{"id":4425,"date":"2026-02-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=4425"},"modified":"2026-01-31T19:19:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T19:19:37","slug":"seeking-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2026\/02\/01\/seeking-hope\/benedictine-spirituality\/4425\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/faris-mohammed-nYGVN45DOHg-unsplash-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4429\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/faris-mohammed-nYGVN45DOHg-unsplash-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/faris-mohammed-nYGVN45DOHg-unsplash-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/faris-mohammed-nYGVN45DOHg-unsplash-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/faris-mohammed-nYGVN45DOHg-unsplash-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/faris-mohammed-nYGVN45DOHg-unsplash-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/faris-mohammed-nYGVN45DOHg-unsplash-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/faris-mohammed-nYGVN45DOHg-unsplash-1980x1485.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo by Faris Mohammed on unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I normally think of the Beatitudes as full of promise and invitation so I was a bit surprised the two words that jumped out at me from today\u2019s gospel were \u201ccalumny\u201d and \u201cpersecuted\u201d. On reflection I realised that given the times we are living in I maybe shouldn\u2019t have been as surprised as I was. This has left me pondering a dilemma, how do we allow ourselves to trust the promises and invitation Christ gives us when life is hard, challenging and uncertain?<br><br>The Beatitudes invite us to:<br><br><em>\u201cRejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.\u201d<\/em><br><br>It seems to me that this is a real possibility when life is relatively easy, or at least seems manageable. It\u2019s a lot harder to hold onto that promise, and respond to the Christ\u2019s invitation in hard times. We can of course spiritualise the Beatitudes, telling ourselves that the promise is for eternal life, and not for this earthly life. <br><br>If I\u2019m honest that doesn\u2019t seem to be quite enough to sustain us through challenging times. Christ\u2019s invitation, his call to rejoice, and his promise of is new life as much to sustain us in this earthly life as they are for the next.<br><br>Even when it feels like we are surrounded on all sides by calumny and persecution he calls us to discover glimmers of blessings, love and hope in the most unlikely of circumstances. This is the challenge that comes with the promise and invitation of the Beatitudes.<br><br>Where is Christ challenging you to look for glimmers of hope today?<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I normally think of the Beatitudes as full of promise and invitation so I was a bit surprised the two words that jumped out at me from today\u2019s gospel were \u201ccalumny\u201d and \u201cpersecuted\u201d. On reflection I realised that given the times we are living in I maybe shouldn\u2019t have been as surprised as I was. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[240,222,494,544,239,271,246],"tags":[181,28,18,53,223,203,448,6,8,110,33,229,13,29,15,7,10],"class_list":["post-4425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beatitudes","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-discernment","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-scripture","tag-beatitudes","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-christ","tag-christlike","tag-disciple","tag-discipleship","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-invitation","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\/4425","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=4425"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4430,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4425\/revisions\/4430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}