Celtic Christianity Historic Overview (part 4)

After Whitby

The decree of Whitby did not immediately change the whole face of British Christianity. For hundreds of years there were pockets of resistance to the Roman mission, notably in Devon, Cornwall and Scotland. For instance on Iona, the Celtic monastic community was not finally dispersed until the Benedictine Abbey was built in the 13th century.

The period of resistance ( and renewal) was marked by some of the greatest achievements of the Celtic tradition with illuminated gospel manuscripts like the Book of Kells, and high standing crosses with Scriptural imagery on one side and creation imagery on the other. The general picture throughout Britain and Ireland however, was of gradual conformity to the Roman mission. The riches of the Celtic churches spirituality was guarded in the teachings of an oral tradition passed down among the laity for hundreds of years.

Increasingly, and especially after the 16th century Reformation in Britain, the Celtic tradition again met with resistance. The reciting of their prayers was discouraged and even banned because they were regarded as pantheistic and pagan in origin. In Scotland, a combination of Religious persecution and the 19th century Highland clearances, (in which thousands of families were torn from their ancestral lands to make room for large scale sheep farming,) resulted in the fragmentation of the Celtic culture. This loss of the collective memory, meant that the oral tradition began to be lost.

However, even this did not represent the death of the Celtic tradition however. Attempts were made to transcribe and collect the prayers, in Scotland in Alexander Carmichael's Carmina Gadelica (1900) and in Ireland in Douglas Hyde's Religious Songs of Connacht (1906).
Carmichael and Hyde were part of a revival of Celtic art and literature, and others were finding new ways to express the spirituality of the Celtic tradition. Although they had ensured that written copies of some of the prayers were preserved, by the 20th century, their living use had virtually disappeared.

Despite the previous centuries of resistance to the Celtic tradition, the 20th century saw a growing toleration of the Celtic tradition and an increasing depth of appreciation for its spiritual riches, and their applicability for today. This included George MacLeod, who founded of the Iona community in the Hebrides (and was at one time Minister of St. Cuthbert's church). 


Graphic example Celtic Cross and High Tower

reprint of living water article from 2009

Maudy/ Holy Thursday

Maundy Thursday is always the Easter week Thursday before Good Friday. The name originated in England and Scotland among the Protestant Churches. Although the Scottish Book of Common Prayer uses the name "Holy Thursday". Roman Catholics, except in England, referred to Maundy Thursday as "Holy Thursday". In the Eastern Orthodox Church, tradition it goes by Great and Holy Thursday.

The word Maundy is an English derivative of the Latin mandatum, the first word of the phrase "Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos" (Jesus's statement "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you" in the John 13:34.")

On this day four events are remembered: Christ's washing of the Disciples' Feet, the sharing of the Last Supper with the disciples, Christ's agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, and His betrayal by Judas Iscariot.

graphic: Salvador Dali's 1955 painting 'The Sacrament of the Last Supper"

living water reprint from 2009

The Book of Kells

Living Water link to the updated Book of Kells article

The Lindisfarne Gospels

The Lindisfarne Gospels  are an illuminated manuscript produced around the year 700 in a monastery off the coast of Northumberland at Lindsfarne.  It is now on display in the British Library  in London. The manuscript is one of the finest works in the unique style of Insular art. Combining Mediterranean, Angelo Saxon and Celti^{c traditions}

The Lindisfarne Gospels are presumed to be the work of a monk named Edafrith who became Bishop of Lindisfarne  in 698 and died in 721. It is believed they were produced to honour of St cuthbert. to commemorate the elevation of Cuthbert's relics. The Gospels are richly illustrated in the insular style and were originally encased in a fine leather binding covered with jewels and metals made by Billfirth the Anchorite in the 8th century. During the Viking raids on Lindisfarne this jewelled cover was lost and a replacement was made in 1852. The text is written in insular script, and is the best documented and most complete insular manuscript of the period.

In the 10th century an Old English translation of the Gospels was made: a word-for-word gloss inserted between the lines of the Latin text by Aldred.. This is the oldest extant translation of the Gospels into the English. Due to Viking raids the monastic community left Lindisfarne around 875, bringing with them Cuthbert’s body, relics, and books including the Lindisfarne Gospels. The Gospels may have been taken from Durham Cathedrall during the Dissolution of the monestaries ordered by Henry the 8th .The Lindisfarne Gospels are in remarkable condition and the text is complete and undamaged^. However, the original binding of the manuscript was destroyed. In March 1852 a new binding was commissioned for the Lindisfarne Gospels.

 graphic: Three pages from the Lindisfarne Gospels

Fydor Dostoyevsky ( 1821 - 81 )

Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.”

“The soul is healed by being with children.”

