{"id":4652,"date":"2026-04-14T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=4652"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:07:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:07:34","slug":"united-heart-and-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2026\/04\/14\/united-heart-and-soul\/benedictine-spirituality\/4652\/","title":{"rendered":"United Heart and Soul."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by Robert Bye on unsplash.com
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COMMUNITY<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COMMUNITY is at the heart of the gospel, and of what it is to be human. We are created to be in relationship with one another, with creation and with God. We can live individualistic and isolated lives, but we thrive best when we live in relationship with others.

It\u2019s hardly surprising then that the resurrection calls Jesus\u2019s followers together after they were scattered. It\u2019s from this regrouping that the early church is born. Today\u2019s reading from the Acts of the Apostles describes the ideal at the heart of this new community:

\u201cThe whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed for their own use anything that they had, as everything they owned was held in common.\u201d<\/em>

This ideal still lies at the heart of the Church. It underpins the life of our parishes, and is at the heart our concern for the excluded and the marginalised. It\u2019s was the basis of the life lived by the desert Fathers and Mothers.

It was taken up by the early monastic communities and is one of the main foundations of Benedictine life today. As a Benedictine it\u2019s a principle that\u2019s close to my heart.

Yet, however much we value the principle we often fall short of the ideal. St Benedict gives us a very clear idea of why that is:

\u201cThey must compete with one another in obedience. They should not pursue what they judge advantageous for themselves, but rather what benefits others. They must show selfless love to the community.\u201d

Living in community is hard work. It demands that we put love at the heart of our lives in very real and concrete ways every day. It calls us to accept people as they are and to put their needs before our own regardless of whether we agree with them or like them.

Where is the risen Christ calling you to build community this Eastertide?
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COMMUNITY COMMUNITY is at the heart of the gospel, and of what it is to be human. We are created to be in relationship with one another, with creation and with God. We can live individualistic and isolated lives, but we thrive best when we live in relationship with others. It\u2019s hardly surprising then that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,359,239,271,336,362,492,246],"tags":[802,917,28,18,144,124,6,8,33,229,13,29,697,15,215,23,10],"class_list":["post-4652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-eastertide","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-lent","category-resurrection","category-rule-of-st-benedict","category-scripture","tag-actsoftheapostles","tag-believers","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-church","tag-community","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-monasticlife","tag-newlife","tag-ruleofstbenedict","tag-service","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4652","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=4652"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4660,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4652\/revisions\/4660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}