Category: Prayer

Learning to ask

Post author By Sr Judith
Post date 26/02/2026

Photo by Roan Lavery on unsplash.com

As I’ve reflected this week on the blessing of BEGINNING. I’ve been struck by the sheer variety of reasons there are for making beginnings. Some are forced on us by circumstances beyond our control.

Others are made freely and willingly because we feel the need for change. Whether our beginnings are caused by necessity or inspired by dreams and desires they often seem to grow from an awareness of neediness. With this in mind I turned to today’s gospel and was struck by this:

“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Ask, and it will be given to you, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.’”

It’s one of the most hopeful, and challenging verses of Scripture. The hope lies in the promise of needs met and an openhearted welcome. The challenge is to admit our neediness, to confess that we have needs and desires that we are incapable of fulfilling by ourselves. That can be a hard thing to do in our society that expects us to be high achievers in every area of life.

The gospel offers an alternative view. Instead of seeing neediness as a failure today’s gospel offers us the opportunity to see it as a new beginning, an invitation to openness and honesty.

Today’s gospel offers us is the opportunity to come into the presence of Christ with all our failings, uncertainties and incompleteness. It promises us that in accepting the blessing this new beginning offers we will find ourselves welcomed into the loving heart of Christ.

What do you most need to receive from the loving heart of Christ this Lent?

Tags #ask, #Beginnings, #Benedictine, #Blessing, #challenge, #Christlike, #Discipleship, #gospel, #Hope, #kingdom, #KingdomValues, #lectiodivina, #Lent, #Lent2026, #love, #newlife, #trust

Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Prayer Prophetic voices Scripture Uncategorized

Ash Wednesday – Turning back to God

Post author By Sr Judith
Post date 18/02/2026

Photo by Roman Kraft unsplash.com

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?

Tags #AshWednesday, #Benedictine, #challenge, #compassion, #gospel, #Hope, #kingdom, #KingdomValues, #lectiodivina, #Lent, #Lent2026, #LentPractices, #love, #newheart, #newlife, #tenderness, #trust

Benedictine Spirituality Candlemas Christ Christmastide Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Monastic Life Prayer Presentation Saints Scripture

Light in darkness

Post author By Sr Judith
Post date 02/02/2026

Photo by Zach Lucero on Unsplash

Today were celebrating the feast of the Presentation. It strikes me as a feast that looks both backwards and forwards. Its liturgy resonates very much with the Christmas liturgy, as we revisit Christmas hymns and antiphons. Yet, it also compels us to look forward to the new beginning heralded by the coming of the Messiah.

Like Simeon and Anna, we are called to draw hope from our heritage and move forward into the unknown bearing the light of Christ for our world and our times. The second reading at the vigil is from St Sophronius. I’m reflecting on these words:

“Let us all go together bright with the light to welcome with old Simeon that everlasting shining light. Rejoicing with him in our souls, let us sing a hymn to the Begetter and Father of the light, who has sent the true light and driven away the darkness and made us all shine with that light.”

It’s not the first time I’ve reflected on them, and each time I revisit them they remind me that, in these last dark, cold days of winter we are called to be bearers of the light of Christ to each other and to the world. This year I’m very aware of the many darknesses that the world faces. It can feel overwhelming and we can easily feel hopeless.

Yet the opposite is true. In these dark times it’s even more important that we become bearers of that light for our suffering world. As well as looking back to the coming of the Light at Christmas I find myself looking forward through the pain and suffering of these times to the new light and life that Easter promises, trusting that, however small the light may sometimes feel, it will not be overcome.

As we celebrate the feast of the Presentation where is Christ calling you to be his light bearer today?

Tags #Anna, #Benedictine, #candlemas, #challenge, #gospel, #Hope, #kingdom, #KingdomValues, #lectiodivina, #light, #LightOfChrist, #love, #messiah, #newlife, #presentation, #Simeon, #trust

Baptism Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel John the Baptist Lectio Divina Prayer Prophetic voices Saints Scripture

Light of the Nations

Post author By Sr Judith
Post date 18/01/2026

Photo by Daiga Ellaby on unsplash.com

Today’s readings are about call and response. Isaiah and St Paul reflect on their call to take the good news of salvation to the ends of the earth. In the gospel John recognises Jesus in the crowd and proclaims him as the Messiah. Reflecting on their accounts inevitably draws us back to reflect on our own call:

“I will make you the light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Isaiah, St Paul and St John all heard and responded to some version of this call. Their responses may have looked different on the surface, and led them in apparently different directions. This shouldn’t come as a surprise because they lived in different times, faced different situations and had different personalities and skills. This meant that they each had to spend time reflecting on what it meant for them to become “the light to the nations” in their particular situations.

