St. Hilda of Whitby
613-November 17, 680
“maintain the gospel peace”
St. Hilda of Whitby’s Resurrection day, was November 17, 680. She died at the age of 66, after serving God with creativity, energy, strength, and courage in spite of a six year debilitating illness. Her final words as Abbess to her nuns and monks were “to maintain the gospel peace among themselves and with others.” Those words still ring true to us almost 1,400 years later.
Hilda was the 7th c. Abbess/founder of double monasteries. This was a Celtic way of monastic living that included monks and nuns in the same monastery in separate small houses, but worshiping together in the abbey church. Hilda is known to us mainly through The Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. There was something so intriguing about Hilda’s devoted life of faith, work, and grace that Bede wrote with unabashed admiration about this Abbess. He also records that Hilda was so loved and respected that everyone who knew her called her “Mother.” Bede himself described her as “Christ’s servant” and that many came to salvation through hearing of her industry and goodness. He also wrote of her emphasis on learning and literacy, scholarly study of the Bible, good works, holding all things in common, and living with one another in peace and love. Five Bishops of early England were trained under her tutelage.
Hilda was born into the royal Deiran household, the great-niece of King Edwin of Northumbria and the daughter of Hereric and his wife Breguswith. Bede includes a story in which Breguswith while pregnant with Hilda, dreamed that she discovered a precious jewel under her garment. When she gazed at the jewel it flashed a blaze of light that illuminated all Britain with its splendor. Breguswith sensed that this was a prophetic dream about her daughter Hilda who would bring light to the isle of Britain.
Hilda was baptized at age 14 alongside King Edwin and his extended family by St. Paulinus in the especially built wooden York Minster on Easter Sunday, April 12 in 627. Almost twenty years later, she was in East Anglia for a year preparing to travel by ship to France to join her sister, the former Queen Hereswith of East Anglia who was living in a convent east of Paris. However, when St. Aidan, the first Bishop of Lindisfarne heard of this, he pleaded with her to stay in England to establish a small monastery north of the River Wear. This was quite likely where St. Hilda’s Church, South Shields is located now.
After Aidan saw her great ability to administer and spiritually lead a small monastery, a year later, about 649, he persuaded her to become the second Abbess of the monastery at Hartlepool. Eight years later, King Oswiu gave Hilda about 1,200 acres of land called Streanaesalch, later known as Whitby. He wished for her to build a double monastery there and to raise his infant daughter, princess Æfflæd. The famous Synod of Whitby that dramatically reshaped the Celtic way of life was held here in 664.
Hilda was a supporter of the arts, music, and learning. Bede records that Caedmon, a cow herder on her monastic lands who had some ways with words and music was brought to her to hear. Hilda recognized his gift from God and encouraged him to stay at the monastery to learn the Bible stories and to create them into poetry and song. She perceived that teaching the Bible in the vernacular instead of Latin would help bring the people of the area to Christ. Through this encounter with Hilda, Cædmon became the first English poet.
On the night of Hilda’s death and resurrection, something rather mystical occurred. It was one of those Celtic thin places where the veil between heaven and earth seems almost gossamer. Begu, a nun at Hilda’s most recently established convent of Hackness, saw a vision of the roof opened and Hilda’s soul carried to heaven by angels. Begu told the Prioress of her vision and they all began to pray. It is even said that the bells at Hackness rang on their own at her death. While these nuns were in prayer, the monks from Whitby rushed over to Hackness to inform them of Hilda’s death. The monks discovered that the nuns were already aware of her death because of Begu’s vision. Hilda was most likely buried at Whitby and her relics later taken to Glastonbury to protect them from the 9th c. Viking raids on Whitby.
Hilda’s legacy lives on through hundreds of schools, colleges, priories, and churches throughout the world bearing her name. At Lindisfarne, the “Community of Aidan and Hilda,” a dispersed international ecumenical community of men and women, has their office and a retreat center. In June of 2015, the 43 mile “St. Hilda’s Way” in Northeast England that extends from Hinderwell in Yorkshire to Whitby Abbey was opened. This pilgrimage path visits eight churches and chapels all dedicated to St. Hilda.
Thank you God for St. Hilda and her courageous good work of establishing beacons of learning, literacy, and light, bringing new life in Christ to the Anglo-Saxons. May we hear and allow those last words of St. Hilda to penetrate our lives and our souls so that we too may “maintain the gospel peace among ourselves and with others.”
