{"id":3555,"date":"2025-01-15T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=3555"},"modified":"2025-01-15T13:35:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T13:35:47","slug":"time-for-pray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2025\/01\/15\/time-for-pray\/uncategorized\/3555\/","title":{"rendered":"Time for prayer."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"718\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/afonso-coutinho-2mN0Bxrnr34-unsplash-1024x718.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/afonso-coutinho-2mN0Bxrnr34-unsplash-1024x718.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/afonso-coutinho-2mN0Bxrnr34-unsplash-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/afonso-coutinho-2mN0Bxrnr34-unsplash-768x538.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/afonso-coutinho-2mN0Bxrnr34-unsplash-1536x1076.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/afonso-coutinho-2mN0Bxrnr34-unsplash-2048x1435.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/afonso-coutinho-2mN0Bxrnr34-unsplash-1200x841.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/afonso-coutinho-2mN0Bxrnr34-unsplash-1980x1388.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo by Afonso Coutinho on unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Today\u2019s gospel is all about service. It opens with Jesus leaving the synagogue going immediately to Simon\u2019s house where he cures Simon\u2019s mother-in-law. Immediately she gets up and begins to serve them. The evening sees Jesus serving again, as crowds of people come to him seeking healing. It must have been a long and tiring day, and all of us know that feeling. The next morning Mark tells us:<br><br><em>\u201cLong before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there.\u201d<\/em><br><br>We tend to read this as a break in the pattern of service, Jesus taking time out to pray in order to return to serving refreshed and renewed. On one level that is is true, but the Gospels often have layers of truth. On another level I would suggest that Jesus\u2019 act of taking time to be alone in God\u2019s presence is also an act of service. <br><br>It is an act of self-care which allows him to draw the strength from God that he needs to carry on. It\u2019s also an act of service to others, a reminder that part of what it is to be human is to need time to rest and recharge. <br><br>When the needs of the people we serve seem to be overwhelming we can feel pressured to keep going regardless of our own needs. Jesus doesn\u2019t wait until every need is met, every person healed, every situation resolved before he takes the time he needs. It seems to me that he doesn\u2019t expect us to do that either and that there is both an invitation and a challenge in that.<br><br>Where is Jesus inviting you to take time to pray in the midst of your serving others?<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s gospel is all about service. It opens with Jesus leaving the synagogue going immediately to Simon\u2019s house where he cures Simon\u2019s mother-in-law. Immediately she gets up and begins to serve them. The evening sees Jesus serving again, as crowds of people come to him seeking healing. It must have been a long and tiring [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,239,271,537,335,246,1],"tags":[28,18,53,223,6,8,110,326,33,229,13,29,15,758,55,23,10],"class_list":["post-3555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-liturgy","category-prayer","category-scripture","category-uncategorized","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-christ","tag-christlike","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-invitation","tag-jesus","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-newlife","tag-pray","tag-prayer","tag-service","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555","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=3555"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3562,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555\/revisions\/3562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}