{"id":5150,"date":"2025-12-12T07:07:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T07:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=5150"},"modified":"2025-12-12T07:15:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T07:15:34","slug":"second-week-of-advent-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=5150","title":{"rendered":"Second Week of Advent, Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/If-only-you-had-been-alert-to-my-commandments-your-happiness-would-have-been-like-a-river-your-integrity-like-the-waves-of-the-see.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/If-only-you-had-been-alert-to-my-commandments-your-happiness-would-have-been-like-a-river-your-integrity-like-the-waves-of-the-see-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5151\" srcset=\"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/If-only-you-had-been-alert-to-my-commandments-your-happiness-would-have-been-like-a-river-your-integrity-like-the-waves-of-the-see-1024x576.png 1024w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/If-only-you-had-been-alert-to-my-commandments-your-happiness-would-have-been-like-a-river-your-integrity-like-the-waves-of-the-see-300x169.png 300w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/If-only-you-had-been-alert-to-my-commandments-your-happiness-would-have-been-like-a-river-your-integrity-like-the-waves-of-the-see-768x432.png 768w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/If-only-you-had-been-alert-to-my-commandments-your-happiness-would-have-been-like-a-river-your-integrity-like-the-waves-of-the-see-1536x864.png 1536w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/If-only-you-had-been-alert-to-my-commandments-your-happiness-would-have-been-like-a-river-your-integrity-like-the-waves-of-the-see-1568x882.png 1568w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/If-only-you-had-been-alert-to-my-commandments-your-happiness-would-have-been-like-a-river-your-integrity-like-the-waves-of-the-see.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Isaiah 48:17-19<br>Matthew 11:16-19<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our <a><\/a>reading from Isaiah is short today. It\u2019s just three verses. But those verses contain so much. Here God speaks with a tone that is tender and deliberate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2018This says the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you. I lead you in the way you must go.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are resonances of the Exodus and the wandering in the wilderness. In those wilderness years the Israelites needed to rely wholeheartedly on being led by God. Every step they took was a step towards freedom. In the next few lines God\u2019s tone becomes wistful:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2018If only you had been alert to my commandments, your happiness would have been like a river, your integrity like the waves of the sea.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Israel now lives in exile in Babylon and can\u2019t avoid looking back and taking stock of the missed opportunities and times when they fell short of the demands of the covenant. But help is at hand because God has promised to redeem them. They\u2019ll leave Babylon with the promise of restoration and new life. Regret at how things may have turned out in our lives is a real burden of our human condition. There\u2019s a kind of dull ache when you realise that you missed an opportunity that may have changed some aspect of your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Gospel today there\u2019s a similar theme of not listening and missing an opportunity. This time it\u2019s about failure to recognize the Kingdom. This text pulls me up short. It\u2019s so easy to see only the difficulties and hurdles that need to be navigated in any given day and to miss the small moments of love and grace. Advent gives me the opportunity to step back and to notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How can you be open to God\u2019s Kingdom today?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Isaiah 48:17-19Matthew 11:16-19 Our reading from Isaiah is short today. It\u2019s just three verses. But those verses contain so much. Here God speaks with a tone that is tender and deliberate: \u2018This says the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you. I &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=5150\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Second Week of Advent, Friday&#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":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5150","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\/5150","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=5150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5152,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5150\/revisions\/5152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}