Canticle of the Sun

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Religious Writing, Saints

I came across this a short while ago and have veered in the short time I have known it from loving it to hating it and back again.  Parts of it resound and echo deep within me, parts of it grate and rub me up the wrong way.  Yesterday, a day without the sun we had come accustomed to – although the promised rain didn’t appear until this morning – reminded of this canticle as I drove back from the fellowship lunch with the hood down on ‘Baby’ and since then it has been bouncing round my head again with mixed feelings.

Most high, all-powerful, all good, Lord!  All praise is yours, all glory, all honour and all blessing.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong,  No mortal lips are worthy to pronounce your name.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through all that you have made, and first my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and light you give to us through him. How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendour!  Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.
All praise be yours my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air, and fair and stormy, all the weather’s moods, by which you cherish all that you have made.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water, so useful, lowly, precious and pure.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom you brighten up the night.  How beautiful is he, how gay!  Full of power and strength.
All praise be yours my Lord, through Sister Earth, our mother who feeds us in her sovereignty and produces various fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through those who grant pardon.  For love of you; through those who endure sickness and trial. Happy those who endure in peace, by you, Most High, they will be crowned.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death, from whose embrace no mortal can escape.  Woe to those who die in mortal sin!  Happy those she finds doing your will!  The second death can do no harm to them.
Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks, and serve him with great humility.

St Francis of Assisi

St Mark

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Saints, stained glass

St Mark's Window from St Mary's Church, Bicton Park

St David

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Saints

Today is St David’s Day.

David, or Dewi, was a monk and a bishop in the sixth century,  He is said to have based his Rule for his monasteries on that of the Egyptian desert monks, with a strong emphasis on hard work, abstinence from alcohol and refraining from unnecessary speech (unnecessary speech being anything that wasn’t prayer or an emergency).

It would appear it is highly appropriate that the day the church remembers him usually falls in Lent.  So to honour both our Welsh cousins and St David’s Rule of Life  I thought I would share this with you, it is the Collect for Purity in Welsh.

Hollalluog Dduw, i ti y mae pob calon yn agored, pob dymuniad hysbys, a phob dirgel yn amlwg: Glanha, gan hynny, feddyliau I ein calonnau trwy ysbrydoliaeth dy Lân Ysbryd, fel y gallom dy garu di’n berffaith, a mawrhau’n deilwng dy Enw santaidd; trwy Grist ein Harglwydd. Amen.

Valentine’s Day Spin

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Saints

Today is St Valentine’s Day, or as I prefer to think of it, yet another profit-making scheme for the retail trade.  If you have to wait till 14th February every year to tell someone you love them, or to hear that you are loved, then I really don’t know what to say.

Okay maybe some people need the little help to declare their love for the first time – but to then make any card anonymous as tradition states kind of defeats the purpose and of course there are those, especially on leap years like this year, who use the date to pop the question, but if they wouldn’t have popped it anyway then I think my advice would be to consider very carefully before you agree to marry them!

Roses, especially the red kind, shoot up in price at this time of the year.  Bakers festoon their shelves with the same cakes that they had out at Hallowe’en and Christmas only this time they have heart decorations.  They will be back come Mothering Sunday never fear, with flowers on them, and at Easter they will bear little chicks and chocolate eggs.  Supermarket take up isles not only with prospective gifts for the person who will think they are unloved without such a purchase, but also the ideal meal to ensure your loved one loves you back, some even double the price of the usual meal deals – 0h that will be an extra tenner for the box of 9 chocolates that aren’t usually included!  Then if you decide to take your loved one out to your favorite restaurant you will pretty soon discover that they will present you with a reduced menu, which you can almost guarantee wont include the one dish that makes it your favorite restaurant to make room for steak with valentine sauce or some such nonsense.

