OBEY Although he was son,he learned to OBEY through suffering. We sing this text as an antiphon at Vespers during Lent in our monastic liturgy. In fact, as soon as I start to read it the tune begins playing in my head. It is very much one of the sounds of Lent in the monastery. …
Category Archives: Monastic
Lent Alphabet (N)
As soon as Judas had taken the piece of bread he went out. Night had fallen. These verses always chill me. I imagine a sultry night, heavy with expectation and fear. But the very next lines in the text shift the focus sharply ‘now has the Son of man been glorified’. There is no portrayal …
Third Sunday in Lent (A)
Exodus 17:3-7John 4:5-42 In the next three weeks as we journey towards Easter, our biblical imaginations are invited to explore three major baptismal themes: water, light and life. We have made the journey from desert to the mountain top. This week we find ourselves by a well. We enter a different world when we listen …
Lent Alphabet (M)
MILK The Lord brought us out of Egypt with mighty hand and outstretched arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders. He brought us here and has given us this country, a country flowing with MILK and honey. References to a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’ appear 20 times in the Old Testament. …
Lent Alphabet (L)
LAW Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the LAW or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved. Laws and their keeping …
Lent Alphabet (K)
KNOCK Ask and it shall be given to you; search, and you will find; KNOCK and the door will be opened to you. Asking, searching and knocking 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 …
Lent Alphabet (J)
The next day the crowds who had come up for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to JERUSALEM. In the Biblical imagination Jerusalem holds a place that no other city can. As salvation history unfolds God’s people hold fast to the promise that they are chosen and that God will be with …
Lent Alphabet (I)
IF IF you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin on you today, if you love the Lord your God and follow his ways,if you keep his commandments, his laws, his customs, you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are …
Lent Alphabet (H)
HOLY The Lord spoke to Moses; he said: Speak to the whole community of the sons of Israel and say to them: ‘Be HOLY, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.’ If you set yourself the task of reading the Bible from cover to cover, you could be forgiven for losing enthusiasm when you …
Lent Alphabet (G)
GIVE GIVE us today, our daily bread. The Liturgy of the Word in Lent takes us through some of the major themes of our salvation history. Many of the readings can be heard as an invitation to conversion of heart. The Our Father can be read as a guide to this conversion. It’s familiar petitions …