{"id":3587,"date":"2025-02-12T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=3587"},"modified":"2025-02-11T16:21:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T16:21:18","slug":"choice-discernment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2025\/02\/12\/choice-discernment\/benedictine-spirituality\/3587\/","title":{"rendered":"Choice &#038; discernment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/raul-petri-wfVC_75JB9I-unsplash-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3594\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/raul-petri-wfVC_75JB9I-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/raul-petri-wfVC_75JB9I-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/raul-petri-wfVC_75JB9I-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/raul-petri-wfVC_75JB9I-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/raul-petri-wfVC_75JB9I-unsplash-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/raul-petri-wfVC_75JB9I-unsplash-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/raul-petri-wfVC_75JB9I-unsplash-1980x1320.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo by Raul Petri on unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Today\u2019s gospel is a call to look within ourselves, to explore the things that motivate us, to pay attention to condition of our hearts. It\u2019s a call to discernment. Jesus says to his disciples:<br><br><em>\u2018Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a person from outside can make them unclean; it is the things that come out of a person that makes them unclean. If anyone has ears to hear, let them listen to this.\u2019<\/em><br><br>When life is uncomfortable and challenging it\u2019s easy to look outside ourselves for the reason. We blame circumstances, other people or the situations we find ourselves in. Without denying that there may be things in all of these areas that need to change, Jesus also points us to the real source of our lives. It is what is within us that shapes us. It\u2019s the condition of our hearts that draws us towards good or bad. <br><br>Jesus invites us to look within, to examine the motivations of our hearts. His words echo the book of Deuteronomy and it\u2019s call to choose life:<br><br>\u201cI have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live\u2026\u201d<br><br>In offering us life Jesus asks us to discern the things within that would draw us towards life. He asks us to nurture those things and to turn away from the things that would lead us away from life, those things that injure us and others. <br><br>His call to to discover the best within ourselves and to bring that to our encounters and interactions. To do this we need to put aside the judgement, envy, pride &amp; malice that would draw us away from all that is life giving. <br><br>Where is Christ calling you to listen &amp; discern today?<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s gospel is a call to look within ourselves, to explore the things that motivate us, to pay attention to condition of our hearts. It\u2019s a call to discernment. Jesus says to his disciples: \u2018Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a person from outside can make them unclean; it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,239,271,537,246],"tags":[28,18,237,263,762,127,376,448,8,33,13,12,75,29,261,15,10],"class_list":["post-3587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-liturgy","category-scripture","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-choice","tag-chooselife","tag-deuteronomy","tag-discernment","tag-disciples","tag-discipleship","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-lectiodivina","tag-listen","tag-listeningheart","tag-love","tag-motivation","tag-newlife","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3587","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=3587"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3595,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3587\/revisions\/3595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}