{"id":3521,"date":"2024-12-30T18:55:13","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T18:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=3521"},"modified":"2024-12-30T18:55:13","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T18:55:13","slug":"recognising-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2024\/12\/30\/recognising-christ\/benedictine-spirituality\/3521\/","title":{"rendered":"Recognising Christ."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by Vladimir Soares<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So many of the characters in the nativity are outsiders. This is a story that unfolds first in the lives of the marginalised, they are the ones who first recognise and proclaim the Messiah.. Today\u2019s gospel focuses on one of those characters, the prophetess Anna. An older woman, long widowed she choses to live out her days in the Temple, praying and fasting. I can imagine that she\u2019d have appeared at best a little unusual, as older women who defy norms so often do.

Yet, regardless of the opinions of others she seems to have had a clear idea of what she was called to do. She was called to a life of waiting and watching for the coming of the Messiah. In doing that she was living out the call of her people who had been waiting and hoping for this through centuries when hope seemed impossible.

No one knew what the Messiah would look like, but no one, including Anna, would have expected him to appear as a vulnerable baby reliant on others for every need. Her life of faithful prayer and her life on the margins prepared her to recognise the Messiah, opening her heart to see beyond surface appearance.

Having recognised the Messiah her next step becomes clear:

\u201cShe came by just at that moment and began to praise God; and she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.\u201d<\/em>

This is not news she is to keep to herself, instead she is called to proclaim his presence to all those who had been waiting and hoping for the coming of the Messiah.

Where are you being called to proclaim Christ\u2019s presence this Christmastide?
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So many of the characters in the nativity are outsiders. This is a story that unfolds first in the lives of the marginalised, they are the ones who first recognise and proclaim the Messiah.. Today\u2019s gospel focuses on one of those characters, the prophetess Anna. An older woman, long widowed she choses to live out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,313,461,239,271,537,286,246],"tags":[328,28,18,53,314,6,8,33,229,13,29,137,15,753,302,70,10,275],"class_list":["post-3521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-christmastide","category-divine-office","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-liturgy","category-prophetic-voices","category-scripture","tag-anna","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-christ","tag-christmastide","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-messiah","tag-newlife","tag-prophetess","tag-prophetic","tag-temple","tag-trust","tag-waiting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521","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=3521"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3528,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521\/revisions\/3528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}