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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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The Gift of Wonder: Letting Go of Certainty and Resting in Mystery (Lectio Divina)
We spend so much of our lives grasping for certainty — as if knowing enough could protect us from pain, loss, or the sheer vastness of what we cannot control. But what if the part of us that demands to know is not the deepest part of us at all? Drawing on Serene Jones,…
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The Empty Cup: Emptiness and Receptivity in Christ (Lectio Divina)
Drawing on a retelling of a classic Zen story, this post explores the Christian invitation to emptiness — not as vacancy, but as receptivity to God’s grace. Through the figures of the rich young man, John the Baptist, Mary, and the kenotic Christ of Philippians 2, it traces the pattern of self-emptying love at…