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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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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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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…
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An Open Invitation To God’s Banquet (Lectio Divina)
Drawing on Richard Rohr’s image of Christianity as a wedding banquet rather than a judicial court, this Lectio Divina reflects on God’s original intention of inclusion — and on how it is we, not God, who exile ourselves from the table that has always been set for us.
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The Ledges We Cling To And The Holy Longing That Will Not Let Us Go (Lectio Divina)
What do a drug addict’s first high, an alcoholic’s first drunk, and the soul’s restless searching have in common? They are all, in their own way, an answer to the call of holy longing — a longing that God placed in us before we knew we had it. Drawing on Karl Rahner’s theology of…
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What the Flesh Cannot Hold: On Felt Absence and the Love That Remains (Lectio Divina)
When God feels absent, it is not because God has withdrawn — it is because the finite flesh cannot always bear the weight of infinite love. Drawing on the cry of dereliction, the agony in Gethsemane, and the Pauline vision of a life hidden in God, this Lectio Divina explores why felt separation is…