Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up the mountain to pray. As he prayed, the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as lightning. Much of the spiritual life involves the following of a fairly ordinary path of joys and challenges, moments of insight and times …
Category Archives: Monastic
Saturday in the First Week of Lent
Deuteronomy 26:16-19Matthew 5:43-48 ‘The Lord your God commands you today to observe these laws and customs; you must keep them with all your heart and all your soul.‘ The Book of Deuteronomy is a favourite of mine. Commentators have drawn my attention to the number of times the ‘heart’ is mentioned. What Deuteronomy offers is …
Friday in the First Week of Lent
Ezekiel 18:21-28Matthew 5:20-26 The picture that I have used today is of our chapel at Turvey. The place in front of the altar is of huge monastic significance. It is there that you stand as a postulant and ask to begin your monastic journey and then some months later you will stand there as you …
Thursday in the First Week of Lent
Esther 4:1-7Matt 7:7-12 ASKSEARCHKNOCK These are all aspects of our life of prayer. Asking God for our own needs and the needs of others is something we learn from an early age. It is, of course, not without its problems. We don’t always get what we ask for. Later in life we learn that our …
Wednesday in the First Week of Lent
Jonah 3:1-10Luke 11:29-32 ‘The people of Nineveh believed in God:they proclaimed a fast and put on sack cloth, from the greatest to the least.‘ I am very fond of the Book of Jonah. Jonah is a bit grumpy and doesn’t quite trust that his preaching mission will take off. But it does. There is no …
Tuesday in the Second Week of Lent
Isaiah 55:10-11Matthew 6:7-15 The words of the Our Father are so familiar to us. Sometimes they can lose their impact and we miss the fact that the prayer is revolutionary. We are praying that God’s kingdom might come. That’s every value turned on its head. There can be no ifs, no buts. Are we ready …
Monday in the First Week of Lent
Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18Matthew 25:31-46 For I was hungry and you gave me food;I was thirsty and you gave me drink… There are times and seasons when the Scripture we hear is vivid and is played out right before our eyes. The desperate needs of the people in the war-torn places in our world, the plight …
First Sunday of Lent (C)
Deut 26:4-10Luke 4:1-13 Our Lenten journey begins with Jesus being filled with the Spirit and led into the wilderness. I always read Luke’s account of the Baptism of Jesus before I read the temptation narrative. Perhaps I am trying to soften things a little, but I like to stay with the words ‘You are my …
Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Isaiah 58:9-14 Luke 5:27-32 ‘The Lord will always guide you, giving you relief in desert places.He will give strength to your bones and you shall be like a watered garden,like a spring of water whose waters never run dry.‘ Today’s reading from Isaiah repeats some of yesterday’s text and it too ends on a hopeful note. …
Friday after Ash Wednesday
Isaiah 58:1-9Matthew 9:14-15 Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me – it is the Lord who speaks –to break unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke,to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke,to share your bread with the hungry, and shelter the homeless poor,to clothe the man you see to be naked and not …