Further information on St. Hilda of Whitby and other Celtic and Anglo-Saxon saints can be found at www.saintsbridge.org.
Photo above: By Carolyn Custis James – https://carolyncustisjames.com/2012/11/19/happy-st-hildas-day/, Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64601882
Andy Wade –
Confession time: I’m not much of a planner. I know how to plan and can do it quite effectively when it comes to my work, but daily living? I’d rather fly by the seat of my pants. If that sounds exciting, well, for an introvert, it usually just means hanging around the house and puttering in the garden.
That’s why what I’m about to say may come as a shock to those who know me best. One of the best ways to simplify Advent and Christmas is to plan ahead. Even as I write those words I can feel my body tense up. For me this idea is completely counter-intuitive. Let’s relax and just play the holidays by ear, is my inclination.
I’ve learned over the years that “playing it by ear” over the holidays doesn’t work so well. With all the parties, events, expectations, and obligations, this approach ends up leading to more stress. Planning ahead sets limits I can be comfortable with. Yes, I’ll have to negotiate those limits with my much more outgoing spouse, but together we can find balance.
What are your favorite Advent and Christmas events? How can you plan ahead to make sure they are simple and low-stress?
Do you like cookies around the house during the holidays? When our children were younger we celebrated St. Nicholas’ Day (Dec. 6). We would bake several different kinds of cookies ahead of time and wake up to a “taste of Christmas” on St. Nicholas’ Day: candles filling the table and room, St. Nicholas’ stockings, and plates filled with one or two or each kind of cookie.
I remember also the stress of needing to get cookies made because the day had snuck up on us and we were unprepared. Some years we prepared well, other years not so much. But what if we shared this idea with friends, got together for an evening of games, and talked about our favorite Christmas cookies. We could then each plan on making an extra-large batch of our favorite cookie and come back together in a week for a cookie exchange. Presto! I baked one or two kinds of cookies and ended up with a wide variety of my friends’ favorites! Planning ahead just became fun and simplified my life without sacrificing tradition.
Do you give presents at Christmas? Are there ways you can cut out or cut down the shopping and opt for home-made gifts?
The past few years I’ve created a photo calendar for my family. With online tools it’s both easy and affordable. But I’ve also tended to wait until the last minute. I’ve made calendars for my wife’s side of the family and for my side. Each calendar is personalized for the family with birthdays, anniversaries, and other important dates.
Planning ahead actually makes this a fun experience with time to reflect and pray for each family member as I collect the dates and enter them onto the calendar. Failing to plan ahead results in stress or just abandoning the project and settling for store-bought presents.
Do you like to host parties? How might you collaborate to turn planning and prep into a time of celebration with friends?
My parents love to host parties. For many years they partnered with close friends to host a New Year’s Eve party. One year at my parents’ home, the next at the Cromptons’. They planned together and hosted together, which made the event much easier and more fun. Too often we think that if a party is at our house then we need to do all the work. That’s simply not true!
Find some friends, share the load and enjoy the laughs. Simplifying Advent and Christmas can be fun!
by Talitha Fraser all rights reserved
This is a time of year when everyone feels a lot of pressure – things to finish off before the end of the year, things to do, people to see, family visiting or visiting family. There can often be a disconnect between the things I think and feel and the things I think I’m supposed to think and feel at this time of year…
Baking or any other craft at this time of year can be a gift in more ways than one. There is something soothing to be found in following basic instructions, getting your hands dirty, feeling like you are making something –with tangible evidence of results from your work.
It’s tempting to want to retreat from everything – get away from the commercialization and the crowds, and family responsibilities – then my Christmas could be “holy”. But then I’m also running away from the lesson of Incarnation, the enfleshing of God —the lesson that we who are followers of Jesus don’t run from the secular stuff; but rather we try to transform it.
