Category: Prophetic voices

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Advent Benedictine Spirituality Divine Office Lectio Divina Liturgy Prophetic voices Scripture

Consolation

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There are some words in Scripture that I think we can’t hear often enough. That applies to these words from today’s first reading:

“’Console my people, console them’ says your God…”

They touch the very depths of our hearts, offering comfort and hope whatever we face. Our world projects an image of how life should look. We see it on television, in films, in magazines and on social media.

We are supposed to be living “perfect” lives, happy, balanced and with everything we could possibly need or want. We find this image beguiling and attractive, and we don’t have to look very far before we begin to realise how little it matches the reality of our lives.

Isaiah allows us acknowledge our pain, our suffering, our brokenness. That in itself is a true gift. He frees us from having to live up to a false image of how our lives should be. Isaiah reminds us that we can come into God’s presence with all the jagged edges of our brokenness. We can bring to God all the hurts we carry, and all those we have inflicted on others.

We can trust Isaiah’s promise that we will be met, not with condemnation, but with the consolation of a God who knows our weakness and our suffering. Much as we need it and desire it, it is not always easy to open our hearts to such wholehearted consolation.

What would help you find the courage to open your heart to the consolation God offers you this Advent?

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Advent Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel John the Baptist Lectio Divina Prophetic voices Scripture

A straight path.

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As we begin the second week of Advent the call to attentiveness becomes more urgent with the appearance of John the Baptist. John, Jesus’ cousin is an uncomfortable and challenging figure. He is the ultimate outsider, everything about him seems designed to challenge us and make us uncomfortable.

His message, with its call to repentance, is even more disconcerting than his appearance and lifestyle. It’s tempting either to sanitise him or ignore him. Instead, the gospel calls us to give him and his message our wholehearted attention.

“A voice cries in the wilderness: prepare away for the Lord, make his paths straight.”

We’re already overwhelmed with preparation in Advent. As we speed toward Christmas we’re necessarily full of plans to arrange cards and presents, food, parties, church services, liturgies and all kinds of gatherings. When we hear John’s call it can feel like there is no space left for any more preparation in the busyness of our lives.

John’s call, and the call of Advent, is about a different sort of preparation. It involves taking time to look within our hearts. It’s a time for acknowledging and accepting inner wilderness we all carry within us. John’s call to repentance is a call, not to hide that inner wilderness from Christ, but to acknowledge and welcome him into it.

From his place on the margins John calls us to bring all the marginalised parts of ourselves into Christ’s presence, exposing them to his loving, healing gaze.

How are you being called to make a straight path in your heart for Christ this Advent?

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Advent Benedictine Spirituality Christ Lectio Divina Prophetic voices Scripture

Our gracious God.

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Life can be difficult and challenging, we all carry burdens that sometimes feel too heavy to bear. We can easily feel overwhelmed by sadness, grief, anxiety or a myriad of other painful emotions that can leave us feeling isolated and hopeless. It can feel worse as we move through Advent towards Christmas with all it’s expectations, memories, hopes and disappointments.

It can be especially hard to acknowledge these feelings when society expects us to be upbeat, positive and in control of every aspect of life. Today’s first reading, from the prophet Isaiah, offers a hopeful alternative to what can feel like a double bind. He writes:

“God will be gracious to you when God hears your cry; when God hears God will answer.”

We often think we have to be on our best behaviour in God’s presence. We bring God what we think are the “nice” parts of ourselves, and push the other parts aside. Isaiah suggests a different approach. He promises that if bring our pain and our challenges to Gods’ presence we will receive consolation and healing.

Isaiah reassures us that God will be there, waiting to listen to whatever we need to share. He tells us that God will not only hear our cry, but will respond with love. Isaiah tells us God will stay with us, healing our hurt, wiping away our tears and offering us the promise of new life.

Where is God inviting you to bring your burdens into Gods’ presence this Advent?

