So beautiful. My favourite hymn is Christ Be Beside Me. It is such a pity that the Irish, the Island of Saints and Scholars, who carried the faith to all corners of the world have become the Island of International Bureacrats and Global Capitalists. ( honourable exceptions for Orla Guerin and Fergal Keane).
Thanks, Paul, it was inspiring to read, or reread this, this morning, and the prayer is a strong one, for hard times, and we are in hard, dire times right now.
...
Too many people in the cities, and too many people who believe that work in the cities is the only work available, and the work that will enable them to be comfortable, SAFE, prosperous, and this movement to the cities has been going on for too long, now.
I like the idea of the bright side, converting with/by gentleness, even if I am not a particularly gentle person now.
And I wonder about what Patrick saw in the women's slavery, particularly. It brings me back to what Hector saw in the threat that Andromache would be reduced to slavery if he failed to protect her in "The Iliad", and these fears have been with us for a long time.
Why is slavery worse for a woman than for a man, I wonder ? Could it possibly be the idea of being sexually "used" that is behind this ? In our times, even very recently in my observation, women have been told that doing housework, their own housework, is slavery. But if doing your own housework in your own home is slavery, just where, or who exactly IS YOUR MASTER ? (and maybe, why do you HAVE TO HAVE ONE ?)
But since the Christian religion and the Gospels showed us Jesus washing his disciples' feet, we should be wondering just what slavery is, AND WHO IT IS FOR, shouldn't we ?
Can we be civilised in the hills and wild in the cities ? Just what, who, WHERE is a civilised person ?
I like Patrick's story a lot, and maybe he missed that lonely/alone time in the hills with the goats sometimes...Spending a lot of time alone is not something that we are encouraged to do at all...and it gives rise to a lot of suspicion in the social body. These days, you can end up with a diagnosis if you spend a lot of time alone, that's how much we have... progressed.
I have become used to a prayer rule recommended by the Orthodox Church, in which I am to be Confirmed this coming Palm Sunday...God willing.
I can't find the words to describe the impact of St Patrick's prayer on me as I read it for the very first time this morning. Out loud. I have added it to my morning reading!
Thank you for introducing me to the life and work of St Patrick. Since I joined the path to Orthodoxy some 18 months ago, my catechism, and now the IOCS course, have led me to the lives of the Saints for the first time in my life. My, now long-past, evangelical Church had no time or truck for the Saints, Mother Mary or our Church Fathers. What sacrilege. What tragedy.
As I now read about the lives and teachings of the Saints I am often left in complete awe and utter humility. So it was again today. Thank you.
Thanks Paul- it is indeed a very precious hymn. I have lots of childhood Catholic memories of the celebration; Paddy's night yearly family dances- with a full live band, going to mass, excitement about the delivery of the boxes of bright green shamrock.Our Bradford, dark, drab, primary school seemed to liven up as we all wore with pride- not really knowing why we were wearing them- the stringy bits of green. Did we really need to know the meaning? We were a part of something bigger than ourselves. We were connected to our community, our clan- that was enough. It sowed the seeds. The meaning of St Patrick's hymn makes sense to me now as a 65 year old. It is all part of the larger circle of experience- each experience builds on each other. I do believe that the building stones of childhood cultural and spiritual sensory situations, help to reconnect to spiritual understanding in later life. I am very grateful for having had this.
How do you I take in and appreciate this wild Christianity without straying into the very paganism or at least pantheism St. Patrick preached against? Many people would be quite happy with non-Church/ Ecclesial spiritual experiences; a spiritual life lived outside the church and more New Age than New Testament. I’m genuinely interested because this is the argument I keep meeting. Thank you.
Paul has referred to this essay by Kallistos Ware before, so I've taken the liberty of providing the link. It's an excellent place to start with regards to your concerns.
