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When the Dead Remain: On Grief, Friendship, and the Communion of Saints (Lectio Divina)
Some losses arrive quietly — not as rupture, but as presence. In this Lectio Divina, Robert Van Valkenburgh reflects on the memory of a dear friend who died last year: a man who introduced him to Catholicism more than twenty-five years ago and whose silent faithfulness he is only now able to see and…
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Not a Stranger on the Road: Julian of Norwich and the Love That Raises Us (Lectio Divina)
Have you ever been called toward something — only to be redirected, then found again exactly where you least expected? In this Lectio Divina reflection, Robert Van Valkenburgh follows one such movement of grace: drawn to Julian of Norwich, detoured through St. Francis de Sales, and then surprised by Julian’s words arriving through a…
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The Wellspring of Joy: God, Love, and the Light That Darkness Cannot Overcome (Lectio Divina)
What does it mean to say that God is the source of all joy — and that the Evil One is defined by sorrow? Drawing on St. Francis de Sales’s portrait of the Evil One as a being of pure sadness who would draw all others into his misery, this Lectio Divina reflection traces…
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I Do: On Loving God With Everything You Cannot Give (Lectio Divina)
What does it mean to love God when your very capacity to love him is a gift he gave you? In this Lectio Divina reflection, Robert Van Valkenburgh draws on Thérèse of Lisieux’s Act of Oblation to Merciful Love — her prayer that the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within God might overflow…
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All Manner of Not-God: On Sabbath, Restlessness, and the Soul’s Hunger for God (Lectio Divina)
What drives us to labor — and what are we really searching for? Drawing on Beatrice of Nazareth’s account of the soul’s great torment of longing, this Sabbath Lectio Divina traces the spiritual root of all human desire: our soul’s yearning for infinite union with infinite God. Along the way it names the compulsions…
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The Collage Of Heaven: How God Speaks Through Every Unique Life (Lectio Divina)
God speaks to each of us in ways that are uniquely our own — and through that uniqueness, speaks through us to others. Drawing on John of the Cross, the Hebrew scriptures, the four Gospels, Paul’s theology of the Body, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this Lectio Divina reflection traces the prismatic…
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Did Not Our Hearts Burn: The Many Faces Of God (Lectio Divina)
Where does God meet us? Not only in the dramatic moments of Scripture — wrestling with Jacob at the ford of the Jabbok, speaking to Moses from a burning bush, leading Israel through the wilderness — but in the ordinary movements of our days. In this Lectio Divina reflection, Robert Van Valkenburgh draws on…
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An Excess of Presence: On Spiritual Darkness and the Gift of God’s Grace (Lectio Divina)
Some days God feels farther away than others. The fog of spiritual dryness settles in, and the mirror through which we see his reflection grows dark and unpolished. In this Lectio Divina reflection, Robert Van Valkenburgh draws on Pseudo-Dionysius’s Mystical Theology and the Mary and Martha passage from Luke’s Gospel to explore what we…
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Stillness Upon The Altar Of Time: An Invitation To Contemplation (Lectio Divina)
In this lectio divina reflection, Robert Van Valkenburgh invites readers into the heart of contemplative practice — not as observers, but as participants in a shared communion with God. Drawing on Guigo II’s classic articulation of the four movements of lectio divina from The Ladder of Monks, this post moves through reading, meditation, prayer,…
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Recollected Into God: Teresa of Ávila on the Soul’s Return to Wholeness (Lectio Divina)
We are not born broken. We are created in the image and likeness of a God whose first intention was love — whose first and last Word is Love. Born of and for love, we were born whole in a broken world. And yet, one injury and insult at a time, one hope and…