Category: Scripture

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

A priceless pearl.

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Today’s gospel, the pearl of great price, has always deeply resonated with me. Every time we hear it, I find something new to reflect on. It describes a very regular occurrence in daily life in a way that gives it a whole new perspective. We so often miss what we seek because it doesn’t match our expectations. I find this happens if I go to get something from a cupboard and it’s not on the shelf or in the container where I expect to find it. It’s almost like my expectation overrides the reality before me.

The description today’s gospel offers of the kingdom of heaven suggests that the same pattern applies when we are seeking the kingdom. Jesus tells the crowds to look out for the kingdom in unexpected places, in the midst of ordinary, unremarkable or even dull things. In the midst of a field or in a pile of oyster shells that might well end up in a dustbin. He says to the crowds:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls; when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it.”

His words are a call to openness and attentiveness. He calls us to look beyond our expectations and prejudices, to allow ourselves to be surprised by the presence of the kingdom. He calls us to look for the signs of the kingdom not only in great and momentous events and occasions, but in the ordinary, apparently unimportant interactions and encounters of daily life.

Where are you discovering the treasures of the Kingdom in your life today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Rule of St Benedict Saints Scripture

An open hearted welcome.

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Today we’re celebrating 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

How might inviting Christ into your heart change your life?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Prayer Scripture

Learning vulnerability.

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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?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

In rich soil.

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The key challenge of the parable of the Sower is in its closing line:

“Listen, anyone who has ears!”

The familiarity of the passage can make that especially challenging. It can lead us to be less attentive because we already “know” what the passages about.

Scripture doesn’t let us off with that attitude for very long, surprising us with new challenges and unexpected interpretations.

Generally, my thoughts and prayers go towards those places where the seed doesn’t take root. I think of the times when I push God’s Word to the fringes of my awareness, so I don’t have to hear its challenge to act. Or, I might reflect on those places in my heart that have become too hard to receive the Word in a way that allows it to become truly life changing.

Today, I found myself reflecting on the rich soil within me. We are very quickly aware of the times when the Word fails to take root, we know our lack of attentiveness, we know our hardness of heart. We are often less aware of the “rich soil” within us.

There is a part of us already open, waiting and longing for the Word to take root in our hearts and to allow it to transform our lives. It seems to me that in our challenging times it’s as important to pay attention to that “rich soil” and allow it to nourish and sustain us.

Where is Christ’s presence helping you to recognise the “rich soil” in your life today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Resurrection Saints Scripture

Seeing the Lord

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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 Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

Taking space.

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Today’s gospel is moving, challenging and hopeful. Martha, known as a friend of Jesus’s, welcomes him into her house. She offers him and his companions hospitality, welcoming them with genuine love and affection. While we all recognise hospitality as an important Christian value Martha’s story reminds us that there is another side to it. The reality is that, valuable as it is, it is also demanding and hard work.

Martha soon finds herself overwhelmed by the practicalities of it all. Like so many of us, she snaps under the strain of this reality and complains to Jesus that her sister is doing nothing to help.

Jesus turns her complaint back to her own situation, saying to her:

“‘Martha, Martha,’ he said ‘you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one.’”

There are many ways of interpreting his response. Often it is interpreted as a comparison between Martha and her sister Mary, who has made a different choice. Living, as we do in, times that can feel increasingly busy and overwhelming I’m finding a different message in his words to Martha.

They are a reminder that, valuable as work and service are, they are not the centre of our lives or our world. Jesus invites Martha not to over identify with her work and her “usefulness”. He calls her to step back and take a look at the bigger picture. It seems to me that he also invites us to step back from the busyness of our lives and to take time to be still and to reflect.

Where is Christ inviting you to take time to reflect today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Prophetic voices Scripture

Attentive to the Kingdom.

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In today’s gospel Jesus once again turns our ideas on their heads. He calls his listeners to step back from their challenging, complex and uncertain lives and discover a new way of being. His alternative is a surprise, even a shock for his listeners. He doesn’t tell them to pay attention to the learned and the clever, the experts and politicians. Instead he tells them that the mysteries of the kingdom are revealed to children:

“I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learners and the clever and revealing them to mere children.”

