{"id":3732,"date":"2025-04-02T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=3732"},"modified":"2025-04-01T17:53:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T17:53:32","slug":"being-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2025\/04\/02\/being-kind\/benedictine-spirituality\/3732\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Kind"},"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\/2022\/03\/barrett-baker-nSRJD52uyUM-unsplash-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1636\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/barrett-baker-nSRJD52uyUM-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/barrett-baker-nSRJD52uyUM-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/barrett-baker-nSRJD52uyUM-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/barrett-baker-nSRJD52uyUM-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/barrett-baker-nSRJD52uyUM-unsplash-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/barrett-baker-nSRJD52uyUM-unsplash-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/barrett-baker-nSRJD52uyUM-unsplash-1980x1320.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo by Barrett Baker on unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The 29th word in my Lent lexicon is <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">KINDNESS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kindness is a small word. It carries no great intellectual, theological or spiritual weight. While we might admit the value of kindness many of us would not even think of it as part of a spiritual practice. It doesn\u2019t speak of grand plans, actions or gestures. This can mean means that it\u2019s easily overlooked. <br><br>It often relates to small things that we do for one another during the day that we don\u2019t always even notice. Today\u2019s responsorial psalm (144\/145), provided the perfect opportunity to reflect this often overlooked practice. The psalmist writes:<br><br><em>\u201cThe Lord is kind and full of compassion.\u201d<\/em><br><br>Often it\u2019s something we recommend to little children, but don\u2019t really think about allowing it consciously to shape our own practices or interactions. I can\u2019t help feeling that this attitude means we miss out on a really valuable practice. <br><br>It seems to me that it\u2019s the \u201csmallness\u201d of kindness that makes it possible for us to act on it. To be kind require a lot of energy or a huge amount of resources. It doesn\u2019t mean we have to have answers or solve problems. <br><br>Kindness asks one very simple, straightforward thing from us\u2026 that we put others before ourselves. To be kind all we have to do is ask ourselves what would make another person feel more comfortable, more loved, more welcome in any given situation. <br><br>Yet, those small, seemingly insignificant actions can change lives and lighten burdens in ways we could never imagine.<br><br>Where is Christ inviting you to be kind this Lent?<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 29th word in my Lent lexicon is KINDNESS. Kindness is a small word. It carries no great intellectual, theological or spiritual weight. While we might admit the value of kindness many of us would not even think of it as part of a spiritual practice. It doesn\u2019t speak of grand plans, actions or gestures. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,239,271,336,450,492,246],"tags":[28,18,53,223,21,6,8,120,33,229,13,41,767,29,15,381,10],"class_list":["post-3732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-lent","category-psalms","category-rule-of-st-benedict","category-scripture","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-christ","tag-christlike","tag-compassion","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-kindness","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-lent","tag-lentpractices","tag-love","tag-newlife","tag-psalms","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3732","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=3732"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3741,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3732\/revisions\/3741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}