Wild Christianity is meeting/knowing the Living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the here and now,in the earth and the sky, inside you, in the gathering of fellow believers, seeing that same God bursting forth from the scriptures. You are then quite inoculated against paganism and pantheism as they become vapid. Patrick had that knowing as you can read for yourself in his Confession - https://danlj.org/mkj/patrick/patrick.html
There is, or at least was, a form of this as well in the East, in the vastness of old Russia before central rule strangled it in bureaucratic and autocratic chains. There were bishops and cathedrals in the towns, but in the farther rural areas, the Christian witness was wholly a witness or monks and hermits and saints walking strange pathways to the Lord.
I prefer the witness of ordinary folk living a typical life of work, family, friends, neighbors filled with the joy and power of the Holy Spirit as depicted in 1 Thessalonians 1:3-10, 4:11-12, Acts 13:52.
Saints are extraordinary people, people we can look to as heroes. Without their witness we'd be all the poorer-- just as we would be without Bach and other great composers, or without the works of great scientists and inventors. But I can see the point that most of us do prefer the actual companionship of more ordinary people.
He received as Dr Maurice Bucke described "Cosmic Consciousness" and is called Illumination.
It is a state where the brain connects enough synapsis that it can sense and connect to the "all knowledge" that surrounds us all. It is in actually the highest blessing a human can receive. It is still rare today and those who have received it are looked on as strange. Jesus was one as well as Buddha,Socrates, and in our day Walt Whitman as thousands of others.
I have thoroughly enjoyed Cahill's Hinges of History series, beginning with How the Irish Saved Civilization. Also, thank you for the hymn; suitable for all Believers.
After I read your original post I learnt St. Patrick's breastplate off by heart and often try to say it to myself of a morning. It often speaks to me. Hope to see you at Temenos tomoorow eve.
Get some
So beautiful. My favourite hymn is Christ Be Beside Me. It is such a pity that the Irish, the Island of Saints and Scholars, who carried the faith to all corners of the world have become the Island of International Bureacrats and Global Capitalists. ( honourable exceptions for Orla Guerin and Fergal Keane).
Thanks, Paul, it was inspiring to read, or reread this, this morning, and the prayer is a strong one, for hard times, and we are in hard, dire times right now.
...
Too many people in the cities, and too many people who believe that work in the cities is the only work available, and the work that will enable them to be comfortable, SAFE, prosperous, and this movement to the cities has been going on for too long, now.
I like the idea of the bright side, converting with/by gentleness, even if I am not a particularly gentle person now.
And I wonder about what Patrick saw in the women's slavery, particularly. It brings me back to what Hector saw in the threat that Andromache would be reduced to slavery if he failed to protect her in "The Iliad", and these fears have been with us for a long time.
Why is slavery worse for a woman than for a man, I wonder ? Could it possibly be the idea of being sexually "used" that is behind this ? In our times, even very recently in my observation, women have been told that doing housework, their own housework, is slavery. But if doing your own housework in your own home is slavery, just where, or who exactly IS YOUR MASTER ? (and maybe, why do you HAVE TO HAVE ONE ?)
But since the Christian religion and the Gospels showed us Jesus washing his disciples' feet, we should be wondering just what slavery is, AND WHO IT IS FOR, shouldn't we ?
Can we be civilised in the hills and wild in the cities ? Just what, who, WHERE is a civilised person ?
I like Patrick's story a lot, and maybe he missed that lonely/alone time in the hills with the goats sometimes...Spending a lot of time alone is not something that we are encouraged to do at all...and it gives rise to a lot of suspicion in the social body. These days, you can end up with a diagnosis if you spend a lot of time alone, that's how much we have... progressed.
Excellent this, thank you x
A Roman writer sneered that Christianity was a religion only for slaves, women and little children. He intended this as an insult...
I have become used to a prayer rule recommended by the Orthodox Church, in which I am to be Confirmed this coming Palm Sunday...God willing.
I can't find the words to describe the impact of St Patrick's prayer on me as I read it for the very first time this morning. Out loud. I have added it to my morning reading!