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Advent Benedictine Spirituality Christ Lectio Divina Liturgy Prophetic voices Scripture

People of Joy

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Advent calls us to be people of joy. We’re called to rejoice in the knowledge that is always with us. We can rejoice because we know that that we are surrounded by the love of God, a love that seeks to fulfil our hopes and our desires.

This beautiful and consoling thought is taken up again today by the prophet Isaiah as he describes how God will transform the lives of his people, welcoming them home to a new place of safety. He writes:

“The lowly will rejoice in the Lord even more and the poorest exult in the Holy One; for tyrants shall be no more, and scoffers vanish…and all be destroyed who are disposed to do evil…”

It’s a promise to put those most in need in the forefront, to protect them and bring them to a place where their dignity will be respected and they will be truly valued. As I look around our world it’s tempting to see this as at best a beautiful fantasy, a dream that has no place in the harsh reality of a modern life that leaves no place for dreamers.

Yet Advent is the season for dreamers. It calls us to risk dreaming. This is not an escapist fantasy. In the darkest time of the year Advent invites us to look into the darkness and dream of the light that it cannot overcome.

It encourages us to imagine the very best we can be in these dark times, so that we have a vision to work towards, something to aim for. We won’t achieve the perfection we dream of, but we can move towards it, inching towards a world that is kinder, more loving, more compassionate.

Where is Christ inviting you rejoice and dream this Advent?

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Advent Benedictine Spirituality Christ Lectio Divina Liturgy Prophetic voices Scripture

Trusting the Lord

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At the darkest and coldest time of year Advent offers us hope. It carries a clear message that however unlikely it might feel we will pass through this dark time into the light of new life that the Incarnation promises us.

In today’s first reading Isaiah calls the people to keep trusting, regardless of appearances, in spite of all they have lost and suffered:

“Trust in the Lord for ever, for the Lord is the everlasting Rock…”

He knows that it is not easy for people who have suffered and lost everything to trust, yet he carries on with his message of hope. He carries on believing that the promises God has made to the people will be fulfilled. Even in the darkest of times Isaiah’s message to the people is to wait in hope for the light to return.

As we sit in our own dark times it’s a valuable message for us too. In the gospel Jesus shows us how we can keep on trusting in such times. He tells the story of the wise person who built their house on rock to remind us that it is the rock of his word and his teaching that will sustain us whatever storms we face.

Where are you being called to trust that Christ will bring his light into the heart of your dark times?

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Advent Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Prophetic voices Scripture

Advent blessings

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However small and faltering our faith might seem Advent reminds us that we can discover God’s blessing in our lives. Today’s readings paint a beautiful picture of the blessings God showers on us. Isaiah shows the people of God being welcomed home to a place of safety, plenty and consolation:

“On this mountain God will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples, and the shroud enwrapping all nations, God will destroy Death for ever. The Lord will wipe away the tears from every cheek…”

In the gospel, Matthew’s version of the feeding of the 5000, Jesus makes that vision a reality for the crowds who follow him. Both readings offer us a glimpse of the Kingdom in our midst, of the blessings a loving God showers on us.

It’s easy to believe in such blessings when our lives are relatively easy, when our societies feel stable and secure. But we live in times of great uncertainty, suffering and fear. That makes it harder to discover and acknowledge the blessings that God is still showering on us.

Advent calls us to be open to the possibility of blessing even in times when all our instinct tells us to be wary. This is not a new situation, all through their challenging and difficult history the people of Israel believed in and sought God’s blessing even when it seemed very far from them.

Mary, Elizabeth, Zechariah and Joseph stayed open to the possibility of blessing even in hard and dangerous circumstances. They were able to journey on trusting that if they lived with integrity they would receive the blessings God promised.

Where are you discovering God’s blessing in these challenging times?

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

Recognition

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We often go through life so caught up with our own affairs that we miss the important signs of Christ’s kingdom that are all around us. Advent invites us to move away from that way of being. It’s a time to start paying attention again, to notice what is going on around us. It especially calls us to pay attention to where we discover the presence of Christ and the signs of his kingdom in our everyday lives.

