{"id":4249,"date":"2025-10-22T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=4249"},"modified":"2025-10-21T16:23:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:23:42","slug":"being-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2025\/10\/22\/being-ready\/benedictine-spirituality\/4249\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Ready"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by Thought Catalog on unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Waiting is one of the hardest things we have to do in life. The end of the year is fast approaching. The Autumn colours, the cooler temperatures, the darker mornings and evenings are all pointing in that direction.

The same is true of today\u2019s gospel. Its call to be alert and ready, waiting and prepared for the coming of the Lord reminds me that Advent is just around the corner. I\u2019m struck by this in today\u2019s gospel:

\u201cYou too must stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.\u201d<\/em>

Waiting is generally an uncomfortable experience, it\u2019s often frustrating and stressful. It brings us face to face with the uncertainty we live with, with all those aspects of life that we can\u2019t control.

It compels us to admit our lack, our limitations and our neediness. We can find a myriad of activities from constant busyiness to endless online connectivity to distract us from the discomfort it brings.

The gospel calls us away from those distractions. It invites us to embrace our times of waiting, giving our full attention to it, acknowledging its discomfort, and actively seeking the blessing it promises. As I reflect on this passage one of our Advent antiphons is running through my mind:

\u201cStand erect, hold your head high because your liberation is close at hand.\u201d

It helps me to put this challenging call to wait into a wider context. This call to be ready comes with a promise. We stand ready, waiting for this promise to be fulfilled, trusting that the Lord will come to set us free from all that would distract us.

Where are you being called to be ready for the coming of the Lord today?
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Waiting is one of the hardest things we have to do in life. The end of the year is fast approaching. The Autumn colours, the cooler temperatures, the darker mornings and evenings are all pointing in that direction. The same is true of today\u2019s gospel. Its call to be alert and ready, waiting and prepared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,239,271,246],"tags":[704,779,38,28,18,223,6,8,33,229,13,29,15,7,499,10,275],"class_list":["post-4249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-scripture","tag-attention","tag-attentive","tag-attentiveness","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-christlike","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-newlife","tag-promise","tag-sonofman","tag-trust","tag-waiting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249","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=4249"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4255,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249\/revisions\/4255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}