A word that we meet often in the Scriptures is ‘hope’. Frequently the psalms encourage us to hope in God Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope ( Ps. 119:49): Jeremiah reassures us that God will give us a future full of hope (Jer. 29:11) Job tells us There […]
Two Olive Trees (Zech. 4:3 & 11, Rev. 11:4)
Many years ago in England, I used to enjoy listening to a radio program which always began with the question Have you read any good books lately? It makes a good conversation opener, and often leads to some interesting and thought provoking discussion. One book I have been reading and re-reading over the past year […]
Place Your Hope in God Alone (RB 4)
I said to the man who stood at the gate of the yearGive me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown. And he replied, “Go out into the darkness,and put your hand into the hand of GodThat shall be to you better than a light,And safer than a known way. So I […]
Via Vitae, Way of Life
Via Vitae Special Edition
January 2018
Benedict: The Blessed One
Can the pursuit of a spiritual path lead to the very egocentricity it is trying to escape? Not infrequently. The Desert monks were acutely aware of this danger especially in solitude and relied above all upon the abba-disciple relationship to avoid it. It was however Benedict of Nursia (480-550) who devised a masterly, sapiential formula […]
To Love and to Serve
In the early 5th century Cassian brought the teachings of the Desert to the western church, through establishing the twin monastic foundations (for men and women) at Marseilles and, above all, through his great work: the Conferences of the Fathers. In the 9th and 10th Conferences of Cassian ‘On Prayer’, John Main found a Christian […]