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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…
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We Know Not Where But With And To Whom (Lectio Divina)
What does it mean to follow Christ when we do not know where he is leading us? Drawing on Thomas à Kempis’s invitation to follow the Way, the Truth, and the Life, this Lectio Divina sits with the paradox at the heart of Christian discipleship: we do not know where Christ takes us, but…
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God’s Soil: On Sabbath Rest and the Soul’s Emergence (Lectio Divina)
What does it mean to truly rest — not merely in sleep or idleness, but in the deep Sabbath stillness where the soul quietly emerges? Drawing on Mark Buchanan’s insight that all living things thrive only by an ample measure of stillness, this Lectio Divina traces the arc from body to mind to soul,…
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The Wounds of Resurrection: Apertures of Love (Lectio Divina)
What does love actually cost us — and what did it cost Jesus? This Lectio Divina begins with an honest reckoning: love makes us emotionally porous, permeable to another’s suffering and vulnerable to our own grief at the prospect of loss. It gives meaning to our lives and makes the journey navigable, but it…
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The Daily Rendezvous With God: On Freedom, Longing, and The Gift Already Given (Lectio Divina)
What does it mean to receive a gift you were created with? This Lectio Divina reflection, drawn from James Finley’s meditation on our creation as the beloved, explores the freedom God gave us — not as distance, but as the space in which the gift of infinite union can be freely received. Moving through…
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Instrument of Peace: The World Does Not Change Simply Because We Do (Lectio Divina)
What do we really believe the spiritual life promises us? In this Lectio Divina reflection, Robert Van Valkenburgh traces an insight that arose during a contemplative group gathering in which the so-called Prayer of St. Francis — beautifully attributed but almost certainly written by an anonymous French author in 1912 — became the occasion…
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More Than We Can Handle: On Grace, the Cross, and the God Who Never Turns Away (Lectio Divina)
We are often told that God will not give us more than we can handle — but this is only partly true. In fact, God often gives us exactly more than we can handle: tests we cannot pass, crosses we cannot bear, laws we cannot follow on our own strength. And this is the…
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Layer by Layer: How God Frees Us From the Darkness We Cling To (Lectio Divina)
What does it really mean to be born again — not once, but continually, layer by layer? Drawing on Henri Nouwen’s reflection on spiritual rebirth in Discernment, this Lectio Divina explores why conversion is often painful rather than joyful: because we cling to the very darkness that drove us to God, refusing to release…