{"id":3685,"date":"2025-03-22T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=3685"},"modified":"2025-03-22T08:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T08:09:10","slug":"mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2025\/03\/22\/mercy\/benedictine-spirituality\/3685\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercy"},"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\/03\/dekler-ph-D9eJuBbB0mc-unsplash-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3690\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/dekler-ph-D9eJuBbB0mc-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/dekler-ph-D9eJuBbB0mc-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/dekler-ph-D9eJuBbB0mc-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/dekler-ph-D9eJuBbB0mc-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/dekler-ph-D9eJuBbB0mc-unsplash-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/dekler-ph-D9eJuBbB0mc-unsplash-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/dekler-ph-D9eJuBbB0mc-unsplash-1980x1320.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo by Dekler Ph on unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The 18 word in my Lent Lexicon is: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">MERCY. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a word that\u2019s full of hope and challenge. Its challenge is in it\u2019s call to admit our faults &amp; failing, to confess that we all need mercy in our lives. We both stand in need of God\u2019s mercy and are called top be merciful towards others. To admit this is uncomfortable, especially in a world that seems to expect us to be effortlessly successful in every endeavour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another challenge of mercy is that it can only come as a gift, we can\u2019t demand it, earn it or get it for ourselves. The most we can do is ask for it when we recognise our need strive to be open to receive it.<br><br>It\u2019s not all challenge, mercy also offers us hope. In today\u2019s first reading the prophet Micah writes:<br><br><em>\u201cWhat god can compare with you: taking fault away, pardoning crime, not cherishing anger for ever but delighting in showing mercy?\u201d<\/em><br><br>His words remind us, not only that God knows our faults and is willing to be merciful, but that the mercy is offered freely and generously with delight. The source of God\u2019s mercy towards us is the love, the love that holds us in being. It\u2019s the love that the gospel describes in the story of the prodigal son. <br><br>Knowing the son\u2019s faults, and even that his predicament is of his own making, his father reaches out to draw him back into his love. However we disguise them God knows our faults, and knowing them delights in offering us mercy and welcoming us back into God\u2019s loving embrace. <br><br>Where are you being offered God\u2019s mercy this Lent?<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 18 word in my Lent Lexicon is: MERCY. It\u2019s a word that\u2019s full of hope and challenge. Its challenge is in it\u2019s call to admit our faults &amp; failing, to confess that we all need mercy in our lives. We both stand in need of God\u2019s mercy and are called top be merciful towards [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,239,271,336,246],"tags":[28,18,21,241,224,6,8,33,229,13,29,89,775,15,774,114,10],"class_list":["post-3685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-lent","category-scripture","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-compassion","tag-delight","tag-gift","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-mercy","tag-micah","tag-newlife","tag-pardon","tag-prophet","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3685","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=3685"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3692,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3685\/revisions\/3692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}