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Already There: Bede the Venerable and the Lord Who Rescues Us From Concupiscence (Lectio Divina)
When we have dug ourselves into despair, it is hard to believe anyone could still reach us, and harder still to believe we would want to be reached. Bede the Venerable says the Lord rescues all who are sunk in the pit of concupiscence, and this reflection sits with that promise, and with the…
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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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Every Hour Gathered: Hilary of Poitiers and a Life of Uninterrupted Prayer (Lectio Divina)
We say our prayers, keep our commitments, and do what we know we should, and still the heart can lag somewhere behind the gesture. Hilary of Poitiers takes up the old objection to Paul’s command to pray without ceasing: how could anyone possibly do that and still eat, sleep, and work? This reflection sits…
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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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Every Breath a Prayer: Gregory of Nazianzus and the Practice of Praying Without Ceasing (Lectio Divina)
St. Paul tells us to pray without ceasing, and Gregory of Nazianzus presses further: we ought to think of God more often than we draw our breath. For many of us that call lands either as a weight we cannot lift or as a standard we quietly assume we have already met. This reflection…
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I Do Not Endeavor: Anselm of Canterbury and the Impenetrable Sublimity of God (Lectio Divina)
Some of us pray harder when God feels far away, as though enough effort might finally bring Him near. Anselm of Canterbury stands before the height of God and refuses to climb it, yet he never stops longing. This reflection sits with the ache of reaching for a mystery that cannot be reached, and…
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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 One Day of Eternal Life: Karl Rahner and the Sabbath Within Every Day (Lectio Divina)
If God has already given Himself without reservation, what is left to ask for? Karl Rahner prays for love anyway, and for every one of his days to find its way into a single day, and this reflection sits with the strange gift of asking for what is already given, and with the question…
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The Yielding Cup: Augustine and the God Who Forgets Our Forgetting (Lectio Divina)
We forget God many times a day, and no amount of resolve seems to change it. Augustine reads Psalm 23 and finds a cup that yields forgetfulness, which sounds like the very thing we are trying to avoid. This reflection sits with that strange paradox, and with the question of who is really doing…