As so often happens with the gospel we have become so familiar with this text that we no longer hear the initial surprise that must have caused. Very few people, then or now, really look at children as bearers of wisdom. The gospel calls us to examine that view. It invites us ask what Jesus saw in the children that he didn’t find in those learned and clever adults, and to look at what we can learn from them.

Children have the capacity for openness and attentiveness that we seem to lose as we grow. When they are involved in some activity they give it their whole attention, it absorbs them completely. To watch that is a delight and a challenge.

We can only ever do one thing at a time, yet we prize multitasking, convincing ourselves that this is a good way to deal with the many things that we have to cope with in any day. The challenge of today’s gospel is to allow seeking the kingdom to absorb us completely, to give it our whole and complete attention.

Where is Christ calling you to give him your whole attention today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

Discovering our neighbours.

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This week’s gospel challenges us to look at the prejudices we take for granted. As part of a conversation intended to disconcert Jesus a lawyer asks:

“And who is my neighbour?”

Jesus answers with the parable of the good Samaritan. It’s a disconcerting and challenging story. The Samaritan would very much have been viewed as the outsider by Jesus’ listeners. They would not have expected him to be the hero of the story. Yet, he is the one who, moved by compassion, reaches out in love to a man in desperate need.

I often feel the full impact of the parable is lost on us today. Having no particular issues with any of the groups Jesus identifies we can gloss over the challenge, ignoring our prejudice. Then it’s easy to identify with the Samaritan who acted with such care and compassion. A few moments reflection reminds us that the challenge is just as real today.

Like the lawyer in the gospel we can easily look for ways to limit God’s call to love, to restrict it to those who “deserve” it. That is not the way of the kingdom. The values of the kingdom compel us to love as God does, unconditionally and without boundaries.

If we are to shape our lives by those values, we need to respond to this question with open and generous hearts, so that everyone is welcomed with warmth and love.

Where are you being called to discover your neighbour today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Rule of St Benedict Saints Scripture

Celebrating St Benedict.

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Celebrating the feast of St Benedict, I’m reflecting on Jesus’ call to service. He interrupts the disciples’ arguments about greatness by turning their perceptions upside down, telling them:

“The greatest among you must be as the youngest, the leader as the one who serves. For who is greater: the one at table or the one who serves? The one at table surely? Yet, I am among you as one who serves!”

His words remind his disciples that they are called to put the needs of others first. That was a startling call to his disciples. It can seem an even more challenging call to us living in a time when individual fulfilment and satisfaction are so much to the fore.

St Benedict puts the call to service at the very heart of his Rule, telling us that we should pursue what is better for others instead of for ourselves. He knows that this is not an easy call, and reminds us that we should bear patiently with one another as we strive to fulfil it.

Community life offers us many opportunities to practice both service and patience throughout the day, whether in big things or small. I often find it’s easier to do in the big things of life. When we know someone is facing something really difficult or challenging it’s easy to be loving and supportive.

It can be much harder in the myriad of little mistakes and annoyances that make up the bulk of most days. However hard it might feel St Benedict is clear that if we “long for life and to see good days” the only way is a life of loving service.

How are you being called to serve today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

The closeness of the kingdom

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In today’s gospel Jesus sends out his disciples to proclaim the Good News around the towns and villages. Having given them power to cast out demons and cured the sick he goes on to tell them:

“As you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.”

His words are a call to attentiveness, they remind us that the kingdom is not an abstract concept for us to reflect on and theologise over. While the promise of the kingdom definitely has a futuristic element, in that we can’t yet see it in its fullness, it can also be a reality in the daily lives we live.

As we face the stresses and strains of our own lives, and the many challenges of our world it can be hard to believe that. Yet, Jesus promises us that if pay attention and we live by the values of the gospel we will see the kingdom grow in our midst. By imitating his actions we can make the kingdom he promises a reality today.

His words call us to pay attention to what we see going on around us, to where we see the values of the gospel being lived by the people we encounter. He also calls us to pay attention to our own actions.

He invites us to reflect on how we treat others, especially the most needy and vulnerable. He asks us to think about where we are called to be kind and compassionate, where we are called to offer hospitality, and to welcome those who are different.

Where is Christ inviting you to recognise the kingdom today?