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As We Forgive: Thomas Merton and the Double-Edged Prayer (Lectio Divina)
We pray the Our Father without a second thought, asking to be forgiven as we forgive, and then a name comes to mind and the words catch. Thomas Merton says we can have the mercy of God whenever we want it, which sounds like a gift until we notice what it asks of us.…
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Give Me Thyself: Julian of Norwich and the Folly of Wanting Less Than God (Lectio Divina)
Why do we keep reaching for less than we most deeply long for? Julian of Norwich asks God for nothing short of Himself, and this reflection sits with the quiet ways we settle, and with the ache that remains when we do.
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What We Cannot Give God: Catherine of Siena on the Love of Neighbor(Lectio Divina)
We are asked to love God with all we have, and most of us wonder what we could possibly give Him that He does not already hold. Saint Catherine of Siena records God Himself saying that the love He asks of us is one we can never repay, because He loved us before we…
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Room to Receive More: Thomas Aquinas and the Charity That Has No Limit (Lectio Divina)
We keep waiting for our circumstances to change before we allow ourselves to rest, and the waiting quietly turns into clinging. Thomas Aquinas says charity has no limit to its increase, and this reflection sits with that strange claim, and with what we are holding so tightly that we cannot receive more.
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How Much More: St. Jerome and the Lord Who is Always Calling (Lectio Divina)
What if the restless pull you feel toward God is not your own doing? Jerome answers the charge that Matthew left his tax booth too hastily with the image of a loadstone, and this reflection sits with that pull, and with the unsettling words “whom He will.”
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The Fire That Prepares Us: John of the Cross and the Dark Night of Divine Love (Lectio Divina)
What if the Love we keep putting off is already at work in us, long before we say yes? John of the Cross says the fire that transforms is the same fire that first prepares, and this reflection sits with a knock we cannot hear for the noise, and with how long mercy is…
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The Door We Close Ourselves: Fr. Mike Schmitz and the Love That Never Leaves (Lectio Divina)
You’ve heard it said you have to choose heaven or you’ll end up in hell — but what if that choice was never a test you could fail? Fr. Mike Schmitz’s stark either/or on the Catechism in a Year raises a harder question underneath: what if hell was never a sentence handed down, but…
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Wrath Is Not His: Julian of Norwich and the Justice That Wants You Whole (Lectio Divina)
We call it justice when we want someone to suffer for what they did to us. But is that the justice God means by the word? This reflection sits with the distance between the vengeance we crave and the mercy Julian of Norwich insists is the only wrath there ever was.
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To Lose All, To Be Filled: James Finley and the Love That Empties Itself Out For Others (Lectio Divina)
What if the love God asks of you was never meant to be kept, only carried? James Finley’s reading of Merton names a strange exchange at the heart of the Christian life — that we are emptied out not as loss, but so we might be filled with something we could never have held…
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The Chalice of Self-Acceptance: Johannes Metz on Loving God, Neighbor, and Self (Lectio Divina)
Most of us were taught that loving others is a virtue we cultivate by turning outward. But Jesus’s second great commandment carries a hidden demand: that we first receive the love we are commanded to give. This reflection sits with Johannes Baptist Metz’s unsettling claim that flight from self is flight from God —…