But how could one live and have no story to tell?”
White Nights 

“We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.”
Crime and Punishment

 “The darker the night, the brighter the stars,
The deeper the grief, the closer is God!”
 Crime and Punishment

“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.”
 The Brothers Karamazov   

 Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
 The Brothers Karamazov

Cadmon's Hymn: prelude to the Beatles

Cædmon's Hymn is a short Old English  poem originally composed by Cædmon, in honour of God the Creator. It survives in a Latin. Bede wrote about the poet and his work in the fourth book of his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum 

Bede told the story of Cædmon who was an illiterate cow-herd who miraculously was able to recite a Christian song of creation in Old English verse. This miracle happened after Cædmon left a feast when they were passing a harp around for all to sing a song. He left the hall after feeling ashamed that he could not contribute a song. Later in a dream he said a man appeared to him and asked him to sing a song. Cædmon responded that he could not sing, yet the man told him that he could and asked him to “Sing to me the beginning of all things.” Cædmon was then able to sing verses and words that he had not heard of before. Cædmon then reported his experience first to a steward then to Hild the abbess. She invited scholars to evaluate Cædmon’s gift, and he was sent home to turn more divine doctrine into song. The abbess was so impressed with the success of his gift that she encouraged him to become a monk. He learned the history of the Christian church and created more music like the story of Genesis and many biblical stories which impressed his teachers. Bede says that Cædmon in his creation of his songs wanted to turn man from love of sin to a love of good deeds. Cædmon is said to have died peacefully in his sleep after asking for the Eucharist and making sure he was at peace with his fellow men.

 Now let me praise the keeper of Heaven's kingdom,
The might of the Creator, and his thought,
The work of the Father of glory, how each of wonders
The Eternal Lord established in the beginning.
He first created for the sons of men
Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator,
Then Middle-earth the keeper of mankind,
The Eternal Lord, afterwards made,
The earth for men, the Almighty Lord.

 Cædmon's Hymn is the oldest recorded  Old English poem


adapted from Wikkipedia

graphic: Caedmons Cross At Whitby – Caedmon Was The First Poet In England

An Epiphany Hymn

                        

   Songs of Thankfulness and Praise

Songs of thankfulness and praise, Jesus, Lord, to Thee we raise, 
Manifested by the star To the sages from afar; 
 Branch of royal David’s stem In Thy birth at Bethlehem;  
Anthems be to Thee addressed,  God in man made manifest.

Manifest at Jordan’s stream, Prophet, Priest, and King supreme;  
And at Cana, wedding guest,  In Thy Godhead manifest;  
Manifest in power divine, Changing water into wine; 
Anthems be to Thee addressed, God in man made manifest.

Manifest in making whole Palsied limbs and fainting soul; 
 Manifest in valiant fight, Quelling all the devil’s might;  
Manifest in gracious will, Ever bringing good from ill;  
Anthems be to Thee addressed, God in man made manifest.

Sun and moon shall darkened be, Stars shall fall, the heavens shall flee,  
Christ will then like lightning shine, All will see His glorious sign:  
All will then the trumpet hear;  All will see the Judge appear;  
Thou by all wilt be confessed, God in man made manifest.

Grant us grace to see Thee, Lord, Mirrored in Thy holy Word;  
May we imitate Thee now, And be pure, as pure art Thou; 
That we like to Thee may be At Thy great Epiphany;  
And may praise Thee, ever blest, God in man made manifest.

Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1885)

Stanza Four by F. Bland Tucker (1895-1984)

Graphic: Giotto's wedding at Cana

a living water reprint from 2009

Higher Love

Think about it, there must be higher love
Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above
Without it, life is a wasted time
Look inside your heart, I'll look inside mine
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be

Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?

Worlds are turning and we're just hanging on
Facing our fear and standing out there alone
A yearning, and it's real to me
There must be someone who's feeling for me
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be

Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?

Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring be a higher love
I could rise above on a higher love

I will wait for it
I'm not too late for it
Until then, I'll sing my song
To cheer the night along
Bring it...Oh bring it...

I could light the night up with my soul on fire
I could make the sun shine from pure desire
Let me feel that love come over me
Let me feel how strong it could be

Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?

