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Not His Gifts But Himself: The Cloud of Unknowing on Naked Love (Lectio Divina)
There is a particular ache in mistaking a kindness for the God who sent it — the coat, the cup of water, the good word we needed exactly when we needed it. Robert Van Valkenburgh turns to The Cloud of Unknowing to ask what remains when even these run out, when the blessings stop…
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The Ceiling Was a Floor: From Zen to Christ Through the Cloud of Unknowing (Lectio Divina)
What happens when the tradition you love most can no longer hold you? In this deeply personal Lectio Divina, Robert Van Valkenburgh traces his spiritual journey from the Zen Buddhist tradition — which spoke to him before he had words for what it was pointing toward — through an existential crisis and dark night…
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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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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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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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Wandering and Wounded: A Lectio Divina on Exile, Longing, and the God Who Draws Near (Lectio Divina)
What do we do when faith is exhausted — when joy is laced with suffering, clarity with confusion, and the longing for God feels like exile? Drawing on the anonymous medieval classic The Cloud of Unknowing, this Lectio Divina sits with the rawness of spiritual fatigue and the contemplative invitation to remain in the…
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The God Beyond Concepts: A Contemplative Journey into Sacred Silence (Lectio Divina)
What does it mean to have no concept of God? Drawing on Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and the centering prayer tradition of Thomas Keating, this Lectio Divina explores how relationship with God can deepen beyond concepts and experience can expand beyond belief — not replacing them, but fulfilling them. Through one transformative moment of contemplative…
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You Awakened Me: Prayer, Longing, and the God Who Is Always Near (Lectio Divina)
A Lectio Divina meditation on the ache of divine awakening — the experience of being drawn toward God, only to find him near yet unreachable, known yet beyond knowing. Drawing on John Calvin and the apophatic tradition, this piece traces the paradox of a love that gives itself freely while remaining just out of…
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The Futility of Self-Justification: Grace Is Already Yours (A Lectio Divina)
We want to justify ourselves — to be on the right side, blameless before God. But this desire is itself the oldest deception. Drawing on Thomas Oden and the Pauline theology of justification, this piece traces the transactional heart’s inability to receive what God freely offers, and the slow, humbling work of grace that…
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Standing Strong: Grace, Gratitude, and the Armor of God (Lectio Divina)
Drawing on the preface of The Cloud of Unknowing — a fourteenth-century anonymous English mystical text — this post explores the spiritual life as a daily practice of faith, hope, love, and gratitude in the face of subtle attack. Gratitude is not merely a feeling but an act of self-emptying love — and even…