{"id":4170,"date":"2024-12-03T06:40:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T06:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=4170"},"modified":"2024-12-03T06:40:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T06:40:06","slug":"advent-alphabet-c-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=4170","title":{"rendered":"Advent Alphabet (C)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Comfort-.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Comfort--1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4228\" srcset=\"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Comfort--1024x576.png 1024w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Comfort--300x169.png 300w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Comfort--768x432.png 768w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Comfort--1536x864.png 1536w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Comfort--1568x882.png 1568w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Comfort-.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2018COMFORT my people, comfort them.\u2019 says your God<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The prophecies of the Books of Isaiah are integral to our prayer and worship in Advent. It\u2019s almost impossible to hear the opening of Isaiah 40 without also hearing the plaintive tones of Handel\u2019s Messiah. This is a God who is invested in our lives. This is a God who sees our distress and wants to bring comfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From exile in Babylon Judah has cried out in anguish. They have found no source of comfort:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<strong>Zion stretches out her hands, with no one to comfort her.&nbsp;<\/strong><br>(Lamentations 1:17)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God now speaks and ends the silence and emptiness of Exile. Judah is now to enjoy possibilities beyond her imaginings. The comfort that God offers is much more than solace, it is the promise of a complete reversal of fortunes. All the suffering that Judah has endured in exile will now be turned to joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s an element in the process of bringing comfort that acknowledges, but doesn\u2019t judge, the source of pain. This is how God is with Judah. This is how God is with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where are you most need God\u2019s comfort this Advent?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Isiah 40:1-11, Tuesday, Advent, Week 2)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018COMFORT my people, comfort them.\u2019 says your God The prophecies of the Books of Isaiah are integral to our prayer and worship in Advent. It\u2019s almost impossible to hear the opening of Isaiah 40 without also hearing the plaintive tones of Handel\u2019s Messiah. This is a God who is invested in our lives. This is &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=4170\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Advent Alphabet (C)&#8221;<\/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":13,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4170","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\/4170","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=4170"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4229,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4170\/revisions\/4229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}