Through baptism we are also called by God to be “a light to the nations”. While the heart of that call is the same as the one heard by Isaiah, St Paul and St John the practicalities of what it will look like in the particular challenges we face today are different. So today’s readings are a call to discern how to I can best bring the light of Christ love to people today in ways that will lighten their burdens and offer consolation.

How are you being called to bring the light of Christ’s love to the people around you today?

Tags #baptism, #Benedictine, #call, #challenge, #gospel, #Hope, #Isaiah, #JohnTheBaptist, #kingdom, #KingdomValues, #lectiodivina, #light, #LightOfTheNations, #love, #newlife, #Salvation, #StPaul, #trust

Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Prayer Scripture Uncategorized

Perseverance in prayer

Post author By Sr Judith
Post date 19/10/2025

Photo by Claudia Love on unsplash.com

Today’s gospel, the parable of the unjust judge, speaks so powerfully to our current situation that it could have been just written. Jesus tells his disciples the story of a judge who is refusing to give justice to a widow. However often the persistent widow is ignored or turned away she comes back, insisting on the justice that is her right. Eventually, the judge surrenders saying:

“Maybe I have neither fear of God nor respect for man, but since she keeps pestering me I must give this widow her just rights, or she will persist in coming and worry me to death.”

Looking around our world, there are so many awful situations that we can do little to change, that we might be tempted to give up. We can be tempted to surrender and hopelessness, so even praying begins to feel pointless and useless.

Jesus uses this parable to see the exact opposite. He reminds his disciples, and does, that rather than surrendering to hopelessness, these are precisely the situations where we need to persevere in prayer and hope:

“Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart.”

There are so many painful situations in our world that seem unresolvable. There are so many places where cruelty and exclusion seem to be overwhelming our impulses to goodness and kindness. In all the pain and suffering of these circumstances Jesus challenges us to persevere. He calls us keep on speaking up for justice, fairness, kindness and compassion.

He challenges us to continually remind ourselves and others that all human beings of equal value in the sight of God. Most of all he reminds us to underpin all of our actions in these areas with constant and persistent prayer.

Where are you being called to continual prayer today?

Tags #Benedictine, #challenge, #Christ, #Christlike, #Disciples, #Discipleship, #gospel, #Hope, #kingdom, #KingdomValues, #lectiodivina, #love, #newlife, #perseverance, #prayer, #trust, #UnjustJudge, #Widow

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

Post author By Sr Judith
Post date 01/10/2025

Photo by Berkan Küçükgül on unsplash.com

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?

Tags #CarmeliteSpirituality, #challenge, #Christ, #Christlike, #Church, #Corinthians, #Discipleship, #gospel, #Hope, #kingdom, #KingdomValues, #lectiodivina, #love, #Saints, #StPaul, #StTherseOfLisieux, #trust

Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Prayer Scripture

Learning vulnerability.

Post author By Sr Judith
Post date 27/07/2025

Photo by Jan Tinneberg on unsplash.com

In today’s gospel Jesus’ disciples ask him to teach them to pray, just as John has taught his disciples:

“Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

Their request doesn’t come because they don’t already have lives of prayer. It comes from having seen Jesus at prayer and recognising that he has something they lack and desire. Jesus teaches them what has become the “Our Father”.

While we don’t need specific words or formulas to be able to pray today’s gospel reminds us that they can be valuable. There are times in life when we need to pray, and want to pray, the struggles we face leave us unable to articulate our prayer.

At times like that a recognised and familiar form of prayer can be a real support, reminding us that we are held in God’s presence even if we don’t have the words to express our needs or desires.

That can be a very uncomfortable position to be in. Our society expects us to be in control, it encourages us to deny our neediness and vulnerability. So having to admit to needs we cannot satisfy, to ask for help can feel like a failure.

Jesus reminds us that this is not the way of the kingdom, saying to his disciples:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.”

Our loving God invites us to be vulnerable in God’s presence, encourages us to ask for what we need and delights in us when we find the courage to do that.

Where are you being invited to be vulnerable in God’s presence today?