 Higher Love video

      Steve Winwood (Winwood/Jennings)

If I ever needed someone

Lord if I ever needed someone,
 I need You 
Lord  I ever needed someone, 
I need You   
To see me through the daytime 
 And through the long lonely night 
 To lead me through the darkness 
 And on into the light
 
To stand with me when I'm troubled 
And help me through my strife  
When times get so uncertain to turn to You  
Turn to You in my young life
 
Lord if I ever needed someone,
 I need You  
Lord if I ever needed someone, 
I need You
 
Someone to hold onto  
And keep me from all fear 
Someone to be my guiding light 
And keep me ever dear
 
To keep me from my selfishness 
 To keep me from my sorrow  
 To lead me on to givingness 
 So I can see a new tomorrow 
 
Lord if I ever needed someone, 
I need You  
Lord if I ever needed someone, 
I need You
 
Someone to walk with  
Oh someone to hold by the hand  
Someone to talk with  
Someone to understand, yeah, yeah
 
Oh, when I need You Yeah
, I need You very much  
To open up my arms to You 
Feel Your tender touch
 
To feel it and to keep it 
To the right here in my soul 
 And care for it and keep it with me 
 Never to grow old
 
Lord if I ever needed someone, 
I need You 
Lord if I ever needed someone,
 I need You 
 Lord if I ever needed someone, I need You

                              Van Morrison

If i ever needed someone Van Morrison unplugged 

 Van Morrison, is an  Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are described as transcendental^.  Some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moon dance and the live album It's to Late to Stop Now are critically acclaimed and appear at the top of many greatest album lists.

What do you want me to do

 

And I've tried to do what people say 
And I'm going nowhere fast\
And I'm turning to you at last
 
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do, Lord?
 
I can see the lights of home
But I can't get there on my own  
I can see the landing strip 
But I need you to steer my ship
 
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do, Lord?
 
I've been a fool and I've been a clown  
I let the enemy turn me around 
I've wasted love and I've wasted time  
I've been proud and I've been blind
 

What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do, Lord?
I've got a lot of things to change 
A whole man to rearrange 
And if you show me how  
I'll begin right now
 
What do you want me to do? 
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do, Lord? 
What do you want me to do, Lord?
 What do you want me to do, Lord?
 
I'm listening 
          I'm listening  
                    I'm listening 
                             I'm listening  
                                      I'm listening

 Mike Scott

What do you want me to do video: 

 Michael 'Mike' Scott is the founding member, lead singer and songwriter of The Waterboys. He has also produced two solo albums, Bring 'em All In and Still Burning.

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I have kissed hardened lips
Felt the healing fingertips
It burned like a fire
This burning desire

I have spoke with eternal angels
I have held the hands of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I believe in the Kingdom Come
When all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
Well, yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds
And you loosened the chains
Carried the cross
Of all my shame
all my shame
You know I believe it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

 U2

                                      graphic: healing of the blind man 

still havn't found what i'm looking for video

  U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976,U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music.

Mystery of the Mundane (part 1)

11And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: 12And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. 13And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? 1Kings 19:11-13

Between keeping ourselves distracted and waiting we miss a lot in life. Waiting for when I grow up. Waiting to get that job. Waiting to find that special person. Waiting to retire . Waiting to that buy new whatever. We live in anticipation of some future fulfillment.

In evangelical, Pentecostal and charismatic circles in particular much of life is projected into the future and taken up with just passing time, waiting for something to happen. Waiting for the fire fall. Waiting for the earth quake to shake our lives. Waiting for that revival. Waiting for that miracle. Waiting for the next move of God. We anxiously await the big thing to unfold in our lives, passing time till I die and go to heaven.

Most of the “big moments” in our lives tend to take place in the ordinariness of daily life. God is to be found in the ordinary and mundane. We are often so busy we can’t see the forest for the trees. We miss the miracles unfolding before our eyes. We miss God’s immediate presence in the wonder of the ordinary.

Nick Cave captures this thought so beautifully in these lyrics from his song “Get Ready for Love”

Nothing much really happens
And God rides high in his ordinary sky
Until we find ourselves at our most distracted
And the miracle that was promised
Creeps silently by.

God is present in the now, my life is unfolding now. The miracle is in this present mudane moment.

photo: b culver

living water reprint from 2008

The Book of Kells

The Book of Kells also known as the Book of Columba is one of many Gospel manuscripts produced by Celtic monks from the late sixth century to the early ninth century in the monasteries in Scotland, northern England, and Ireland. Written in latin the Book of Kells represents the high point in the production of these artistic manuscripts.

Among other surviving examples of this Biblical style are the Cathach of St. Columba, the Book of Durrow, the Durham Gospels, Lindisfarne Gospels, and the Macregal Gospels.

The name for the Book of Kells come from the Abbey of Kells in Kells, County Meath in Ireland where it was kept between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries. It remained there when the abbey was dissolved in the twelfth century and turned in to a parish church. In 1654, the book was moved to Dublin for safekeeping. Eventually it was presented to Trinity College Dublin where it still rests. The book has been re-bound a number of times and exists today in four volumes after a re-binding in 1953.

The place, or places, where the Book of Kells was created is not known. Traditionally, it is thought the book was begun in the time of St. Columba in the sixth century. Among the theories of its creation ,it was begun in Scotland, possibly at the Monastery of Iona, and then brought to Kells Abbey when the monks of Iona moved to Kells to escape Viking raids at Iona.

