{"id":28272,"date":"2021-12-08T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T06:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/?p=28272"},"modified":"2021-12-05T15:25:08","modified_gmt":"2021-12-05T14:25:08","slug":"wednesday-reflection-59","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wednesday-reflection-59\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Midweek Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>8<sup>th<\/sup> December 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the early Advent Scriptures we are invited to celebrate \u201cDesert Days.\u201d\u00a0 That is, we have an opportunity to meditate on the importance of the desert\u00a0 Look how often in history how people are drawn to those who live a life of solitude in the desert literally or in the desert of monasteries. \u00a0The early Christians of the third century like Saint Paul, the Hermit and Saint Anthony the Great are very popular Saints in the Roman Province of Egypt and lived secluded lives away from the distractions of society. They lived in the desert, hence the name \u201cDesert Fathers\u201d. And yet they attracted so many people and disciples that St Athanasius of Alexandria wrote that,\u201dthe desert had become a city!\u201d They strongly influenced the later Western Monasticism of saints such as St Benedict, St Bernard and St Bruno.<\/p>\n<p>The desert, of course, is where John the Baptist lived.\u00a0 There, he carries out his ministry of preaching and baptising, both of these for the sake of repentance. Oddly, it is the desert and not the town centre that brings about a reversal of fortune. The desert is thought of as a place where little to nothing grows.\u00a0 Yet when the Lord comes, <em><strong>\u201cthe parched land will exult<\/strong><\/em><em><strong>, <\/strong><\/em><em><strong>will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song.\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 In Advent we are taught, if only we would listen, that\u00a0through the Lord\u2019s power <em><strong>\u201cthe eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared\u201d<\/strong><\/em>, and <em><strong>\u201cthe lame leap like a stag\u201d<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 At the birth of Jesus, the gift is hope and new life to us all.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Monsignor Monaghan<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Midweek Reflection 8th December 2021 In the early Advent Scriptures we are invited to celebrate \u201cDesert Days.\u201d\u00a0 That is, we have an opportunity to meditate on the importance of the desert\u00a0 Look<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wednesday-reflection-59\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2931,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2931"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28272"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28274,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28272\/revisions\/28274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}