Reflections from Turvey Abbey
FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT Isaiah 2:1-5Matthew 24:36-44 Each year as we celebrate the liturgical cycle, I am grateful for the opportunity to take stock and refocus my mind and heart. We begin Advent with Isaiah’s prophetic vision of all nations gathering in peace. Isaiah invites us to imagine the peoples of the world being restored …
Continue reading “A Path Through Advent with St Benedict (1)”
Welcome to A Path Through Advent with St Benedict. I’ll be using the Advent Liturgy of the Word as a framework for our reflection. I’ll choose a theme from the readings and relate this to my experience of living the Rule of St Benedict. You don’t need to have any prior knowledge of the Rule. …
2 Samuel 5:1-3Colossians 1:12-20Luke 23:35-43 News that King Charles may ‘trim down’ his Coronation service has prompted me to think about Kingship and what it might mean for our world today. Is it an outmoded concept? Is it something which becomes redefined with each new monarch? I don’t get very far with these ‘earthly’ questions …
Luke 21:5-19 Throughout the story of our salvation the people of God have searched for and longed to be in the presence of God. They have sensed the sacred and marked it in physical ways by the erecting of stones and the building of altars. When Solomon builds the Temple it’s the fruit of the …
Luke 20:27-38 Since the death of Br Herbert Kaden, a monk of the Turvey communities, and the celebration of All Saints and All Souls, I have been turning round in my heart and mind what I understand about our passing from this world to the next. I have been put back in touch with my …
Luke 19:1-10 Last week’s parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector may still be lingering in our scriptural imaginations. We’ve had our preconceptions challenged a little and we know that the Jesus of Luke’s Gospel champions the outcast. Within the first verse of today’s text we already have a challenge: ‘Jesus entered Jericho and …
Luke 18:9-14 In ‘Witness’, a series of radio plays on Luke’s Gospel by Mark Warburton, the character of Jesus is cast with a Northern accent, and he tells the parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee with such gentle humour. I think we often miss the passages in the Bible that would have raised …
Luke 18:1-8 I often hope that the Sunday Gospel will be ‘my bread’ for the week ahead. I have my own work to do in this by engaging with the text. I hope to be inspired and challenged. This week’s text of the Unjust Judge presents me with a huge challenge. Luke has framed the …
Luke 17:11-19 In this week’s Gospel we enter the third and final section of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. Luke gives us a geographical marker: On the way to Jerusalem Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. Scholarly opinion differs as to how accurate this description might be but what is certain is that …
Luke 17:5-10 In the opening of his Rule St Benedict makes an invitation to anyone who is serious about seeking God: ‘Is there anyone here who yearns for life and desires to see good days?‘ To those who respond he says: ‘See how the Lord in his love shows us the way of life. Clothed …