{"id":4108,"date":"2025-07-29T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=4108"},"modified":"2025-07-27T17:52:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T17:52:23","slug":"an-open-hearted-welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2025\/07\/29\/an-open-hearted-welcome\/benedictine-spirituality\/4108\/","title":{"rendered":"An open hearted welcome."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Image by cathal mac an bheatha on unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today we\u2019re celebrating the feast of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, friends of the Lord, an important feast for Benedictines because of its link to hospitality. Luke tells us that Martha:

\u201cWelcomed Jesus into her home.\u201d<\/em>

She offered him hospitality, a safe place to relax and have a meal with his friends in dangerous and uncertain times. However, John takes the hospitality she offers to a different level. He shows us a woman of faith, used to the theological reflection and conversation, and already a follower of Jesus.

Even as she grieves for her brother she is capable of questioning Jesus and of allowing his response to transform her whole life It is through their hard, challenging conversation that Jesus is both revealed and recognised as Christ:

\u201cI am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though they die they will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.\u201d
<\/em>
Central as this revelation is it is not enough by itself, and he requires a response from Martha, asking her:

\u201cDo you believe this?\u201d<\/em>

The recognition of her response completes the revelation as she proclaims:

\u201cYes Lord\u2026 I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God, the one who was to come into this world.\u201d<\/em>

I don\u2019t think it would have been possible for Martha reach this recognition if she had only welcomed Jesus into her home. To recognise him as the Christ she must also have opened her heart to him.

By welcoming him into the very centre of her being she was able to allow him to transform her whole life. We too are called to offer the risen Christ hospitality in the depths of our heart, allowing him to enter and transform our lives with light, love and hope

How might inviting Christ into your heart change your life?
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we\u2019re celebrating the feast of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, friends of the Lord, an important feast for Benedictines because of its link to hospitality. Luke tells us that Martha: \u201cWelcomed Jesus into her home.\u201d She offered him hospitality, a safe place to relax and have a meal with his friends in dangerous and uncertain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,239,271,537,492,245,246],"tags":[28,18,53,223,376,448,6,8,25,33,229,13,29,679,15,208,826,10],"class_list":["post-4108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-liturgy","category-rule-of-st-benedict","category-saints","category-scripture","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-christ","tag-christlike","tag-disciples","tag-discipleship","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-hospitality","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-marthamarylazarus","tag-newlife","tag-recognisingchrist","tag-recognition","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4108","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=4108"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4114,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4108\/revisions\/4114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}