{"id":4339,"date":"2025-12-09T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=4339"},"modified":"2025-12-08T16:58:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T16:58:46","slug":"consolation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2025\/12\/09\/consolation\/benedictine-spirituality\/4339\/","title":{"rendered":"Consolation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"662\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/myriam-zilles-fZR22F7QsnE-unsplash-1024x662.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4347\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/myriam-zilles-fZR22F7QsnE-unsplash-1024x662.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/myriam-zilles-fZR22F7QsnE-unsplash-300x194.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/myriam-zilles-fZR22F7QsnE-unsplash-768x496.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/myriam-zilles-fZR22F7QsnE-unsplash-1536x993.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/myriam-zilles-fZR22F7QsnE-unsplash-2048x1323.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/myriam-zilles-fZR22F7QsnE-unsplash-1200x775.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/myriam-zilles-fZR22F7QsnE-unsplash-1980x1279.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo by Myriam Zilles on unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There are some words in Scripture that I think we can\u2019t hear often enough. That applies to these words from today\u2019s first reading:<br><br><em>\u201c\u2019Console my people, console them\u2019 says your God\u2026\u201d<\/em><br><br>They touch the very depths of our hearts, offering comfort and hope whatever we face. Our world projects an image of how life should look. We see it on television, in films, in magazines and on social media. <br><br>We are supposed to be living \u201cperfect\u201d lives, happy, balanced and with everything we could possibly need or want. We find this image beguiling and attractive, and we don\u2019t have to look very far before we begin to realise how little it matches the reality of our lives.<br><br>Isaiah allows us acknowledge our pain, our suffering, our brokenness. That in itself is a true gift. He frees us from having to live up to a false image of how our lives should be. Isaiah reminds us that we can come into God\u2019s presence with all the jagged edges of our brokenness. We can bring to God all the hurts we carry, and all those we have inflicted on others. <br><br>We can trust Isaiah\u2019s promise that we will be met, not with condemnation, but with the consolation of a God who knows our weakness and our suffering. Much as we need it and desire it, it is not always easy to open our hearts to such wholehearted consolation.<br><br>What would help you find the courage to open your heart to the consolation God offers you this Advent?<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are some words in Scripture that I think we can\u2019t hear often enough. That applies to these words from today\u2019s first reading: \u201c\u2019Console my people, console them\u2019 says your God\u2026\u201d They touch the very depths of our hearts, offering comfort and hope whatever we face. Our world projects an image of how life should [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[274,222,461,271,537,286,246],"tags":[276,466,28,18,98,224,6,443,8,45,33,229,13,29,15,7,10],"class_list":["post-4339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-divine-office","category-lectio-divina","category-liturgy","category-prophetic-voices","category-scripture","tag-advent","tag-adventweek2","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-consolation","tag-gift","tag-gospel","tag-grace","tag-hope","tag-isaiah","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-newlife","tag-promise","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339","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=4339"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4348,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339\/revisions\/4348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}