{"id":1505,"date":"2021-12-22T10:06:54","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T10:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1505"},"modified":"2021-12-22T10:06:54","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T10:06:54","slug":"21st-dec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1505","title":{"rendered":"21st Dec"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Song of Songs 2:8-14
Luke 1:39-45<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an air of joy and urgency that weaves through the readings and prayers of our liturgy today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first reading today comes from the Song of Songs. It\u2019s not used very often in the lectionary, though is an option for Weddings and Religious Professions. The writer imagines their Beloved as a young gazelle and in poetry celebrates the dynamic of a relationship of love. There are verbs of motion and details that engage our senses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018see how he comes leaping on the mountains\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018bounding over the hills\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018he looks in\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018he peers through the lattice\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018winter is past\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018flowers appear\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018the cooing of the turtledove\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018vines giving out their fragrance\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018your voice is sweet\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018your face is beautiful\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The urgency of the Beloved to meet his lover can carry us along. There\u2019s a similar urgency in Luke\u2019s story of the Visitation; \u2018Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country\u2019. By all accounts Mary\u2019s journey to Elizabeth won\u2019t have been easy. Whatever we imagine the terrain to be like, the journey was long and not without danger for someone Mary\u2019s age. Luke gives us none of these details. His focus in on the joy to two women meeting. Mary and Elizabeth have lived lives of faithfulness to God\u2019s Word. Their faithfulness has made them so open and ready to receive that God can find a home in them. On the Feast of the Visitation we sing a hymn written by one of our Sisters. This verse always strikes me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virgin mother, childless wife,
Vessels of his will;
In their flesh his kingdom grows,
Secret, holy, still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lets make our homes and hearts a place this Advent where God\u2019s kingdom can grow, secret, holy, still.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Song of Songs 2:8-14Luke 1:39-45 There\u2019s an air of joy and urgency that weaves through the readings and prayers of our liturgy today. The first reading today comes from the Song of Songs. It\u2019s not used very often in the lectionary, though is an option for Weddings and Religious Professions. The writer imagines their Beloved … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “21st Dec”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monastic","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1507,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505\/revisions\/1507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}