Since April 2020, I have been jointly hosting a shared Lectio group on Tuesday evenings. The following are my reflections only, during the prayer session and as I wrote them up. Please see my separate commentary and leaflet for more information about shared Lectio.
Reflections for 4 May | 11 May | 18 May | 25 May | the whole collection…
4 May
Gospel reading: John 14.27-end
Words: want to see
Reflections:
While reading the text, I think I subconsciously strengthened the ‘wish’ to see.
These finite eyes cannot see the infinite God.
This finite mind cannot see and understand the infinite God.
It is good enough to want to see.
And perhaps, all unknowing, I will encounter the infinite God in the depths of me.
I thank God for this time.
11 May
Gospel reading: John 16.5-11
Another week I forgot to write up, oops!
18 May
Gospel reading: John 17.1-11
Words: before the world existed
Reflections:
I had a sense of being known by God eternally; that I was in and with Christ before he and later I were born into the world; and that I am destined to rejoin him for eternal life, where all is one.
It seems to me that less has been coming through Lectio recently. Perhaps there is an element of the Dark Night in them at the moment, as I am more drawn to silence rather than words. Perhaps I am simply finding it difficult to focus. All things ebb and flow. There is no need to worry. I can take the chance to listen kto the others in the group.
25 May
Gospel reading: Mark 10.28-31
Words: father … began
Reflections:
First, the intellectual response, having very recently read that the list in v30 omits ‘father’ compared with the list in v29. (Compare Matthew 23.9.) For Mark, there is and will be only one Father in heaven. (This also implies that Mark’s God has no Mother in ‘Him’, because mothers do make it onto both lists.)
Second, ‘began’ taken out of context and the importance of beginnings. I would not have finished the Coast Path had I not taken the first step, then the second…
Many of my Quotes are about beginning things, whether it’s about taking the risk or the intention to finish and make something of life. So St Benedict and Julia Cameron. I am just starting some inner child work. It is a risk in that I don’t know what it will bring up or how long it will take. But it is worth seeing it through.
My life is littered with beginnings, which means my ‘finish stuff’ list is a long one. It is why I have focused on learning German and kept going with it until I can hold a reasonable conversation and read books. It is one reason why I am finally learning to touch type and intend to give it the same focus. I want to get somewhere with the book I started writing last year, but have created myself a block over it. The inner child work and learning to touch type are intended to be two ways round the block, or methods of loosening it… similar to the ‘Wu Wei’ as described by Tom Forsyth in Alastair McIntosh’s wonderful book Soil and Soul.
‘We’ve got no conventional resources. We’d wear ourselves out in no time if we beat our wings against the granite block of landlordism. So just flow around it for now, like a river. The times are getting right; opportunities will arise. Act effortlessly. Do only what feels good and gives you energy. And don’t flinch from rising to the occasion, incisively, energetically, when the sand moves and the block starts to shift. That’s the way of Wu Wei.’
Then there is ‘everything’ that is to be given up, not just possessions but friends and family relationships, not just these but attitudes, bad habits, preconceptions and life itself. But if that seems too much, and even overwhelming, we only need to begin, and the take the next step, give up the next distracting shiny new thing (each will be painful I expect), then the next and the next, unto eternal life.