When we pick up and read any of the four Gospels we are being drawn into the world of the Kingdom of God. There’s an inbuilt dynamic of something which is here already, but not yet fulfilled. In Jesus we see what is means for a human being to fully embody the values of the …
Category Archives: Monastic
Eastertide Alphabet (J)
JOY John 15:9-11 ‘If you keep my commandmentsyou will remain in my love,just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.I have told you thisso that my own joy may be in youand your joy be complete.’ During Eastertide we hear a good deal of John’s Gospel. The themes of keeping …
Eastertide Alphabet (I)
INHERITANCE Living in a monastic community for the past thirty years I am very conscious of my monastic inheritance. This is very obviously visible in the material culture of the monastery, in its wall hangings, icons and vestments. The design of our oratory too speaks of our monastic and ecclesiological inheritance. Less obvious, but every …
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 …
Third Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:14, 22-33 1 Peter 1:17-21Luke 24:13-35 Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us? This is the second time that we hear the Emmaus story in the season of Eastertide. We heard it first on Wednesday in the Easter Octave. There is …
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 …