{"id":3909,"date":"2025-05-09T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=3909"},"modified":"2025-05-08T19:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T19:07:09","slug":"bearing-the-light-of-the-risen-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2025\/05\/09\/bearing-the-light-of-the-risen-christ\/uncategorized\/3909\/","title":{"rendered":"Bearing the light of the risen Christ."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by R\u00e9mi Walle<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles recounts the conversion of St Paul. I\u2019m reflecting on Ananias, the Christian from Damascus who was told in a vision to seek out Saul of Tarsus to restore his sight. The instruction was clearly a shock to Ananias who, already knowing of Saul\u2019s reputation, protested:

\u201cLord, several people have told me about this man and all the harm he has been doing to your saints in Jerusalem. He has only come here because he holds a warrant from the chief priest to arrest everybody who invokes your name.\u201d<\/em>

We\u2019ve just heard how resolute and thorough Saul was in persecuting Christians. I imagine his name is enough to strike terror into the heart of these new Christians who are still struggling to come to terms with the resurrection. In such a time Ananias\u2019 action would have seemed at best foolhardy if not downright reckless. Yet, despite his reservations, he accepts God\u2019s call. He goes to Saul and says to him:

\u2018Brother Saul, I have been sent by the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way here so that you may recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.\u2019 <\/em>

The result is that Saul has his sight restored and, filled with the Holy Spirit, is baptised.

Ananais\u2019 action requires courage and faith. Ananias reminds me that we too are called to be courageous in sharing our faith. We\u2019re called to carry the love of the risen Christ to those who need it. The risen Christ calls us to share the light of his love in the darkness of our challenging times.

Often I think that call comes in a myriad of small, seemingly insignificant encounters through the day. It\u2019s in those little things that offer a glimmer of brightness in a challenging day\u2026 a smile to a passing stranger, the offer of a seat on a bus, holding open a door for someone struggling with bags or pushchairs\u2026A endless list of small kindnesses\u2026


Where is the risen Christ calling you to bring his light to those around you today?
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Today\u2019s first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles recounts the conversion of St Paul. I\u2019m reflecting on Ananias, the Christian from Damascus who was told in a vision to seek out Saul of Tarsus to restore his sight. The instruction was clearly a shock to Ananias who, already knowing of Saul\u2019s reputation, protested: \u201cLord, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[324,222,494,359,271,537,362,245,246,1],"tags":[802,112,28,18,53,223,490,125,166,8,33,13,741,29,15,24,10],"class_list":["post-3909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baptism","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-eastertide","category-lectio-divina","category-liturgy","category-resurrection","category-saints","category-scripture","category-uncategorized","tag-actsoftheapostles","tag-baptism","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-christ","tag-christlike","tag-conversionofsaintpaul","tag-eastertide","tag-holyspirit","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-lectiodivina","tag-lightofchrist","tag-love","tag-newlife","tag-stpaul","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909","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=3909"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3915,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909\/revisions\/3915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}