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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Saints Scripture

The gift of peace.

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I’m reflecting on these words from today’s first reading. In his second letter to the Thessalonians St Paul writes:

“May the Lord of peace himself give you peace all the time and in every way. The Lord be with you all.”

They have particular resonance in the light of today’s news, which gives the impression that there is almost nowhere in the world where peace prevails. In such a challenging scenario it’s tempting to dismiss his words as too idealistic for such troubled times. But the gospel calls us to hope, not hopelessness.

St Paul wasn’t unfamiliar with violent times. He had experience of both supporting and resisting the use of violence, so he had a clear idea of the value of peace and the high cost of violence. He’d have known how hard it is to hope and work for peace in violent times.

St Paul was able to face his times with courage and hope, and to continue striving for peace because of his faith in the gospel and its promise.

In many ways we face the same dilemma that he did. It’s not easy to be hopeful in our own challenging and violent times. It’s hard to see people suffer and not be able to fix things.

It’s tough to believe that peace is possible when we live surrounded by war and violence. Yet it is in precisely these times that we are called to follow St Paul’s example, to seek and share the peace of Christ wherever and however we can.

Where are you aware of needing the Lord of peace to bring peace to your life today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Saints Scripture

Recognition

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From the archives for the feast of St Bartholomew. I’m reflecting on Jesus’ encounter with Nathanael. It’s clear that the encounter was as life changing as it was unexpected for Nathanial. He is somewhat underwhelmed with Phillips’ news that the expected Messiah is from Nazareth, questioning whether anything good can come from that place.

However, despite this uncertainty, he is unable to resist Phillips’ invitation to “come and see” for himself. It’s this openness and willingness to take a risk that enables him to be embrace the life changing encounter that follows. When he does come to Jesus it is with a question:

“How do you know me?”

Jesus’ answer seems commonplace enough:

‘I saw you under the fig tree.’

Yet it is this apparently ordinary answer that enabled him to put aside his doubts and recognise the long-awaited Messiah:

“Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.”

The passage makes me aware of how we long to be known and accepted as we really are. We long to recognise Christ in our lives, and for him to recognise us. It is both comforting and challenging to discover that Christ knows us better than we know ourselves.

It’s comforting because it means that with Jesus I can be completely myself, without pretence, knowing that I will be accepted completely as I am. It’s challenging because of the things that I would rather keep hidden, those times when I don’t live up to my best self, that Jesus invites me to bring out into the open, into the light of his love.

Where is Christ surprising you with his presence today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Prophetic voices Saints

Recognising Christ

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This Sunday’s gospel returns to a question that is 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. It’s left me pondering my own response to the question. It’s one we’re very familiar with and can easily take for granted.

Yet, each time it arises it has the potential to be as life changing for us as it was for Peter. Whenever it comes up we’re called to give it our whole attention so that we, like Peter, can answer it from the depths of our hearts.

How does recognising Christ transform your life?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Divine Office Lectio Divina Liturgy Monastic Life Prayer Prophetic voices Rule of St Benedict Saints Scripture

With softened hearts

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In challenging times such as ours it can be helpful to look to our Christian past for role models whose example can give us courage and hope. St Bernard Tolomei, the founder of the Olivetan congregation, whose feast we celebrate today is one of those. He was a 13th century lawyer who, with a few friends, left the city to live as hermits in the hills outside of Siena.

13th century Siena could be a violent and dangerous place. Bernard and his companions may have been glad to leave all that behind as they chose a radical form of contemplative life. But choosing the contemplative life is an act of love, not an escape from the challenges of living with others. This was summed up this morning at Lauds:

“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.”

That call of Love leads us into desert places to spend time alone with God. It can also, as Bernard and his companions found out, lead us back into the midst of the bustle of society with all its challenges.

When plague struck Siena in 1349 the Love that called Bernard and his companions into the desert called them back to nurse the victims of the plague. It was there that Bernard fell victim to the plague himself and died.

His life suggests that it’s 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.

How is God softening your heart towards your neighbour today?

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

Called to integrity & justice.

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It’s tempting to divide the world into “them and us”. This is especially true when we feel threatened or endangered, when we tend to look for someone or something to blame. We close in on ourselves locking into our own communities, and viewing those we consider to be “different” to us with suspicion.

All of that is a perfectly normal, human reaction to threatening a dangerous situation. In our current times, fraught with danger and uncertainty in so many different directions we can already see the effects of such attitudes on our communities and societies.

Today’s readings point us very clearly in a different direction, pointing us towards the all-inclusive nature of God’s love. In the first reading the prophet Isaiah makes it clear that God expects his people to act with integrity towards those who are considered “other” saying:

“Have a care for justice, act with integrity, for soon my salvation will come and my integrity be manifest.”