Now I have nothing against romance, Hubby can vouch for that, but I do think that it shouldn’t need to either cost the earth or be held hostage to a certain day.  So today by all means tell the one you love you love them, buy them a card and give them a gift, but please if you really love them make sure you let them know that all through the year.  And please if you are still paying off Christmas, and there will be those who are, then don’t get yourself into more debt just because the shops are making you feel guilty, if the person you love loves you back they wont want to see you get into a financial mess.

Never mind the commercial spin that has been put on this martyr’s feast day I think St Valentine will be spinning in his grave at the way his name has been hijacked.

Now I will get off my soap box.

Conversion of St Paul

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Mission, Photography, Saints

St Paul ~ Melrose Abbey

By his preaching to the Gentiles, Paul laid the foundations of the churches from Jerusalem by a circuitous route as far as Illyricum.

Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius

It is common for us to refer to our Christian life as a journey.  Usually we use the term to express the ongoing nature of becoming more Christlike or to mark our belief that we are not alone but daily have God beside us as our companion.  Liturgy also underlines this idea of travelling, of journeying from Baptism to Death while between the two we have the Eucharist and Liturgical Seasons to accompany us.  However Paul, whose conversion the Church remembers today, doesn’t journey for those reasons but rather to spread the Good News.  This brings to clear focus the raison d’erte of Christian journeying, it should change us and compel us to share with others we meet along the way the purpose of our journeying.

We may not travel the miles that St Paul travelled, we may not end up getting shipwrecked as he did, we may not even have the dramatic conversion experience that he did.  However, if our journeying with Christ doesn’t change us as it changed St Paul, if we aren’t compelled to spread the Good News by and through our journey, then are we really journeying at all or are we merely stuck on a treadmill?

The dictionary defines the act of travelling on a treadmill as “a monotonous, wearisome routine in which there is little or no satisfactory progress”.  Christian journeying must be more than constantly working to remain static and it must certainly not be something that lulls us into a false sense of self-righteousness and a mistaken belief that we are doing the real thing, when we are in fact only going through the motions.  St Paul teaches us that to journey with Christ is both challenging yet rewarding beyond measure; both dangerous yet safe with him by our side; both life changing and life affirming.  Surely that is indeed something to share.

O God, who taught the whole world
through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Paul,
draw us, we pray, nearer to you
through the example of him whose conversion we celebrate today,
and so make us witnesses to your truth in the world.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Saint Cecilia

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Saints

Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians and Church music and her feast day falls today.  As if often the case with early Christian martyrs there is some dispute over just when, where and how she died.  My preferred version is this one:

Cecilia her husband and brother-in-law held meetings of Christians in their home eventually her husband and his brother were arrested and then executed for practising Christianity.  Next on Prefect Turcius Almachius list was Cecilia herself.  Firstly the officials who went to arrest Cecilia attempted to kill her by smothering her with steam in a bath house, however, the attempt failed and she arrested and was to be executed by decapitation.  It is said that she refused to die until she had received Holy Communion and consequently despite trying to chop off her head three times, she remained alive, surviving another three days before finally dying.  Despite what must have been horrific neck injuries it is said that for those last three days she sang to God which is why she has been linked to musicians and Church music.

St Mungo

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Photography, Saints, The UK

St Mungo

St Mungo is the patron saint of Glasgow, and appears on Glasgow’s coat of arms along with the bird that never flew, the fish that never swam, the bell that never rang and the tree that never grew.  These four items attributed to tales of Mungo.

Mungo was raised by St Serf who gave him the name Mungo meaning dear one, he is also known as Kentigern.  Serf had a pet robin which was killed by some of Mungo’s jealous classmates, Mungo is said to have brought it back to life, hence the bird.  The tree also has a connection with St Serf.  Mungo was supposed to be keeping the fire going in the monastery one night and fell asleep allowing the fire to go out.  It is said that Mungo put branches from a tree on the fire and it relit.  The bell represents one that Mungo brought to Glasgow from Rome and was rung at funerals to call together the mourners.  It is said that it couldn’t be found when Mungo died because God didn’t want the people of Glasgow to mourn Mungo’s death but rather to rejoice in his passage into heaven.  A bell, known as St Mungo’s bell, continued to be rung to mark deaths as late as 1578, however this one also appears to have dissapeared as the City Council commissioned a new St Mungo’s bell on 22nd October 1640 and it is this one that is still in Glasgow’s People’s Palace.

