{"id":4957,"date":"2026-08-30T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=4957"},"modified":"2026-08-29T10:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T10:36:19","slug":"the-challenge-of-discipleship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2026\/08\/30\/the-challenge-of-discipleship\/benedictine-spirituality\/4957\/","title":{"rendered":"The challenge of discipleship."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by Abigail Ducote on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s gospel Jesus makes clear to his disciples that he is heading towards Jerusalem and suffering. His words are stark and challenging. Once again, I find myself sympathising with Peter\u2019s response. He says to him:

\u201cHeaven preserve you, Lord;\u2026 This must not happen to you.\u201d
<\/em>
Peter rushes to make things better, to help Jesus avoid the suffering. We often feel like that when we encounter a loved one in pain. Our first instinct is to do whatever we can to remove the pain, to \u201cmake everything better\u201d. We do this even when we know from experience it is not necessarily the best or most helpful way.

Jesus points out that God\u2019s way is different. God calls us not to avoid the necessary suffering life brings, but to accept it:

\u201cThose who want to be followers of mine must renounce themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their lives will lose them; but those who lose their lives for my sake will find it.\u201d
<\/em>
We can all identify with the suffering this passage talks about. Jesus is not glorifying suffering, or suggesting that we should deliberately seek or hang onto it when it comes. Instead, he suggests that in embracing the suffering that comes our way we move through into the new life that he promises.

The cross is a vital part of our faith, that we all experience in some form. But it is not the point of the gospel, or the end of the Christian story. Sometimes it is more challenging to trust and embrace that hope of new life than it is to accept the suffering of the cross.

Where is Christ inviting you find the hope of new life in the sufferings you face?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In today\u2019s gospel Jesus makes clear to his disciples that he is heading towards Jerusalem and suffering. His words are stark and challenging. Once again, I find myself sympathising with Peter\u2019s response. He says to him: \u201cHeaven preserve you, Lord;\u2026 This must not happen to you.\u201dPeter rushes to make things better, to help Jesus avoid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,356,544,461,239,271,537,246],"tags":[28,18,53,223,63,203,448,204,165,6,8,33,229,13,29,15,10],"class_list":["post-4957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-cross","category-discernment","category-divine-office","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-liturgy","category-scripture","tag-benedictine","tag-challenge","tag-christ","tag-christlike","tag-cross","tag-disciple","tag-discipleship","tag-follow","tag-followme","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-newlife","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4957","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=4957"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4961,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4957\/revisions\/4961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}