-
The Mother of Spiritual Consent: Mary’s Yes and the Room It Makes for God (Lectio Divina)
Julian of Norwich saw something in Mary’s “yes” that most of us miss — that her smallness was never an obstacle to grace, but the very room grace needed. This reflection sits with that seeing, and with the no we keep offering instead, the one Mary’s whole life seemed to answer. What would it…
-
A Portion Of Heaven: On Sabbath As An Invitation Into Eternity (Lectio Divina)
What if the restlessness you can’t shake isn’t a flaw to fix, but a sign of something you’ve stopped accepting? This reflection sits with an old desert saying about the kingdom of heaven and asks what it would mean if heaven were less a place we reach and more an invitation we keep declining…
-
Outmatched By Love: The Grace We Can Neither Earn Nor Repay (Lectio Divina)
Teresa of Ávila saw her debt clearly — and knew she could not pay even the smallest part of it. This Lectio Divina begins there: with the unsettling discovery that grace cannot be earned, manufactured, or even desired without grace first making the desire possible. What does it mean to be so utterly outmatched…
-
The Desert Of No Obvious Name: On Addiction, Recovery, and Spiritual Malady (Lectio Divina)
Most of us know the saying from recovery circles: don’t get too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. It is practical wisdom for the alcoholic and addict. But this post asks whether it is something more — whether hunger, anger, loneliness, and exhaustion are not just warnings for those in recovery, but the universal conditions…
-
Altar of Insomnia: The Transformative Power of Grace (Lectio Divina)
Robert Van Valkenburgh traces the arc from childhood hyper-vigilance to a 4 a.m. moment of insomnia — where the altar of self-made atonement becomes, by grace, the place of surrender. Drawing on St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s bold declaration that she fears only one thing — keeping her own will — this Lectio Divina asks…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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,…