{"id":3551,"date":"2025-01-12T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-12T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=3551"},"modified":"2025-01-11T18:59:19","modified_gmt":"2025-01-11T18:59:19","slug":"the-feast-of-the-baptism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2025\/01\/12\/the-feast-of-the-baptism\/benedictine-spirituality\/3551\/","title":{"rendered":"The Feast of the Baptism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by Biel Morro<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today Christmastide comes to an end with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. It\u2019s a feast full of the promise of new life. It takes us back to our beginning, recalling creation when God\u2019s spirit, hovering over the waters, called new life out of the the swirling chaos:

\u201cWhen Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, \u2018You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.\u2019\u201d<\/em>

It doesn\u2019t take more than a quick glance at the news to recognise that we are living in chaotic times. That is stressful and unsettling, so this reminder that it was out of the chaos that God called us into being is consoling and encouraging.

It also calls to mind another, more personal beginning. Through our baptism in Christ each of us has been called to become a new creation, to blossom into new life in Christ. Through the gift of this baptism we have become favoured and beloved daughters and sons of God. This certainty can give us the courage and hope living away that allow our baptismal promises to shape our lives and our interactions with one another.

As we start a new year it\u2019s worthwhile to take some time to reflect on these beginnings founded on love and hope. Time reflecting on our baptismal promises and how they might shape our life seems to me to be time well spent as we make our way through these challenging times.

As we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord how might your baptismal promises shape your daily life?
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Today Christmastide comes to an end with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. It\u2019s a feast full of the promise of new life. It takes us back to our beginning, recalling creation when God\u2019s spirit, hovering over the waters, called new life out of the the swirling chaos: \u201cWhen Jesus also had been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[324,222,494,313,461,239,400,271,537,286,246],"tags":[112,485,28,18,53,223,376,448,6,8,197,33,229,13,29,135,15,10],"class_list":["post-3551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baptism","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-christmastide","category-divine-office","category-gospel","category-john-the-baptist","category-lectio-divina","category-liturgy","category-prophetic-voices","category-scripture","tag-baptism","tag-baptismofthelord","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-christ","tag-christlike","tag-disciples","tag-discipleship","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-johnthebaptist","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-newcreation","tag-newlife","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3551","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=3551"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3557,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3551\/revisions\/3557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}