FCJ Centre of Spirituality

25/05/2025

Sister Joan has restarted online Lectio Divina. Email her directly if you are interested in having more information. [email protected]

28/06/2023

Thank you to all who attended our online sessions today and for the rich sharing. We break up for the summer and hope to have one or two spontaneous sessions in August. In the meantime, we wish you all a lovely summer.
Blessings, Joan and Margaret, FCJ

In My Heart, Song of St Mary Magdalene

In my heart I know my Savior lives
I can hear Him calling tenderly my name
Over sin and death He has prevailed
In His glory, in His new life we partake

I know He lives as He has promised
For me He's risen that from
Fear I may be free
Not even death can separate me
From Him whose love and might remain in me

In my heart I know my Savior lives
I can hear Him calling tenderly my name
Over sin and death Hе has prevailed
In His glory, in His new lifе we partake

For I have seen and touched Him risen
To all the world will I proclaim His majesty
With joy I sing to tell His story
That in our hearts may live His memory
In my heart I know my Savior lives
I can hear Him calling tenderly my name
Over sin and death He has prevailed
In His glory, in His new life we partake
And all the earth shall bow before Him
His blessed name all will
Adore on bended knee
His truth shall reign, so shall His justice
In Christ, my Savior, let all glory be

In my heart I know my Savior lives
I can hear Him calling tenderly my name
Over sin and death He has prevailed
In His glory, in His new life we partake
In my heart I know my Savior lives
In His glory, in His new life we partake

-This song was from Bukas Palad Music Ministry. It was adapted from the thoughts and words of Mary Magdalene, the first visionary of the Resurrection of Jesu...

21/06/2023

Holiday time is fast approaching, as is our departure from Brussels. Although we are not leaving Brussels until late August, we hope to find time for a holiday here in Belgium during July, so

******** next Wednesday, 28 June, will be the last of our weekly sessions. *********

We may be able to offer random sessions of Lectio Divina before we bring our FCJ Centre to closure.

We are not sure if we can manage to pick up again in September as we will both be in different places and sadly our timetables may not allow us to continue further with Lectio. Time will tell and we will, of course, let you know.

Needless to say, it will be with a sad heart that we will say goodbye to you all but you can be very sure that we will hold each one of you in our heart with deepest gratitude and fondest memories.

We hope all is well with you and that you will be able to join us next week.

God's choicest blessings on each one of you,
Margaret and Joan FCJ

21/06/2023

Thank you to all who attended todays online sessions.
Luke 1:57-66, 80 "...his name is John..."

/www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFAkM2USZRw

This video reveals the circumstances surrounding the birth of John the Baptist, as recorded in Luke chapter 1. In particular it shows how he came to be named...

31/05/2023

Thank you for joining us today on our online sessions. We are back again please God next week. Email us at [email protected] if you are new and you would like to join.

Todays closing hymn after praying Romans 8:14-17 - "....for you have received a spirit of adoption......"

Trinity Song (Frank Andersen MSC)

Father, in my life I see
You are God who walks with me
You hold my life in Your hands
Close beside You I will stand
I give all my life to You
Help me, Father, to be true

Jesus, in my life I see
You are God who walks with me
You hold my life in Your hands
Close beside You I will stand
I give all my life to You
Help me, Jesus, to be true

Spirit, in my life I see
You are God who walks with me
You hold my life in Your hands
Close beside You I will stand
I give all my life to You
Help me, Spirit, to be true

Father, in my life I see,You are God who walks with me.You hold my life in Your hands.Close beside You I will stand.I give all my life to You, help me Father...

24/05/2023

Thank you for your presence and contribution today at our weekly online sessions. We prayed the text below and here are some of the words that came up in the sharing.
We are back again next Wednesday. All are welcome.
God Bless,
Margaret & Joan

1 Corinthians 12:3-13
3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

17/05/2023

Thanks to all who attended our sessions today which we closed with this beautiful Christian chant.
As we chant these holy words, our hearts commune intimately with God, creating a sacred space where we can rest, reflect, and remember "I am with you always, to the end of the age".

Jesus, Name Above All Names

Jesus, name above all names
Beautiful Saviour, glorious Lord.
Emmanuel, God is with us.
Blessed Redeemer, Living Word (Repeated)

Jesus Name Above All Namesby The Maranatha! SingersFeatured on album “Praise 3”From iTunesLyrics:Jesus, Name above all namesBeautiful Savior, glorious LordEm...