The book contains the complete texts of three of the synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The Gospel of John ends with John 17:13. The whereabouts of the missing pages of John a is not known. These may have been lost when the book was stolen in the eleventh century. The text is not marked by chapters. Whether this is because the manuscript was not completed is also not known.

The text of the book written in Insular Script is accompanied by full pages of detailed and ornate celtic artwork, in a varied mix of color. No gold or silver leaf was used. Each page is covered with illustrations, and the opening words of each Gospel are decorated lavishly, often to the extent that the text is almost illegible.

The book was most probably produced for liturgical use and not as an instructional volume.

graphic: page from the Book of Kells

living water frpm an ancient well reprint from 2008

I See His Blood

 

I see His Blood Upon the Rose,

I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.

I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice – and carven by his power
Rocks are his written words.

All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.

                  by Joseph Mary Plunkett

Easter Sunday (6)

Easter Day Breaks

 
Easter day breaks
Christs rises! Mercy every way is infinite-
Earth breaks up; time drops away;
In flows heaven with it's new day
Of endless life-
What is left for us save in growth
Of soul to rise up...
For the gift looking to the giver,
And the cistern to the river,
And from finite to infinity,
And from man's dust to God's divinity

Robert Browning

living water reprint

Good Friday (6)

 








Good Friday 

Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy blood's slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon--
I, only I.

Yet give not o'er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894)


living water reprint from 2008

Fydor Dostoyesky ( 1821 - 81 )

Quotes from " The Idiot"

“Beauty will save the world”

 Lack of originality, everywhere, all over the world, from time immemorial, has always been considered the foremost quality and the recommendation of the active, efficient and practical man.”

 As soon as you have finished telling us anything, you seem to be ashamed of what you've said," Aglaia observed suddenly. "Why is that?”

 Do you know, to my thinking it's a good thing sometimes to be absurd; it's better in fact, it makes it easier to forgive one another, it's easier to be humble. One can't understand everything at once, we can't begin with perfection all at once! In order to reach perfection one must begin by being ignorant of a great deal. And if we understand things too quickly, perhaps we shan't understand them thoroughly.”

 “We must never forget that human motives are generally far more complicated than we are apt to suppose, and that we can very rarely accurately describe the motives of another.”

 God has such gladness every time he sees from heaven that a sinner is praying to Him with all his heart, as a mother has when she sees the first smile on her baby's face.”

 What matters," said the prince at last, "is that you have a child's trusting nature and extraordinary truthfulness. Do you know that a great deal can be forgiven you for that alone?”

“Compassion was the most important, perhaps the sole law of human existence.” 

“Grown-up people do not know that a child can give exceedingly good advice even in the most difficult case.”

 One man doesn't believe in god at all, while the other believes in him so thoroughly that he prays as he murders men!”

Feast Day of Three Innovative Catholic Saints

Peter Nolasco (died 1256 )
 

 He was of a noble birth and from his youth was noted for his charity. Having given all his possessions to the poor, he took  vows traveled to Barcelona. He felt called to minister among those pressed into slavery by the moors. to further his vision he established the Mercedarian  order whose members were bound by a special vow to employ all their substance for the redemption  of Christian slaves, and if , to remain in captivity in their stead. At first most of these were laymen as was Peter himself. but pope clement 1 decreed that the master general of the order should always be a priest.

Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 74 )
 

Born  in Italy to nobility Thomas Aquinas felt called  at a very young age to join the priesthood. His family was so oppose to the idea that they had him kipnapped  and held prisoner for a year. They even hirded a protistue to try to seduce him, Yet so determined was he that at the age of 19 he became a dominican monk. 

He was a brilliant student became a perceptive teacher and was published by the age of twenty two. He was so astute at relating faith and reason that his work became the offical theology of the Catholic Church.

Near the end of His life Thomas had a mystical spiritual experience that touched him so deeply that he regarded his theological writing as "so much straw". He died at the young age of forty-nine.


Julian Maunoir (1606 - 83 )

 Julian  was a French-born Jesuit priest known as the "Apostle of Brittiany  He aspired to become a missionary to  Canada. But during his period of  formation with the Jesuits he was sent as a missionary to Brittony and was required to learn the Breton language of the Celtic people  who reside in the northwestern region of France.

 Father Maunoir worked as a missionary to the breton people for 43 years, when he died in 1683he had been involved in the   formation of almost  1,000 Breton missionaries to carry  on the pastoral workshis pastoral work.

Maunoir proved to be very innovative in  his use of  living panaramas, colorful charts, imaginative pictures and extemporus sing to teah the people.

compiled from multiple sources