His words, written thousands of years ago, could have been written have real resonance for today. He reminds us that we are called to treat all people with justice and integrity. It’s a call we hear again and again through Scripture. This is not an optional extra to Christian faith, imitating this all-inclusive love of God is essential.

We can’t all be campaigners or policymakers, but we can all strive to make a difference. We are all called to do whatever we can to ensure everyone has what they need to live with dignity and self-respect whatever their background.

Where is Christ calling you to act with integrity today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Resurrection Saints Scripture Uncategorized

A warm hearted welcome

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A post from the archives for 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

What would help you to invite Christ into your heart today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Lectio Divina Prayer Resurrection Saints Scripture

St Mary Magdalene

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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 Discernment Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Rule of St Benedict Saints Scripture

Treasures new and old.

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As we celebrate the feast of St Benedict in increasingly uncertain times I’m reminded of his instructions to the Superior of the community. He says that the Superior should have a treasury of knowledge both old and new to draw on in leading the community.

His words left me reflecting on what the Rule could offer these times when we are so keen to embrace novelty. It drew me back to the heart of the Rule, chapter 72.

It captures the essence of the Rule with the combination of practicality and idealism that has kept the Rule relevant and grounded through the centuries. St Benedict begins by setting a high ideal for his community telling them to:

“Foster the good zeal which separates from evil and leads to God and eternal life.”

He then draws that ideal into the reality of daily life showing his disciples how to put it into practice:

“Try to be the first to show respect to one another, supporting with the greatest patience one another’s weaknesses of body or behaviour… No one is to pursue what they judge better for themselves, but instead what they judge better for someone else.”

He brings his ideal down to simple, straightforward actions that we can all put into practice. This good zeal that leads us to God is not beyond our reach, which is not the same as saying it is easy. It requires daily commitment and self sacrifice; we can find a myriad of ways to practice it every day.

It’s a call to be patient, considerate and kind in our daily interactions with one another. As we rush to develop new ways of engaging with one another and the word I hope we allow these ancient values to help shape our lives.

Where are you being called to practice good zeal in your relationships today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Saints Scripture

Uncertainty and Belief

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Today were celebrating the feast of St Thomas. He is one of my favourite disciples because he is so direct and has the courage to ask awkward questions. I often think that he asked the questions that other people don’t quite have the nerve for.

I always feel sorry for him at the beginning of today’s gospel. There is nothing more isolating than having missed a life changing experience that everyone else in your group is talking about.

I imagine that the eight days between the two resurrection appearances must have been extremely uncomfortable for Thomas. As he heard the other disciples discussing their experience he must have wondered why he was left out. I can sense both sadness and disappointment in his response to their enthusiasm.

Yet, all that changes when Jesus appeared to them again. He doesn’t criticise or blame Thomas for his response, instead he offers him exactly what he needs to be able to believe in the resurrection:

“He spoke to Thomas ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’”

His words break down any barriers of doubt that Thomas still harboured. His acceptance of Thomas’ position enables Thomas to open his heart to believe in the reality of the risen Christ.

Jesus accepts our questions and uncertainties in exactly the same way, coming to each of us in the way that is most likely to open our heart to to accept his peace and love in our lives.

Where is the risen Christ offering you peace and love today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Psalms Saints Scripture

Courage to be free

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As we celebrate the feast of Sts Peter and Paul I’m reflecting on courage. There’s no denying that we live in frightening and challenging times. Whatever direction we look in we risk being overwhelmed by the uncertainty and suffering people are forced to live with.

Peter and Paul do not seem to be very alike. They have different backgrounds, attitudes and experiences of Jesus. Yet, among their many differences one thing Peter and Paul have in common is courage. Among a variety of definitions of courage discussed the one that has stayed with me is the courage to change.

St Paul, the great persecutor of Christians, had the courage to allow his encounter on the Road to Damascus to change everything about how he lived. He must have risked losing friends, family, reputation and livelihood in the process.

Peter’s courage enables him to leave his nets and follow Jesus, even though he feels unequal to the task. His courage allows him to stay with Jesus as his ideas are challenged, disturbed and ultimately seems to be destroyed. Even in the face of his denial of Jesus he finds the courage to come back seeking forgiveness.

They bring to mind these words from today’s responsorial psalm:

“From all my terrors the Lord sets me free.”

In discovering the courage to to change Sts Peter and Paul were able to accept the risks, challenges and delights of allowing Christ to set them free.


Where do you find the courage to allow Christ to set you free from all that would terrorise you?