{"id":3579,"date":"2025-02-09T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-09T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=3579"},"modified":"2025-02-08T13:45:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-08T13:45:42","slug":"called-to-follow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2025\/02\/09\/called-to-follow\/uncategorized\/3579\/","title":{"rendered":"Called to follow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Photo by Cassiano Psomas on unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s gospel Jesus calls his first disciples. Catching sight of a group of men washing out their fishing nets by the lakeside, he tells them to put out their nets for a catch. Simon\u2019s initial response seems to suggest he wasn\u2019t so impressed by that idea. Yet, something about Jesus makes Simon think twice, and while his response begins with suspicion it quickly moves on:

\u201cMaster,\u2019 Simon replied, \u2018we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.\u201d<\/em>

Despite his tiredness and possibly his better judgement he does as Jesus asks, and brings in such an enormous catch that they can barely carry it. Then Simon recognises he is in the presence of God and falling to his knees he says:

\u201cLeave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.\u201d<\/em>

This is often our first response too. It seems incredible that God should want to engage directly with us, and the first thing that comes to mind is how unworthy we are. That awareness is necessary and it can stop us from responding freely to the call.

Jesus, who already knows Simon\u2019s faults and failings, response in a way that helps him beyond his sense of unworthiness by telling him not to be afraid. Hearing this response:

\u201cThey left everything and followed him.\u201d<\/em>

They can\u2019t possibly have known what this would mean for their lives. Yet they they took the risk of stepping out into the unknown. Jesus offers us the same invitation. He asks us to sidestep our doubts and fears, and to put aside all that would stop us from following him.

What is Christ asking you to put aside in order to follow him today?
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In today\u2019s gospel Jesus calls his first disciples. Catching sight of a group of men washing out their fishing nets by the lakeside, he tells them to put out their nets for a catch. Simon\u2019s initial response seems to suggest he wasn\u2019t so impressed by that idea. Yet, something about Jesus makes Simon think twice, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,544,239,271,246,1],"tags":[28,18,53,223,203,448,425,204,6,8,33,229,13,29,15,405,10],"class_list":["post-3579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-discernment","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-scripture","category-uncategorized","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-christ","tag-christlike","tag-disciple","tag-discipleship","tag-fishermen","tag-follow","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-newlife","tag-stpeter","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3579","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=3579"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3585,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3579\/revisions\/3585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}