{"id":5273,"date":"2026-02-19T07:17:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T07:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=5273"},"modified":"2026-02-19T07:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T07:17:07","slug":"lent-alphabet-b-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=5273","title":{"rendered":"Lent Alphabet (B)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

BELOVED
And from the cloud there came a voice which said:<\/strong>
‘This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lent Lectionary pairs Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration with the story of Abraham being promised God’s blessing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Abraham is asked to look at the night sky and to try and count the stars, he is at a threshold in his life. He is following a call where the only certainty he has is that God will be faithful. When Jesus climbs the mountain with Peter, James and John he too relies on the knowledge that in whatever lies ahead God’s faithfulness will uphold him. A relationship of love frames both stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When God speaks to Abraham there is a tenderness in what is promised;
‘I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be used as a blessing.’<\/strong>

There is a similar tenderness in the Father’s voice from the cloud: ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him.\u2019. <\/strong>These words are full of affirmation. Some years ago I read an article by Jesuit, Pat Davis, on the Psychology of Obedience. He made this comment:
It is very interesting that when God the Father speaks of Jesus it is always affirming. Now you would think that Jesus was the last person who needed affirmation, since he was fully human, fully mature, and yet each time we hear the Father’s voice speaking about his Son, it is very affirming, ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Lent then is an invitation to us all to move deeper into the mystery of God’s love and know that we too are beloved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you most like God to show you that you are Beloved this Lent?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Matthew 17:1-9, Second Sunday in Lent)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BELOVEDAnd from the cloud there came a voice which said:‘This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him.\u2019 The Lent Lectionary pairs Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration with the story of Abraham being promised God’s blessing. When Abraham is asked to look at the night sky and to try and count … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Lent Alphabet (B)”<\/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-5273","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\/5273","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=5273"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5280,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5273\/revisions\/5280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}