{"id":5154,"date":"2025-12-14T06:33:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T06:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=5154"},"modified":"2025-12-14T06:33:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T06:33:54","slug":"third-sunday-of-advent-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=5154","title":{"rendered":"Third Sunday of Advent (A)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Isaiah 35:1-6, 10
Matthew 11:2-11<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today Isaiah offers <\/a>us poetic vision of all that God promises for the people of Judah: everybody and everything will be restored in a land governed by God. Judah has experienced a period of barrenness and dryness in her relationship with God. All of this God will turn into fertile land where everything can flourish. It is a very exuberant text. The glory of God is seen in a land where everything is restored and blossoms. What was once arid will now become fertile. The power of God to heal and save will be felt by everyone:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the death unsealed, then the lame will leap like a deer and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy for those the Lord has ransomed shall return.\u2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Gospel text from Matthew, John the Baptist sends a disciple to ask Jesus if he is \u2018the One\u2019. John the Baptist was expecting a particular type of Messiah. His reading of the Scriptures led him to believe the Messiah would be cutting down rotten trees and using a winnowing fan. Instead, in his reply, Jesus is saying that the Kingdom has begun. In his very being the reign of God is inaugurated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor; and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Rule of St Benedict the Kingdom breaks through in more subtle ways. Philip Sheldrake in his book, Spaces for the Sacred, sees a kingdom dimension in monastic living:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Monastic spirituality invites us to live as if the inner harmony, the interpersonal reconciliation, the social conversion of the Kingdom of God were actually the case. It is anticipatory, but in the sense that practising the \u2018as if\u2019 is, in God\u2019s providence, an irreducible aspect of the Kingdom coming to be.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The practice of hospitality is one dimension of monastic living which makes the Kingdom tangible. Everything is to be done as if you were welcoming Christ himself. Every tiny detail of setting a table, cooking a meal or answering correspondence honours Christ and builds for the Kingdom. Once the guest arrives St Benedict is very clear that prayer is to form part of the welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many guests comment on experience of being welcomed to the Liturgy in a our monastery. It is truly humbling to hear this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can you build for the Kingdom during Advent?
How can you welcome Christ?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 35:1-6, 10Matthew 11:2-11 Today Isaiah offers us poetic vision of all that God promises for the people of Judah: everybody and everything will be restored in a land governed by God. Judah has experienced a period of barrenness and dryness in her relationship with God. All of this God will turn into fertile land … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Third Sunday of Advent (A)”<\/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-5154","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\/5154","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=5154"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5157,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154\/revisions\/5157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}