Author Archives: Bethlehem Abbey

Faith and Lectio Divina – the Word takes Flesh

If faith and lectio divina are to mean anything together then it must be that lectio divina has the distinguishing characteristic of being incarnational.  The Word has to take flesh again in us, and this is what we must aspire to when we approach Sacred Scripture – the whole of Scripture hinges and pivots around the Christ-event, either in preparation, or in actualisation, or in memorization, that’s to say, how it lives on in the memories of those who have experienced it (we might look at the First Letter of St John should we need any convincing of this in its effects).  And that memorization, the calling to mind which is memorial in its sacred and liturgical sense, and acknowledging our Jewish roots when we speak like this, is also a matter of faith…

Faith and Lectio Divina

What is it to speak about a faith context for lectio divina?  In the first place, what is lectio divina?  This reverenced way of prayer in the Church centres us on the encounter with Jesus Christ in the word of Sacred Scripture.  Lectio divina – literally, sacred or divine reading – is the prayerful, slowContinue reading “Faith and Lectio Divina”

St Pachomius, Monk

Towering over the emergence of monasticism in the early Church are two figures who represent the complementary aspects of monastic living, and which create a natural tension but not the exclusivity of exclusion: St Antony of Egypt, often called the Father of Monks, leads the way into the eremitical monastic life, that which prefers solitude above all, and the saint whose memory we keep on the 15th May, St Pachomius, whose life and teaching are received as the origins of cenobitic, or community, monastic living…

The Solemnity of the Holy Founders of the Cistercian Order: Special Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Cistercian Life

As we celebrate the solemnity of our Holy Founders, Robert, Alberic and Stephen, we invite you to join us on this special day of prayer for Cistercian vocations. What not take a moment to mention the name of our Abbey to God; if passing a Church, drop in, pray before the Blessed Sacrament, and light a candle; offer a decade of the Rosary, asking Mary, Queen of our Order, to intercede for us, and move hearts to heed her Son’s invitation into Cistercian monastic life.

20th September – The Korean Martyrs

Today, 20th September, the Church celebrates the feast of the Korean martyrs, St Andrew Kim Taegon and his companions.  Apart from the terrible accounts of the persecution which the early Korean believers had to undergo as Christianity established itself in the Korean peninsula, and their subsequent torture and executions, one thing above all must always be remembered and discussed when we call to mind these Korean faith witnesses: the Church in Korea began not with evangelisation carried out by indigenous or foreign missionaries bringing and sowing the seed of the Word of God and the sacramental life of the Church, but by the thirst and supernatural desire of the Korean lay men and women who allowed a holy curiosity to draw them toward the faith. 

Solemnity of Our Father St Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (20th August)

Just a few years after Robert of Molesmes left the Black Monks and journeyed a short distance to found a New Monastery, with a few monastic companions, at a marshy place outside Dijon called Cîteaux, thus giving his new monastic enterprise their name – Cistercians – it seemed as if the venture would fail.  TheContinue reading “Solemnity of Our Father St Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (20th August)“

The Solemnity of the Assumption, 15th August

Mary, the Mother of God, has always occupied a very particular place in Cistercian hearts and prayer.  All of our houses are placed under her patronage and care, and in a special way, on the Solemnity of the Assumption each year, every community of the Order, throughout the world, marks the feast by making anContinue reading “The Solemnity of the Assumption, 15th August“

The Solemnity of St Benedict, Abbot – 11th July

Sometimes, trying to find something new to say about a figure who has had vast and, it’s reasonable to say, as yet entirely unquantified influence on society and Church can simply be pointless.  And that is by no means to say that all conversation about one such has been exhausted.  St Benedict of Nursia perhapsContinue reading “The Solemnity of St Benedict, Abbot – 11th July”

More on St Rafael Arnaiz Baron, Cistercian Oblate – 27th April

Today we keep the memory of a Cistercian saint of the 20th century, St Rafael (1911 – 1938).  A gifted young man, who studied architecture and showed himself a talented and perceptive artist, he was captivated by the Cistercian monastic life and entered the Spanish monastery of San Isidro.  However, he soon became ill withContinue reading “More on St Rafael Arnaiz Baron, Cistercian Oblate – 27th April”