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Instrument of Peace: The World Does Not Change Simply Because We Do (Lectio Divina)
What do we really believe the spiritual life promises us? In this Lectio Divina reflection, Robert Van Valkenburgh traces an insight that arose during a contemplative group gathering in which the so-called Prayer of St. Francis — beautifully attributed but almost certainly written by an anonymous French author in 1912 — became the occasion…
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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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Layer by Layer: How God Frees Us From the Darkness We Cling To (Lectio Divina)
What does it really mean to be born again — not once, but continually, layer by layer? Drawing on Henri Nouwen’s reflection on spiritual rebirth in Discernment, this Lectio Divina explores why conversion is often painful rather than joyful: because we cling to the very darkness that drove us to God, refusing to release…
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What We Love We Shall Grow to Resemble: On Love, Forgiveness, and the Soul’s Formation (Lectio Divina)
What we love, we shall grow to resemble. Drawing on Bernard of Clairvaux, the Dhammapada, the Sermon on the Mount, and Paul’s letter to the Romans, this Lectio Divina meditation traces the quiet logic of the soul’s formation through its own outpouring. It is not what is done to us that damages the soul,…
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Lie Down, Be Still: The Gift of Sabbath Rest in Christ (Lectio Divina)
In this Lectio Divina reflection, Robert Van Valkenburgh begins with a friend’s confession that his life feels like a hamster on a wheel — spinning under the weight of obligations, responsibilities, and everyone else’s needs and agendas. From this honest moment of recognition, the post moves into a meditation on Sabbath not as idleness…
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Title: God’s Single Utterance: Augustine, Kairos, and Contemplative Discernment in Daily Life (Lectio Divina)
What if the debates that divide us over Scripture are missing the point entirely? Perhaps there is only one Word of God, and that Word is a Person. This reflection traces an ordinary Friday from morning prayer to a kitchen podcast moment, exploring how Augustine’s insight that God speaks one single Utterance resonates through…
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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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Remain With God: On Stability, Transformation, and the Vow We All Carry (Lectio Divina)
What does it mean to stay — not just in one place, but in one life, with one community, for the sake of love? Drawing on Esther de Waal’s Benedictine wisdom and Paul’s counsel to remain in the condition in which we were called, this Lectio Divina explores the vow of stability as a…
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Not the Final Word: On Suffering, Brokenness, and Grace (Lectio Divina)
Some days — some weeks, months, and years — we are going to be beaten down by the world’s brokenness. Suffering is real, brokenness is real, and the pain we carry can feel like our ultimate reality. And yet, in silence and stillness, something more real than our suffering is revealed. Drawing on St.…
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The First Word Was Love: A Prayer of Consent to the Love That Is All in All (Lectio Divina)
Drawing on Teilhard de Chardin’s vision of Love as the agent of universal synthesis, this Lectio Divina meditates on Love as the first and last Word — before all things, within all things, and as all in all. A reflection on the cosmic and intimate dimensions of divine Love, culminating in a prayer of…