{"id":4953,"date":"2026-08-26T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=4953"},"modified":"2026-08-25T19:14:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:14:36","slug":"the-gift-of-peace-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2026\/08\/26\/the-gift-of-peace-2\/benedictine-spirituality\/4953\/","title":{"rendered":"The gift of peace."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/artur-rekstad-Q1WWFETI3a0-unsplash-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3237\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/artur-rekstad-Q1WWFETI3a0-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/artur-rekstad-Q1WWFETI3a0-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/artur-rekstad-Q1WWFETI3a0-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/artur-rekstad-Q1WWFETI3a0-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/artur-rekstad-Q1WWFETI3a0-unsplash-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/artur-rekstad-Q1WWFETI3a0-unsplash-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/artur-rekstad-Q1WWFETI3a0-unsplash-1980x1320.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo by Artur Rekstad on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m reflecting on these words from today\u2019s first reading. In his second letter to the Thessalonians St Paul writes:<br><br><em>\u201cMay the Lord of peace himself give you peace all the time and in every way. The Lord be with you all.\u201d<\/em><br><br>They have particular resonance in the light of today\u2019s news, which gives the impression that there is almost nowhere in the world where peace prevails. In such a challenging scenario it\u2019s tempting to dismiss his words as too idealistic for such troubled times. But the gospel calls us to hope, not hopelessness. <br><br>St Paul wasn\u2019t unfamiliar with violent times. He had experience of both supporting and resisting the use of violence, so he had a clear idea of the value of peace and the high cost of violence.  He\u2019d have known how hard it is to hope and work for peace in violent times. <br><br>St Paul was able to face his times with courage and hope, and to continue striving for peace because of his faith in the gospel and its promise. <br><br>In many ways we face the same dilemma that he did. It\u2019s not easy to be hopeful in our own challenging and violent times. It\u2019s hard to see people suffer and not be able to fix things. <br><br>It\u2019s tough to believe that peace is possible when we live surrounded by war and violence. Yet it is in precisely these times that we are called to follow St Paul\u2019s  example, to seek and share the peace of Christ wherever and however we can.<br><br>Where are you aware of needing the Lord of peace to bring peace to your life today?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m reflecting on these words from today\u2019s first reading. In his second letter to the Thessalonians St Paul writes: \u201cMay the Lord of peace himself give you peace all the time and in every way. The Lord be with you all.\u201d They have particular resonance in the light of today\u2019s news, which gives the impression [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,544,239,271,245,246],"tags":[28,18,53,223,30,6,8,33,229,13,29,15,97,819,24,602,10],"class_list":["post-4953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-discernment","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-saints","category-scripture","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-christ","tag-christlike","tag-courage","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-newlife","tag-peace","tag-peaceofchrist","tag-stpaul","tag-thessalonians","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4953","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=4953"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4958,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4953\/revisions\/4958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}