The story of the fish is probably the most well-known.  Queen Languoreth of Strathclyde had given a ring that her husband gave her to her lover.  King Riderch had seen the ring on her lovers finger and taken it from him and thrown it into the river Clyde before going back to confront his wife.  Queen Languoreth was distraught knowing that she would face certain death if she couldn’t produce the ring, and her distress grew when she discovered what had happened to it, she went to Mungo to plead for his help.  What kind of help she went to plead for I do not know, but surely she didn’t expect what followed.  Mungo pulled a salmon out of the Clyde and in its mouth was the ring.

You can see Glasgow’s coat of arms here, the motto at the foot has been abbreviated, the full version is – Lord, let Glasgow flourish through the preaching of the word and the praising of your name.

St Augustine

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Photography, Saints, stained glass

St Augustine Stained Glass Window at St Mary's Canons Ashby

St Columba

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Saints

St Columba sailing to Scotland

St Nicholas

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Liturgical Seasons, Saints

Today is St Nicholas’ day, the day when many children in mainland Europe receive gifts.  St Nicholas was a bishop in Turkey and the story goes that he would leave coins in the shoes of people who were poor, in particular there is a story told about him involving 3 sisters.  They came from a poor family and both their father and St Nicholas were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to marry as they had no dowry, so he secretly gave three purses of gold, one for each daughter.  Some versions of this story say that he dropped them down the chimney so that they would be seen as a gift from God and they landed in the girls stockings that were drying by the fire!  From him developed the idea of Santa Claus and is the reason that Santa Claus is sometimes referred to as Old Nick.

St Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors and pawn pawnbrokers the three golden balls that traditionally hang outside their shops representing the three purses of gold.  Slightly ironic I feel that someone who gave to the poor ends up being the patron saint of people who make money from the less fortunate!

Today we can remember his generous spirit and while Christmas is still a way off maybe we should all take time out today to give a gift to someone else in need.  Be it donating money to a charity, giving tinned food to those who help the homeless, volunteering to do some charity work or anonymously putting some money in an envelope and posting it through the door of someone who we know will be struggling this Christmas.

On The Third Day Of Christmas

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Liturgical Seasons, Saints

The Church celebrates another saint.  This time it is Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist, John who walked and talked with Jesus, who fell asleep in the garden, stayed with him at the cross, witnessed the transfiguration, recognised him as the Christ, was known as ‘the beloved disciple’.  John; whose words from the first chapter of his Gospel would have been read out in Churches around the world as the Christmas Gospel.  No shepherds, no angels, or star for magi to follow, no journey to Bethlehem or manger, but without a doubt the true story of Christmas.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.  He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.  He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.  But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.  And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

On The Second Day Of Christmas

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Liturgical Seasons, Saints

No not two turtle doves but a saint, St Stephen whose feast day is today.  His date is probably one of the most well known saints day due in part to the Carol ‘Good King Wenceslas’.

After the resurrection the apostles ordained seven deacons, to help look after the widows, orphans and poor; Stephen was one of those deacons.  The Bible says that his face looked like the face of an angel and not only did he help care for those less fortunate but also preached, he became the first Martyr of the Church, the tale of it goes something like this.

He was preaching in public one day chastising those who didn’t believe in Christ for being blind, they became angry and he looked up to heaven for inspiration and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God.  On telling those watching of the vision they refused to listen to any more and dragged St. Stephen outside the city of Jerusalem and stoned him to death.  As he was being stoned he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Then he fell to his knees and begged God not to punish his enemies for killing him.