{"id":4104,"date":"2025-07-27T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=4104"},"modified":"2025-07-26T15:18:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T15:18:15","slug":"learning-vulnerability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2025\/07\/27\/learning-vulnerability\/benedictine-spirituality\/4104\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning vulnerability."},"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\/07\/jan-tinneberg-tVIv23vcuz4-unsplash-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4109\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/jan-tinneberg-tVIv23vcuz4-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/jan-tinneberg-tVIv23vcuz4-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/jan-tinneberg-tVIv23vcuz4-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/jan-tinneberg-tVIv23vcuz4-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/jan-tinneberg-tVIv23vcuz4-unsplash-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/jan-tinneberg-tVIv23vcuz4-unsplash-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/jan-tinneberg-tVIv23vcuz4-unsplash-1980x1320.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo by Jan Tinneberg on unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In today\u2019s gospel Jesus\u2019 disciples ask him to teach them to pray, just as John has taught his disciples:<br><br><em>\u201cLord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.\u201d<\/em><br><br>Their request doesn\u2019t come because they don\u2019t already have lives of prayer. It comes from having seen Jesus at prayer and recognising that he has something they lack and desire. Jesus teaches them what has become the \u201cOur Father\u201d. <br><br>While we don\u2019t need specific words or formulas to be able to pray today\u2019s gospel reminds us that they can be valuable. There are times in life when we need to pray, and want to pray, the struggles we face leave us unable to articulate our prayer. <br><br>At times like that a recognised and familiar form of prayer can be a real support, reminding us that we are held in God\u2019s presence even if we don\u2019t have the words to express our needs or desires.<br><br>That can be a very uncomfortable position to be in. Our society expects us to be in control, it encourages us to deny our neediness and vulnerability. So having to admit to needs we cannot satisfy, to ask for help can feel like a failure.<br><br>Jesus reminds us that this is not the way of the kingdom, saying to his disciples:<br><br><em>\u201cAsk, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.\u201d <\/em><br><br>Our loving God invites us to be vulnerable in God\u2019s presence, encourages us to ask for what we need and delights in us when we find the courage to do that.<br><br>Where are you being invited to be vulnerable in God\u2019s presence today?<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In today\u2019s gospel Jesus\u2019 disciples ask him to teach them to pray, just as John has taught his disciples: \u201cLord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.\u201d Their request doesn\u2019t come because they don\u2019t already have lives of prayer. It comes from having seen Jesus at prayer and recognising that he has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,239,271,335,246],"tags":[28,18,376,448,6,8,33,229,13,29,15,31,665,758,55,10,199],"class_list":["post-4104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-prayer","category-scripture","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-disciples","tag-discipleship","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-newlife","tag-openness","tag-ourfather","tag-pray","tag-prayer","tag-trust","tag-vulnerability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104","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=4104"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4110,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104\/revisions\/4110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}