Scripture Uncategorized

Called to be peacemakers

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As we come to the end of International women’s Day we’ve begun our celebration of one of our congregation’s saints, St Frances of Rome. She is one of a very small number of married women who are saints. She brought up a large family and did a great deal to help the poor and the sick of Rome.

This week I’m reflecting on the blessing of attentiveness. It seems to me that St Frances’ life shows us how the practice of attentiveness to God changes everything. It’s through her attentiveness to God that she’s able to see God’s presence in the people she helps.

That’s especially true in the great care she took of the poor, wrapping their clothes in lavender after she’d washed and mended them. In her role as peacemaker and reconciler shows another aspect of attentiveness. It’s written of her that:

“God gave her such an abundance of loving-kindness that those who had dealings with her immediately felt themselves captivated by love and admiration for her and were ready to do whatever she wished.”

Frances dealt with many difficult and, sometimes, violent situations. Even in those situations she was able to persuade people to change their behaviour by recognising Christ dwelling in them regardless of appearances.

As we watch our world torn apart by war Frances is an important role model. She reminds me that we are all called to pay attention to the call to be peace makers. Her example shows us that even in the most challenging situations, love and kindness have the power to change hearts, minds and lives.

Where is God calling you to be attentive to the call to be a peacemaker this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Scripture

An attentive heart

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This week I’m reflecting on the blessing of attentiveness. We all recognise it as essential for a life centred on seeking God. Learning to live attentively can be difficult. We have to step back from the multitude of demands and distractions that we live among on a daily basis.

While, in the midst of a busy life, that can seem an attractive idea, the reality is much harder. When we step back from those external distractions we are swamped by a multitude of inner distractions that often prove much more challenging than the external ones could ever be.

Reflecting on all of this I especially struck by the response to today’s psalm:

“O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts.”

It’s the first psalm verse that we sing on Ash Wednesday and sets the tone for all of Lent. It gives us the opportunity to acknowledge that time and experience have hardened our hearts. It invites us to begin to let that hardness crack and fall away by paying attention to where the voice of God might be speaking to us in our lives.

Of course, we can expect to discover that voice in our prayer. If we actively seek this blessing of attentiveness, giving all our attention to the tasks we are engaged in and to the people we meet we will also find that God speaks to us in every situation, in the midst of every task and in every encounter.

Where are you being invited to be attentive this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Prophetic voices Scripture

Living fearlessly

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I’ve been slow to write a reflection today. That’s partly a reaction to the world situation. We woke up this morning to a world even more immersed chaos that was yesterday. It made my plan to spend the second week of Lent focusing on the blessing of gospel living seem at best irrelevant. As I watch conflict and chaos spread across the world it’s almost impossible to discover any blessing in life.

This is the natural response in such frightening and unsettled times. We tend to turn in on ourselves, seeking protection and turning away from hope. In such situations it quickly becomes hard to notice the blessing that God continues to lavish on us even in the hardest of times.

In that state of mind this line in our Lauds Canticle from the prophet Isaiah leapt out at me:

“Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name you are mine. Should you pass through the sea I will be with you; or through rivers, they will not swallow you up.”

This wasn’t written to people living safe and stable lives. It was written to a people in exile who had lost their families, their livelihoods, their culture, even their faith.

This caused me to think again about gospel living. If Isaiah’s words could be a blessing for people in exile they can be a blessing for us in our challenging circumstances today. The blessing of living for today is that however dark and frightening our times, however overwhelming our circumstances we are held in the heart of the loving God who will never leave us.

As we begin the second week of Lent do you need to feel that you are held in God’s heart?

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

A second chance

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In today’s gospel his disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. The words he taught them have become one of the best-known, most used, and most loved prayers in Christianity. We know it so well, saying it several times a day, sometime without a great deal of attention. As I reflected on it to date seemed to me a perfect vehicle for reflecting on the blessing of BEGINNING:

“Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us. And do not put us to the test, but save us from the evil one.”

There is a beginning in the call of today’s gospel to rediscover its many riches from its ordering of the universe to its trust in God’s mercy and love for us. Each day when we pray it offers us the chance to begin again by putting ourselves firmly in that loving and merciful presence. In his rules and Benedict says:

“The celebration of Lauds and Vespers must never pass without the superiors reciting the entire Lord’s prayer at the end for all to hear, because storms of contention are likely to spring up.”

His words remind me of how this prayer is constantly offering us the opportunity to begin again. It acknowledges that we will fail again and again, but it doesn’t give up on us. Instead, it reminds us of the loving mercy of God which is always offering us a new beginning.

The beginning it offers allows us the opportunity to reset our relationship with God and with one another. It doesn’t deny our failures to love God or each other. Instead it offers us, again and again, a second chance, an opportunity to do better next time.

Where is Christ offering you an opportunity to begin again this 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?