“There is no evidence of any kind regarding the date of Jesus’ birth. His nativity began to be celebrated on Dec. 25 in Rome during the early part of the fourth century (AD 336) as a Christian counterpart to the pagan festival, popular among the worshipers of Mithras, called Sol Invictis, the Unconquerable Sun. At the very moment when the days are the shortest and darkness seems to have conquered light, the sun passes its nadir. Days grow longer, and although the cold will only increase for quite a long time, the ultimate conquest of winter is sure. This astronomical process is a parable of the career of the Incarnate One. At the moment when history is blackest, and in the least expected and obvious place, the Son of God is born…”
The Whisper of Christmas by Joe E. Pennel, Jr., 1984, p. 61
Bake or make something, there are some suggestions below, and you might like to invite others to share in it with you. Take something in your hands, be present, and find something sustaining in something simple and homemade – what is evoked by these smells of ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, chocolate…
Take a moment to sit in silence, however you feel comfortable, and just “be”. Slow your breathing… let everything that’s in your head, everything going on, rise up and then let it go… I invite you to be open to the advent of God.
Try to recapture and be present to some of the wonder, mystery, and believing in fragile miracles that can make this time of year meaning-full and transforming for us as followers of Christ and believers in hope and love born out of darkness.
Ulihelisdi, Bienvenidos, Wominjeka, Haere mai, … Welcome our God of wonder…
Some making and baking suggestions:
Cinnamon Christmas decorations
This post is part of our November focus on Preparing for Advent and Christmas.
by Cynthia Helton —
Resting in Chaos, the theme from last week, is meant to help us all focus on better preparing ourselves for the celebration of the coming of Christ – rather than becoming bogged down in the minutia of the usual materialistic, consumer-driven hype the holidays have become.
But unfortunately, that net has widened over the last week to push chaos to an all new level, incorporating the dismay, the disillusionment, the distress of our political climate here in the U.S. to a level that far surpasses the normal angst of the season.
Dark days (and nights) of the soul on display for all the world to see. So much so that the hustle and bustle of holiday mania quite literally be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Perhaps we all need a ledge to stand on; we need to get our perspective back. Perhaps we need this “wilderness” – just as Jesus did – to bring into focus the opportunity for transformation that is germinating in these shadows.
Perhaps resting in chaos doesn’t necessarily mean getting “rid” of chaos; but rather being still long enough to absorb the fact that what happens to one of us happens to all of us in some way, shape or fashion.
I’ve often wondered, did the “human” Jesus completely understand what was happening within him after his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist? Did he have an inkling that something was about to happen – to him and because of him? Did he wonder if his path was due to his own understanding ….or did he always know he was God?
Some may totally disagree with me, and since I’m certainly no scholar or trained clergy, my thoughts are my own; but it gives me a modicum of comfort to think Jesus was “fully” human, and perhaps his own divinity was revealed to him slowly, over the course of his life. Like with the rest of us.
I read recently that “Christ” wasn’t Jesus’ last name! Christ came after the resurrection. The Jesus we first meet as the innocent child gave up his outward divinity in order to show us our own “inward” divinity. Jesus was preparing – consciously or unconsciously – to welcome the Christ he would be for all eternity.
So what am I getting at? I’m suggesting that this chaos we’re finding ourselves in …be it personal, financial, political, or all of the above …can be our “gift.” Rather than trying to deny it exists, deny we’re possibly a “holy mess,” let us use this unsettling time to our advantage.
Like Jesus in the wilderness, let us see our demons for what they are: our fears …feeling disconnected from God …searching for what we think we’ve lost. Let us use this time to reflect on the fact that the incarnate Christ really comes to us over-and-over again, like the ebb and flow of our lives …a continual Advent. Actually that makes me feel hopeful.
When Christmas day comes and we celebrate the birth of human Jesus who is the Christ, we get a glimpse of what love looks like. The outpouring of the Divine is incarnate in our midst. We are filled personally, and that spills out into the world. I think trying to hold on to that feeling – for everything to be perfect – is what happens to many of us. It’s how we get caught up in this seasonal “frenzy” that consumes us, leaving us depressed and exhausted.
Is it possible that we can look at this chaos in a different way – choosing to see a blessing it can hold if we call it by its right name? Maybe cleansing; or polishing. Or how about tilling the soil; or pruning. All of these words connote more than work, and effort, and frustration – like wandering in the desert …but look at our treasure in store for us when we “exhale.”
In a couple of weeks my husband and I will head to Australia to spend Christmas with my family. For the first time for many years I am not buying Advent wreaths or Christmas trees. And I am not making an Advent garden, the Australian agricultural department would confiscate it on sight. