LISTEN Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from a father who loves you; welcome it and faithfully put it into practice. The opening sentences of the Rule of St Benedict invite us to begin a journey that has been made …
Author Archives: Turvey Nuns
A Little Rule for Beginners
In the final chapter of his Rule, St Benedict invites his monks to ‘keep this little rule that we have written for beginners.’ There’s something gently reassuring about St Benedict’s vision of his Rule being for beginners, a first step on the journey. And yet, as any monastic will tell you, the seventy-three chapters of …
Eastertide Alphabet (H)
HEARTS When Jesus speaks to the disciples and tells them that their ‘ hearts will be full of joy’, I wonder how they understood it. John sets this lengthy discourse around the table of their last meal together. They have already shared together the ‘bread of affliction’ and Jesus now asks them to imagine a …
Eastertide Alphabet (G)
GLORY The opening of John’s Gospel weaves together in poetic prose the major theological themes that we will encounter in its pages: life, light, love and glory. It’s hard to explore one without exploring all three. Glory is perhaps the most difficult to quantify and understand. For the Hebrew mind the word glory (kavod) has …
Eastertide Alphabet (F)
FILLED When our parents and godparents presented us for Baptism they did so in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. As the water was poured over of heads and the chrism anointed our foreheads the Holy Spirit made a home in us. Nothing than change that. In Ch 4 of Acts …
Eastertide Alphabet (E)
EMMAUS I don’t think I’ll ever tire of hearing the Emmaus story. I almost know the text by heart. I’m struck today as I sit to write this reflection just how healing a long walk with a friend can be. There is something about the rhythm of walking and being alongside another person that helps …
Eastertide Alphabet (D)
DORCAS Peter went back with them immediately, and on his arrival they took him to the upper room, where all the widows stood round him in tears, showing him tunics and other clothes DORCAS had made when she was with them. Acts records just a handful of details about Dorcas. We have become accustomed to …
Eastertide Alphabet (C)
COMMON ‘The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed for his own use anything that he had, as everything they owned was held in COMMON.‘ This is a touchstone text for anyone who wants to explore living in community. Living in a way which expresses unity is something to which …
Eastertide Alphabet (B)
BAPTISED We see here the full fervour of the Early Church as, filled with the Holy Spirit, the apostles proclaim an urgent message: You must repent and everyone of you must be BAPTISED in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. …
Eastertide Alphabet (A)
AWE ‘Filled with awe and great joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell the disciples.’ I am struck today at how this text conveys a mix of emotions as it couples ‘awe and great joy’. Throughout the story of our salvation we meet those who have come close to …