Thank you for introducing me to the life and work of St Patrick. Since I joined the path to Orthodoxy some 18 months ago, my catechism, and now the IOCS course, have led me to the lives of the Saints for the first time in my life. My, now long-past, evangelical Church had no time or truck for the Saints, Mother Mary or our Church Fathers. What sacrilege. What tragedy.
As I now read about the lives and teachings of the Saints I am often left in complete awe and utter humility. So it was again today. Thank you.
Thanks Paul- it is indeed a very precious hymn. I have lots of childhood Catholic memories of the celebration; Paddy's night yearly family dances- with a full live band, going to mass, excitement about the delivery of the boxes of bright green shamrock.Our Bradford, dark, drab, primary school seemed to liven up as we all wore with pride- not really knowing why we were wearing them- the stringy bits of green. Did we really need to know the meaning? We were a part of something bigger than ourselves. We were connected to our community, our clan- that was enough. It sowed the seeds. The meaning of St Patrick's hymn makes sense to me now as a 65 year old. It is all part of the larger circle of experience- each experience builds on each other. I do believe that the building stones of childhood cultural and spiritual sensory situations, help to reconnect to spiritual understanding in later life. I am very grateful for having had this.
the traditional Lorica is a wonderful hymn, but also check out this newer setting by Pärt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir3htl3UlBk
Thank you for putting this link here.
Thanks for that -- did not that Part had done a setting of it. Wonderful.
How do you I take in and appreciate this wild Christianity without straying into the very paganism or at least pantheism St. Patrick preached against? Many people would be quite happy with non-Church/ Ecclesial spiritual experiences; a spiritual life lived outside the church and more New Age than New Testament. I’m genuinely interested because this is the argument I keep meeting. Thank you.
https://incommunion.org/2004/12/11/through-creation-to-the-creator/
Paul has referred to this essay by Kallistos Ware before, so I've taken the liberty of providing the link. It's an excellent place to start with regards to your concerns.
Wild Christianity is meeting/knowing the Living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the here and now,in the earth and the sky, inside you, in the gathering of fellow believers, seeing that same God bursting forth from the scriptures. You are then quite inoculated against paganism and pantheism as they become vapid. Patrick had that knowing as you can read for yourself in his Confession - https://danlj.org/mkj/patrick/patrick.html
There is, or at least was, a form of this as well in the East, in the vastness of old Russia before central rule strangled it in bureaucratic and autocratic chains. There were bishops and cathedrals in the towns, but in the farther rural areas, the Christian witness was wholly a witness or monks and hermits and saints walking strange pathways to the Lord.
I prefer the witness of ordinary folk living a typical life of work, family, friends, neighbors filled with the joy and power of the Holy Spirit as depicted in 1 Thessalonians 1:3-10, 4:11-12, Acts 13:52.
Saints are extraordinary people, people we can look to as heroes. Without their witness we'd be all the poorer-- just as we would be without Bach and other great composers, or without the works of great scientists and inventors. But I can see the point that most of us do prefer the actual companionship of more ordinary people.
Thank you for that link rob
He received as Dr Maurice Bucke described "Cosmic Consciousness" and is called Illumination.
It is a state where the brain connects enough synapsis that it can sense and connect to the "all knowledge" that surrounds us all. It is in actually the highest blessing a human can receive. It is still rare today and those who have received it are looked on as strange. Jesus was one as well as Buddha,Socrates, and in our day Walt Whitman as thousands of others.
I have thoroughly enjoyed Cahill's Hinges of History series, beginning with How the Irish Saved Civilization. Also, thank you for the hymn; suitable for all Believers.
A most excellent post, take a break around every March 17 by reposting it!
Thank you again.
What a beautiful essay. It brought tears to my eyes.
After I read your original post I learnt St. Patrick's breastplate off by heart and often try to say it to myself of a morning. It often speaks to me. Hope to see you at Temenos tomoorow eve.
Personally I would be love to be thrown into the wilderness with a herd of sheep and a couple of sheep dogs for company.