One of the primary sources we have for understanding how monastics engaged the practice of contemplative reading of scripture in the first centuries of the Church’s life is called The Ladder of Monks, by a Carthusian named Guigo II. “The ladder” was the practice by which monks considered the text before them and examined it with study and questions and commentary, but then also began to leave their intellectual work behind for the spiritual work of contemplating what was beyond the power of their rational mind to understand.

This is a pivotal time in our common life. The world as we have known it is changed and we are living with grief, anxiety, fear and uncertainty. We see glimmers of light in the darkness, but the future is yet unknown. The time has not come for us to begin imagining our future.