27/04/2023

Breakfast with Jesus

John 21:1-19

4 Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, ‘Children, you have no fish, have you?’ They answered him, ‘No.’ 6 He said to them, ‘Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’ When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the lake. 8 But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

9 When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.’ 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ because they knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ 16 A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ 17 He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.’ 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’

29/03/2023

As Good Friday approaches, we appreciate the wisdom from The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr, ch 12 Why did Jesus Die? A dialogue with the crucified God pages 155-158

A dialogue with the crucified God p.155-158
"Many years ago I wrote a meditation that I called “a dialogue with the crucified God” to help people experience what I am so feebly trying to describe here. I suggest you wait until you have an open quiet and solitary slot of time, then pray it out loud so your ears can hear your own words from your own mouth. In addition, I suggest that you place yourself before a tender image of the crucified Jesus that will allow you to both give and receive.
And know two things before you begin
 we need images to reveal inner states. You are going to look at an image of what humans deny and are most afraid of – exposure, shame, vulnerability and failure. Like a homeopathic medicine, Jesus became the problem on full display - to free us from that very problem. The cross withdraws the curtain of both denial and fear from our eyes and from our psyches. Jesus became the victim so that we could stop victimising others or playing the victim ourselves.
 any authentic image of the crucified one is already an image of resurrection - the open arms and the knowing gaze are already the victory over any suffering.

JESUS SPEAKS TO YOU FROM THE CROSS

I am what you are most afraid of: your deepest, most wounded and naked self. I am what you do to what you could love.
I am your deepest goodness and your deepest beauty, which you deny and disfigure. Your only badness consists in what you do to goodness - your own and anybody else’s.
You run away from, and you even attack, the only thing that will really transform you. But there is nothing to hate or to attack. If you try you will become a mirror image of the same. Embrace it all in me. I am yourself. I am all of creation. I am everybody and every thing.

YOU SPEAK BACK TO THE CRUCIFIED

Brother Jesus you are my life, which I deny. You are my death, which I fear. I embrace them both in you now. I recognise through you and because of you, that death and life are not opposites. You are my full self – exposed. You are infinite in action which makes me infinite in becoming. This is my divine possibility (stay with this thought until it moves beyond words).
You Brother Jesus are my outrageously ignored and neglected soul. You are what we do to goodness. You are what we do to God. You are the outrageously ignored and neglected soul of everything. You are what we do to what we should and could love. You are what we do to one another. You are what we do to the Reality right in front of us. You are what we do to ourselves (stay with this until it sinks in).
I hate and fear the very things that will save me. May this thought help me to love these things, be patient with them and even forgive them.
I just cannot let anybody love me “for nothing”. I insist on being worthy and deserving and then I demand the same of others too. Yet your arms remain outstretched and embracing to all the world.
You alone Christ Jesus refuse to be a crucifier even at the cost of being crucified. You never play the victim or call for any vengeance, but only breathe a universal forgiveness upon the universe from this crucified place - your upside-down throne.

We humans so often hate ourselves, but we mistakenly kill you and others instead.
You always knew we would do this didn't you and you accepted it.
Now you invite me out of this endless cycle of illusion and violence toward myself and toward anybody else.
I want to stop crucifying your blessed flesh, this blessing humanity, this holy mother earth.
I thank you Brother Jesus for becoming a human being and walking the full journey with me. Now I do not have to pretend that I am God.
This is more than enough and more than good just to know we're doing it together.
I thank you for becoming finite and limited so I do not have to pretend that I am infinite or limitless.
I thank you for becoming small and inferior, so I do not have to pretend that I am big and superior to anybody.
I thank you for holding our shame and nakedness so boldly and so publicly so I do not need to hide or deny our human reality.
I thank you for accepting exclusion and expulsion, being crucified “outside the walls” and allowing me to know that I will meet you exactly there.
I thank you for “becoming sin” so I do not need to deny my own failures and can recognise that even my mistakes are the truest and most surprising path to love.
I thank you for becoming weak, so I do not have to pretend to be strong."
The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr

22/03/2023

He makes all things beautiful in His time

In His Time (He makes all things beautiful), by Maranatha MusicIn His time,In His time,He makes all things beautiful, in His time.Lord please show me everyda...

28/02/2023

Short reminder - you are always invited to our online which take place tomorrow as usual - morning session 10:30 -11:45 CET and evening session 19:30-20:45 CET . Email [email protected] for Zoom details.