{"id":2799,"date":"2024-02-04T13:53:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-04T13:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=2799"},"modified":"2024-02-04T14:02:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-04T14:02:29","slug":"bearers-of-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2024\/02\/04\/bearers-of-light\/uncategorized\/2799\/","title":{"rendered":"Bearers of Light"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/corsican-1535069_640.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2806\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/corsican-1535069_640.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/corsican-1535069_640-300x200.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image by Steph684 from pixabay.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Apologies for the lateness of this post. I\u2019ve been having technical issues. Today we\u2019re celebrating the feast of the Presentation. It strikes me as a feast that looks both backwards and forwards. Its liturgy resonates very much with the Christmas liturgy, as we revisit Christmas hymns and antiphons. Yet, it also compels us to look forward to the new beginning heralded by the coming of the Messiah. Like Simeon and Anna, we are called to draw hope from our heritage and move forward into the unknown bearing the light of Christ for our world and our times. The second reading last night at the vigil was from St Sophronius. Today I have found myself reflecting on these words:<br><br>\u201c<em>Let us all go together bright with the light to welcome with old Simeon that everlasting shining light. Rejoicing with him in our souls, let us sing a hymn to the Begetter and Father of the light, who has sent the true light and driven away the darkness and made us all shine with that light.\u201d<\/em><br><br>It\u2019s not the first time I\u2019ve reflected on them, and each time I revisit them they remind me that, in these last dark, cold days of winter we are called to be bearers of the light of Christ to each other and to the world. This year I\u2019m very aware of the many darknesses that the world faces. It can feel overwhelming and we can easily feel hopeless. <br><br> Yet the opposite is true. In these dark times it\u2019s even more important that we become bearers of that light for our suffering world. As well as looking back to the coming of the Light at Christmas I find myself looking forward through the pain and suffering of these times to the new light and life that Easter promises, trusting that, however small the light may sometimes feel, it will not be overcome.<br><br>As we celebrate the feast of the Presentation where is Christ calling you to be his light bearer today? <br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apologies for the lateness of this post. I\u2019ve been having technical issues. Today we\u2019re celebrating the feast of the Presentation. It strikes me as a feast that looks both backwards and forwards. Its liturgy resonates very much with the Christmas liturgy, as we revisit Christmas hymns and antiphons. Yet, it also compels us to look [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,239,335,327,246,1],"tags":[328,28,14,18,6,8,33,229,13,29,15,16,609,10],"class_list":["post-2799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-gospel","category-prayer","category-presentation","category-scripture","category-uncategorized","tag-anna","tag-benedictine","tag-candlemas","tag-challenge","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-newlife","tag-presentation","tag-simeon","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2799"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2812,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions\/2812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}