{"id":3893,"date":"2025-05-06T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=3893"},"modified":"2025-05-05T16:45:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T16:45:04","slug":"glimpsing-the-glory-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2025\/05\/06\/glimpsing-the-glory-of-god\/benedictine-spirituality\/3893\/","title":{"rendered":"Glimpsing the glory of God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Photo by Jordan Steranka on unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I love a happy ending whether it\u2019s in a book or a film. I don\u2019t mind if the characters go through all sorts challenges as the story unfolds, but by the end of the story I want everything neatly and happily resolved. This is a basic human desire that\u2019s fuelled by our media.

In many ways it is tempting to see Easter as a \u201chappy ending\u201d for Christians. There\u2019s just enough of a grain of truth in that to make it believable. But today\u2019s first reading, the martyrdom of St Stephen calls us to look beyond that. I\u2019m reflecting on this from today\u2019s first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles:

\u201cStephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God\u2026\u201d<\/em>

This wasn\u2019t a \u201chappy ending\u201d in any human sense. It happened as Stephen faced a violent death. It reminds me that the Christian story that culminates in the resurrection is about about new life and hope. In one sense that is the ultimate \u201chappy ending\u201d although in our limited, human understanding it will not always look like that.

The resurrection speaks of a much deeper and truer reality, an ultimately \u201chappy ending\u201d that is beyond human imaginings. The resurrection is a constant reminder of God\u2019s continuing and everlasting love for us even in the situations that seem most hopeless.

It\u2019s an invitation to respond to that love and to allow it to shape everything about us, a call to constantly embrace new life and hope. Then, like Stephen, whatever sufferings we face, we will glimpse the glory of God.

Where are you finding glimpses of God\u2019s glory this Eastertide?
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love a happy ending whether it\u2019s in a book or a film. I don\u2019t mind if the characters go through all sorts challenges as the story unfolds, but by the end of the story I want everything neatly and happily resolved. This is a basic human desire that\u2019s fuelled by our media. In many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,359,271,362,245,246],"tags":[802,28,18,125,517,811,6,8,110,33,229,13,29,727,15,746,10],"class_list":["post-3893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-eastertide","category-lectio-divina","category-resurrection","category-saints","category-scripture","tag-actsoftheapostles","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-eastertide","tag-glory","tag-gloryofgod","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-invitation","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-martyr","tag-newlife","tag-ststephen","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893","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=3893"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3899,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893\/revisions\/3899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}