{"id":5017,"date":"2026-10-14T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=5017"},"modified":"2026-10-13T12:03:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T12:03:35","slug":"guided-by-the-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2026\/10\/14\/guided-by-the-spirit\/uncategorized\/5017\/","title":{"rendered":"Guided by the Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"785\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/oleg-sotnikov-vnbITp_1VZ4-unsplash-1024x785.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4076\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/oleg-sotnikov-vnbITp_1VZ4-unsplash-1024x785.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/oleg-sotnikov-vnbITp_1VZ4-unsplash-300x230.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/oleg-sotnikov-vnbITp_1VZ4-unsplash-768x589.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/oleg-sotnikov-vnbITp_1VZ4-unsplash-1536x1178.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/oleg-sotnikov-vnbITp_1VZ4-unsplash-2048x1570.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/oleg-sotnikov-vnbITp_1VZ4-unsplash-1200x920.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/oleg-sotnikov-vnbITp_1VZ4-unsplash-1980x1518.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo by Oleg Sotnikov on unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m reflecting on today\u2019s first reading from St Paul\u2019s letter to the Galatians. It starts out full of hope and promise as he tells them:<br><br><em>\u201cIf you are led by the Spirit no law can touch you.\u201d<\/em><br><br>At first glance it seems like he\u2019s offering us an easy option, let the Spirit lead you and you will have no worries. That\u2019s a beguiling and tempting thought, yet we all know it\u2019s not true. A brief moment of reflection shows us it\u2019s not what St Paul is offering us, as he goes on to make perfectly clear saying:<br><br><em>\u201cWhen self-indulgence is at work, the results are obvious\u2026\u201d<\/em><br><br>As he carries on listing the results of self-indulgence our hearts recognise the truth of what he says. We all know from experience that wherever our particular form of self-indulgence leads it doesn\u2019t result in peace, joy or contentment.<br><br>With his usual directness St Paul carries on to offer us us the antidote to our self-indulgence, listing the characteristics that we need to seek and cultivate if we want to live lives led by the Spirit:<br><br><em>\u201cWhat the Spirit brings is\u2026: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control.\u201d<\/em><br><br>As I read his words I recognise how much my heart longs to live a life that are shaped by them. Looking around me I see the difference they could make to lives and communities that are anxious and fractured in these uncertain times. <br><br>His words offer us a hope and a challenge. The challenge is to put aside self and allow the Spirit to shape and mould us into a new creation. The hope is that, guided by the Spirit, we can live lives shaped by love, kindness and gentleness.<br><br>How are you being called to let the Spirit direct your life today?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m reflecting on today\u2019s first reading from St Paul\u2019s letter to the Galatians. It starts out full of hope and promise as he tells them: \u201cIf you are led by the Spirit no law can touch you.\u201d At first glance it seems like he\u2019s offering us an easy option, let the Spirit lead you and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[28,434,119,428,166,8,130,120,33,13,29,15,97,7,853,24,10],"class_list":["post-5017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-benedictine","tag-galatians","tag-gentleness","tag-goodness","tag-holyspirit","tag-hope","tag-joy","tag-kindness","tag-kingdom","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-newlife","tag-peace","tag-promise","tag-selfcontrol","tag-stpaul","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5017","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=5017"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5023,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5017\/revisions\/5023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}