Today’s gospel, the story of the centurion’s sick servant, is a reminder of that. It’s not the disciples, the faithful followers of Jesus, or the people who’ve waited generations for the Messiah who recognise Jesus. It’s a complete outsider, a solider of the occupying nation who is alert enough to recognise the authority Jesus carries.

Jesus looks beyond the Centurion’s otherness, and, seeing into his heart, recognises his faith saying:

“I tell you solemnly, nowhere…have I found faith like this. And I tell you that many will come from east and west to take their places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven.”

As we start Advent this encounter calls us back to attentiveness. Jesus’ response calls us also to look beyond the surface of our prejudice, and to recognise the Christ who comes to us in surprising and unsettling guises. It reminds us that the kingdom will become apparent in unexpected ways and places. It calls us to notice Christ being revealed not only in the familiar, but in the outsider, the marginalised, the people we are inclined to reject or even despise.

Where is Christ calling you to recognise his presence in challenging encounters this Advent?

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Christ Divine Office Lectio Divina Prophetic voices Saints St Teresa of Avila

The gift of love.

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In these increasingly challenging and uncertain times it can be easy to despair and to lose hope. At such times it can be helpful to look for inspiration from the lives of others who’ve also faced challenges. Today, we’re celebrating the feast of St Teresa of Avila, Carmelite nun, reformer, theologian and Doctor of the Church.

She faced her many challenges with courage and perseverance. There’s much in her writings and in the example of her life to inspire and encourage us. I came across this from her writings:

“Whatever we think of Christ, let us always bear in mind that love of his which drove him to bestow upon us so many gifts and graces. Let us bear in mind to how great is the love God has shown us, since God has given us in Christ such a pledge of that love which God has for us; for love calls for a return of love.”

When life is difficult it seems surprisingly easy for us to lose sight of God’s love. The day-to-day struggles, the seemingly insurmountable challenges and anxiety leave us little energy to discover or reflect on that love. Yet, it is precisely at those times when life is hardest and most challenging that we need to be held and sustained by that love.

The love St Teresa speaks of is not the love of cinema or romantic novel that promises those happy ever after endings that are so beguiling, it is much stronger and deeper than that. Christ doesn’t promise that we won’t be hurt or disappointed, that we won’t feel pain or suffer.

Instead, he promises that whatever sufferings we face, whatever breaks our hearts and disappoints us, he will be there loving and sustaining us through it all.

Where do you need to be aware of the greatness of God’s love for you today?


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#ConsecrateLife #SimplyJubilee Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Jubilee Lectio Divina Prophetic voices Rule of St Benedict Scripture

Accepting freedom

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Today I’m reflecting on freedom. The biblical concept of freedom goes beyond that our human understanding of freedom. It is rooted first of all in our position as children of God. It’s an invitation to become the person God’s calls us to be. It also carries a challenge.

In the course of life’s ups and downs we encounter much that draws us away from that freedom. Much as we desire it, we find ourselves making choices that limit and curtail it. The prophet Isaiah promises:

“He has sent me… to proclaim liberty to captives, release to those in prison…”

Biblical freedom is communal as well as personal. One of the things I’ve learned in my time in the Monastery is that there is always a balancing act between individual freedoms and communal freedoms. No one is free to do exactly as they wish or need of the Rule at the expense of others. In chapter 72 Benedict says:

“No one is to pursue what the judge better for themselves, but instead what they judge better for someone else.”

Part of being free means that we have to choose to put aside some of our freedom for the good of others. In our individualistic times, with the concerns for personal freedoms and rights this can be a real challenge.

A jubilee calls us to revisit what it means to be free, to ask ourselves where we have set up barriers and limitations to this gift of freedom. It’s a time for asking what we have to let go of to allow ourselves to embrace in ways that are life-giving for us and for our communities.

What freedom is God inviting you to embrace 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?