{"id":4547,"date":"2026-03-22T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=4547"},"modified":"2026-03-21T19:13:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T19:13:59","slug":"invitations-and-conversations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2026\/03\/22\/invitations-and-conversations\/uncategorized\/4547\/","title":{"rendered":"Invitations and conversations."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by Harli Marten on unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019ve listened to the Sunday Gospels over the past few weeks I\u2019ve been struck by the themes of revelation and recognition that have gone hand-in-hand. As the stories of the Samaritan woman, and the blind man unfolded it seemed to me that this process has come about through challenging and honest conversations between Jesus and those he encounters. Those conversations required deep thought, honest reflection and an openness to change.

This week, as we encounter Martha grieving for her brother, that pattern continues. Martha, a follower of Jesus already, is clearly a woman of faith, used to the theological reflection and conversation.

She is capable of standing her ground with Jesus, and even of questioning him. She is also capable 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 the day 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\u2019m left wondering about the implications of this for our own conversations with Jesus. If we are to come to the life changing recognition that Jesus is the Christ we too have to risk engaging in challenging conversations with him, acknowledging our uncertainties and allowing his revelation to transform our lives.

Where is Christ calling you into conversation with him this Lent?
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As I\u2019ve listened to the Sunday Gospels over the past few weeks I\u2019ve been struck by the themes of revelation and recognition that have gone hand-in-hand. As the stories of the Samaritan woman, and the blind man unfolded it seemed to me that this process has come about through challenging and honest conversations between Jesus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,239,271,336,362,246,1],"tags":[28,18,53,223,506,6,8,33,229,13,41,888,29,679,15,208,69,10],"class_list":["post-4547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-lent","category-resurrection","category-scripture","category-uncategorized","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-christ","tag-christlike","tag-conversation","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-lent","tag-lent2026","tag-love","tag-marthamarylazarus","tag-newlife","tag-recognisingchrist","tag-resurrection","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4547","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=4547"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4555,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4547\/revisions\/4555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}