Lighting a torch in the darkness
The venue is apparently the Vätö kyrka in Sweden, northeast of Stockholm.
Feb 1 is the feast day of St. Brigit of Kildare, Ireland (453-523). She is controversial (some scholars believe that she didn’t really exist, but is a Christianization of the pagan goddess named “Brigid”; though she is well attested by numerous sources). She is believed to have born into slavery to a druid, but was returned to her parents around age 10. She was an abbess, who founded several monasteries, including in about 480 AD the “cell dara” (Kildare), the “church of the oak hill”. This foundation became a center of learning, and eventually a cathedral city. She is said to have been generous toward the poor and to women.
There is an amusing but touching prayer attributed to St. Brigid (probably written later):
I’d like to give a lake of beer to God.
I’d love the heavenly
Host to be tippling there
For all eternity.
I’d love the men of Heaven to live with me,
To dance and sing.
If they wanted, I’d put at their disposal
Vats of suffering.
White cups of love I’d give them
With a heart and a half;
Sweet pitchers of mercy I’d offer
To every man.
I’d make Heaven a cheerful spot
Because the happy heart is true.
I’d make the men contented for their own sake.
I’d like Jesus to love me too.
I’d like the people of heaven to gather
From all the parishes around.
I’d give a special welcome to the women,
The three Marys of great renown.
I’d sit with the men, the women and God
There by the lake of beer.
We’d be drinking good health forever
And every drop would be a prayer.
I am not sure of the source but one website notes that this is from an 11th century Irish poem attributed to St Brigit taken from a manuscript in the Burgundian Library, Brussels and edited and translated by O’Curry. From http://www.brigitsforge.co.uk/st_ffraid.htm.
Well, I agree with the sentiment. And next time I pick up a glass, I’ll think of St. Brigid and her Irish homeland.
A popular Nigerian pastor, who is touted as a dedicated servant to the poor, was “butchered” to death last week on his way back from pastoral duties by Muslim Fulani herdsmen, whom some say could be linked to the terrorist group Boko Haram.
As Morning Star News reports, pastor Joshua Adah, who founded and operated a school that provides over 400 kids with free education in the village of Bantaje, fell victim to the wrath of Muslim extremists belonging to the Fulani ethnolinguistic group, the same herdsmen that also reportedly attacked Nigerian Christian communities last week.
Read more at Christian Post: http://www.christianpost.com/news/nigerian-pastor-butchered-to-death-by-muslim-herdsmen-remembered-as-dedicated-servant-to-the-poor-who-educated-over-400-kids-for-free-133371/
One of the more prominent scholars of the 20th century has just passed from the scene. Marcus Borg was a liberal scholar famous (and infamous) for being part of the “Jesus seminar.” Like many in Christianity’s left wing, he denied the Resurrection of Jesus and the idea of an afterlife. (One of my ideas for the website I’m working on is to have a “rogues’ gallery” of personages who have done harm to the orthodox and traditional faith of the Christian Church, and Borg would be among the top candidates).
To his credit, he is reputed to have been a genial fellow: “He patiently listened to all sides of the debates and knew the strengths of evangelicalism and historic orthodoxy, even if he pointed more often to weaknesses. Borg was the kind of progressive/liberal theologian who welcomed evangelicals to the table—as long as they would listen, as well” (From article linked below). He was a friend of N. T. Wright, with whom he disagreed on many points.
For now, his soul is in the hands of God, and I wish peace to who were close to him.
For more on his legacy, check out this article from Christianity Today: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/january-web-only/died-marcus-borg-liberal-jesus-scholar-and-friendly-provoca.html?start=2
There is no shortage of news features on this increasingly common practice. Here is one of those articles, from 2013:
CHICAGO (CBS) – Despicable. That’s the word used by advocates for the disabled to describe the newest trend – people disguising their dogs as service dogs to travel, shop, and even go to night clubs.
“People think what they’re doing is harmless but it’s not. It’s very harmful,” said Marcie Davis, founder of International Assistance Dog Awareness Week.
As a paraplegic, Davis uses a real service dog, one that’s been trained and certified over hundreds of hours.
Read it all: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/08/21/despicable-epidemic-people-using-fake-service-dogs/
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Source: Strength to Love, a collection of sermons and essays published in 1963.
I was looking at children’s prayers for bedtime, and came across something very interesting. One of the common prayers that has made it into compendiums of nursery rhymes and children’s prayers is the “Four Corners” prayer. A common form of this prayer goes something like this:
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on. Four corners to my bed,
Four angels round my head;
One to watch and one to pray
And two to bear my soul away.
The rhyme dates back to at least the 1600s in Britain, and is likely much older. A German version dates to medieval times. The first English text is found in a treatise on witchcraft, where the verse is mentioned in a negative context.
There were several “paternosters” (derived from Latin for “our father”), which were associated with colors, perhaps initially associated with colored prayer beads. These poems are thought to be corruptions of prayers that became used as magic charms. The “white Paternoster” (a version of which is found in Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale of 1387) was used for morning. The “black paternoster” was used at bedtime. A “green paternoster” was earlier condemned as blasphemous by the Bishop of Lincolon, Robert Grosseteste, 1175–1253.
Somehow, the “black paternoster” escaped the anti-witchcraft and anti-catholic sentiments of the 17th century to become a favorite children’s rhyme in England, esp in the 20th century. Perhaps this may be credited to Anglican priest, scholar and hymn-writer, Sabine Baring-Gould, 1834-1924.
He published it as part of a collection of folksongs called Songs of the West, first published in 1891 (This book is now freely available in the public domain: https://archive.org/stream/imslp-and-ballads-of-the-west-baring-gould-sabine/SIBLEY1802.20102.74b4-39087012501252score_djvu.txt)
The poem has been set to music by the composer Gustav Holst, 1874-1934 (of “the Planets” fame). Here is a snippet of a recording by the Holst Singers, under Stephen Layton.
The full version is available for sale, by Hyperion records, http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/tw.asp?w=W1077.
Sources: Images are from Wikipedia. The lovely painting is “Four corners to my bed” by Isobel Lilian Gloag (1868-1917))
Do not curse the darkness, light a torch instead.
Recently–well, in 2011–an article was circulated indicating an idea that soon “real” Christians will begin withdrawing into secrecy. From an article in Christianity Today: “Christian churches in America will soon be forced to go underground if they want to stay true to their beliefs and to God, a conservative broadcast commentator warned.”
He decries the existing public churches as having abandoned their true mission: “Their pastors ‘preach’ feel good ‘sermonettes’ about the environment and things like ‘social justice.’ In my opinion, that is not the mission of a church that purports to follow Christ. In fact, Christ, Himself, spelled out the mission of the church in what we refer to as The Great Commission.” … “That commission from Christ is the sole reason why the church exists today, Longstreet stressed.”
Is this paranoid, or prophetic?
Read it all: http://www.christianpost.com/news/real-christian-churches-in-us-forced-to-go-underground-soon-64235/
Up until this time, “…in order to keep our focus on what unites us — the centrality of the Eucharist and our mission as the Body of Christ — we have tended to avoid addressing some critical issues, including the role of women clergy at St. Paul’s and the blessing of same-sex unions/marriages. During the current transition, we have begun to explore these questions.”
I think it is probably foregone how the discernments will conclude, and there is probably no stopping the progressive steamroller here as has been the case in other churches that have fallen. Still, we should pray for this church and hope that they can keep that centrality of focus on Eucharist and mission to which they had been holding up to this point.
Read it all here: http://www.livingchurch.org/changes-st-paul’s-k-st