Tags #Benedictine, #challenge, #Disciples, #Discipleship, #gospel, #Hope, #kingdom, #KingdomValues, #lectiodivina, #love, #newlife, #openness, #OurFather, #Pray, #prayer, #trust, #Vulnerability

Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Prayer Prophetic voices Scripture Uncategorized

Considered choices

Post author By Sr Judith
Post date 25/06/2025

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash

In today’s gospel Jesus warns his disciples to be on their guard against false prophets:

“Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves.”

He calls us to pay attention to the false prophets within ourselves who would draws down personal path that would lead us in ways that are life denying rather than life-giving, however delightful they might appear at the outset. There is also a communal element to this call for discernment as we consider the common good.

There is a cacophony of voices out there telling us what is best for ourselves as individuals and our society as a whole. This can be disconcerting, confusing and overwhelming.

In both cases Jesus’ advice to his disciples can stand us in good stead. Having warned them of the dangers he goes on to offer a solution saying:

“You will be able to tell them by their fruits… A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten tree bear good fruit… I repeat you will be able to tell them by their fruits.”

It seems to me that his words are a call to discernment on both a communal and a personal level. He calls us to pay attention to where we find good or bad fruits in our personal life and in the lives of our communities.

He invites us to think carefully about the choices we make and where they lead us. His words remind me of Deuteronomy’s call to choose life over death.

Where are you being called to turn away from false prophets today?

Tags #Benedictine, #challenge, #Choice, #Christ, #Christlike, #discernment, #Fruits, #GoodFruit, #gospel, #Hope, #kingdom, #KingdomValues, #lectiodivina, #love, #newlife, #trust, #wisdom

Benedictine Spirituality Christ Communion Corpus Christi Divine Office Gospel Liturgy Prayer Resurrection Scripture

In the presence of Christ

Post author By Sr Judith
Post date 19/06/2025

Image by Aline Ponce from Pixabay

As we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi I’m reflecting on the nature of Eucharist. The Scripture that comes to mind is the Emmaus story. Although it’s not part of the feast’s liturgy it seems to me to capture something of its essence.

It acknowledges the despair and hopelessness of the disciples as they trudged home disappointed and unsettled by all that has happened. We can identify so strongly with those feelings in our own lives that we almost feel the weight of it all as they pour out their story to Jesus. They remind me that Eucharist offers us an opportunity to bring our brokenness, hurt and disappointment into the presence of Christ.

Jesus responds to their despair by taking them through the Scriptures already know, reminding them of the passages that speak about the Messiah. As he does this their hearts are ignited, and through their sadness they glimpse something so good that they don’t want to let it go, so they invite him to stay with them. Full recognition only dawns as they sit down to eat together and:

“He took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them. And their eyes were opened, and the recognised him…”

It seems to me that the essence of the Eucharist is an invitation rediscover the reality of Christ’s presence in every part of our lives, in our liturgies, in our communities, in all our relationships and activities.

As we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi where do you recognise the reality of Christ’s presence in your life?

Tags #Blessed, #challenge, #CorpusChristi, #Emmaus, #Eucharist, #gospel, #Hope, #kingdom, #KingdomValues, #lectiodivina, #love, #newlife, #Presence, #RecognisingChrist, #Recognition, #trust, Benedictine

Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Prayer Scripture

Alone with God.

Post author By Sr Judith
Post date 18/06/2025

Photo by Jon Tyson on unsplash.com

Today’s gospel is full of advice about living humbly. Jesus warns us against seeking attention and admiration for our faith and our good deeds. Humility is also essential in Benedictine spirituality. It’s not easy, it requires self-knowledge, self-awareness, self acceptance and self-love.

It calls us both to accept our limitations and our giftedness, to acknowledge that we are both made of dust and the beloved children of God. As I reflected on this I was touched by these words from the gospel:

“When you pray, go to your private room and, when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.”

It seems to me that Jesus shows us the best way to learn to live humbly. He calls us to come alone into God’s presence, to spend time in a quiet, private, intimate space with God. It’s not an easy or comfortable place to be. Like the desert, it can be a place where we both wrestle demons and discover angels.

Entering that private place where God is we can come to acknowledge our weakness and our failings, learning to accept them lovingly as God does. We can discover the precious gifts that God has given us and discern how best to use them in the service of others.

The secret place where we encounter God is a place of challenge, it is also a place of consolation, healing and encouragement.

How do you draw strength from your times alone in God’s presence?

Tags #Benedictine, #challenge, #Encounter, #Father, #Gift, #God, #gospel, #Hope, #kingdom, #KingdomValues, #lectiodivina, #love, #newlife, #Pray, #prayer, #SacredSpace, #trust