{"id":4569,"date":"2026-03-29T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=4569"},"modified":"2026-03-28T17:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T17:09:15","slug":"the-call-of-steadfast-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2026\/03\/29\/the-call-of-steadfast-love\/uncategorized\/4569\/","title":{"rendered":"The call of  steadfast love."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painting-tl-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4573\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painting-tl-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painting-tl-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painting-tl-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painting-tl-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painting-tl.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u00a9 Ally Barrett (www.reverendally.org) and used by permission<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">BACKGROUND READING: PSALM 118 AND MARK 11:1-11 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first woman of Holy Week is Miriam. She is practical and down to earth. She doesn\u2019t like living under Roman occupation but realises that her family\u2019s well-being relies on her finding a way to live with it. She lives in Sephorris where she and her family make a good living as fish traders. They have travelled to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival. <br><br>She comes to this festival with mixed feelings. She loves the sense of togetherness and hope that the festival brings, but hates the jostling and disagreements that come with being part of a large and excited crowd.<br><br>A woman of deep faith she lives with the hope and expectation that the Messiah will come and set her people free. As she walks with the rest of the crowd she carries the image of the Messiah, weary, exhausted and quietly triumphant, riding towards Jerusalem. She puts her whole heart and soul into singing:<br><br><em>\u201cOh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good: his steadfast love endures for ever.\u201d<\/em><br><br>Then she sees a surprising sight. Two people bring a donkey and a man got onto it, riding it she says <em>\u201cjust like I always imagined the King would have done \u2013 except that it was a donkey and not that impressive\u201d. <\/em><br><br>A little impatient with the gesture she initially him as another \u201cwannabe Messiah\u201d. Something in the man\u2019s demeanour compels her to look again. It\u2019s then that she sees past the externals and recognises the Messiah at the centre of this unlikely scene.<br><br>Where is Christ calling you to recognise his steadfast love in unexpected places this Holy Week?<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can listen to Paula Gooder read Miriam&#8217;s story here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-captivate-fm wp-block-embed-captivate-fm\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" title=\"The First Woman: Miriam&#039;s Story\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/player.captivate.fm\/episode\/37590e58-51a6-495d-a94d-e831a4f08e3b\/#?secret=ghYZN75zwd\" data-secret=\"ghYZN75zwd\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BACKGROUND READING: PSALM 118 AND MARK 11:1-11 The first woman of Holy Week is Miriam. She is practical and down to earth. She doesn\u2019t like living under Roman occupation but realises that her family\u2019s well-being relies on her finding a way to live with it. She lives in Sephorris where she and her family make [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,461,239,345,271,336,537,348,246,1],"tags":[18,663,6,101,8,33,229,13,41,888,29,137,15,99,621,10],"class_list":["post-4569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-divine-office","category-gospel","category-holy-week","category-lectio-divina","category-lent","category-liturgy","category-palm-sunday","category-scripture","category-uncategorized","tag-challenge","tag-festival","tag-gospel","tag-holyweek","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-lent","tag-lent2026","tag-love","tag-messiah","tag-newlife","tag-palmsunday","tag-steadfastlove","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569","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=4569"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4581,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569\/revisions\/4581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}