{"id":4621,"date":"2026-04-08T13:59:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T13:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=4621"},"modified":"2026-04-08T13:59:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T13:59:02","slug":"with-hearts-aflame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2026\/04\/08\/with-hearts-aflame\/benedictine-spirituality\/4621\/","title":{"rendered":"With hearts aflame."},"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\/04\/painting-ml-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/painting-ml-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/painting-ml-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/painting-ml-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/painting-ml-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/painting-ml.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image \u00a9 Ally Barrett (www.reverendally.org) and used by permission<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">BACKGROUND READING LUKE 24: 13-35<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mary is the wife of Cleopas. A follower of Jesus, she witnessed his death. After the crucifixion, she sets out with her husband to return to Emmaus. They feel so heartbroken and hopeless that they can barely drag themselves along the road. <br><br>Before they felt they\u2019d heard the other women\u2019s story of the empty tomb. Initially it rekindled Mary\u2019s hope, but it died again when they saw nothing had changed in the world around them.<br><br>As they walk along, Mary reflects on how her expectations of Jesus turned out to be so different to what happened. As she argues with Clopas about all that has happened a stranger joins them and asks what they are talking about. <br><br>They pour their hearts out to him, sharing their pain and disappointment. His response begins to heal their hearts, allowing hope to be rekindled:<br><br><em>\u201cHe told my story \u2013 all my hopes and my dreams \u2013 in the words of scripture. My heart leapt and burnt within me.\u201d<\/em><br><br>As they approach their village and the stranger makes to leave them, Mary realises that she wants him to stay:<br><br><em>\u201cAll of a sudden, I couldn\u2019t bear the thought that this stranger might leave us. It seemed that Cleopas felt the same, and so we begged and cajoled, pleaded and persuaded him to eat with him.\u201d <\/em><br><br>When he takes the bread and blesses it, as he\u2019d done day in day out on their travels, she recognises him and her world is transformed. <br><br>The sadness and hopelessness vanish. Their tiredness disappears, and they practically fly back to Jerusalem to share this great news with the others. <br><br>However hopeless life might feel the risen Christ walks alongside us. He is always looking for an opening to help us discover our own story in the scriptures.<br><br>Where are you aware of the risen Christ walking alongside you this Eastertide?<br><br>You can listen to Mary&#8217;s story here: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter 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 Eighth Woman: Mary, Wife of Clopas&#039; Story\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/player.captivate.fm\/episode\/71b387e7-8efb-42b3-bebf-edcdad08d041\/#?secret=YUvOQNRywP\" data-secret=\"YUvOQNRywP\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BACKGROUND READING LUKE 24: 13-35 Mary is the wife of Cleopas. A follower of Jesus, she witnessed his death. After the crucifixion, she sets out with her husband to return to Emmaus. They feel so heartbroken and hopeless that they can barely drag themselves along the road. Before they felt they\u2019d heard the other women\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,359,393,239,271,537,286,362,246],"tags":[28,18,798,910,116,396,6,8,33,229,13,29,15,69,378,248,10],"class_list":["post-4621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-eastertide","category-eucharist","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-liturgy","category-prophetic-voices","category-resurrection","category-scripture","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-easteroctave","tag-easterwednesday","tag-emmaus","tag-eucharist","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-newlife","tag-resurrection","tag-risenchrist","tag-scripture","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621","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=4621"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4629,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions\/4629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}