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Welcome to Our Newsletter
Dear Friend,
Some questions ask for information. Others ask something of our lives.
In this fortnight’s newsletter, we encounter one of the most personal questions Jesus ever puts to his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” It is a question Peter must answer for himself, but it is also a question that reaches beyond Caesarea Philippi and into every generation. Ultimately, each of us must discover what our answer means for the way we live.
Bishop David Walker explores this encounter in Who Do You Say That I Am?, reflecting on Peter’s declaration that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God”. Peter gives the right answer, yet his journey of understanding is only beginning. David reminds us that faith is not simply knowing the correct words about Jesus; it is allowing our encounter with the living Christ to continually deepen and transform us.
Virginia Ryan approaches the same question through the experience of a life lived with Christ. In Who Do You Say I Am?, she reflects on how our understanding of Jesus develops through love and suffering, joy and uncertainty, companionship and loss. The answer we might once have given from our heads can, through the experiences of life, become an answer spoken increasingly from the heart.
Dr Laurie Woods, reflecting on the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A, considers Peter’s confession alongside the themes of authority, responsibility and servant leadership. He challenges us to move beyond titles and familiar religious language and to encounter Jesus personally through the Gospels, allowing the way Christ lived and treated others to influence the way we live ourselves.
We also begin something new with Bishop David Walker’s exploration of The Confessions of St Augustine. Augustine’s famous restless search for happiness, meaning and ultimately God provides a fascinating companion to this Sunday’s Gospel. His journey reminds us that knowing God is rarely accomplished in a single moment. We search, question, wander, discover—and gradually learn where our deepest fulfilment is to be found.
Together, these four reflections bring us back to a wonderfully simple but demanding truth: Christian faith is ultimately a relationship with a living person.
Perhaps, then, Jesus’ question is worth carrying with us this fortnight.
Who do I say that he is—not simply in the words I profess, but in the way I love, forgive, serve, make decisions and live each day?
May these reflections encourage you to sit with that question and allow your own answer to continue growing.
As always, thank you for being part of the Lectio Divina community, and we invite you to share these reflections with your family, friends and parish community.
Every blessing,
The Lectio Divina Team |
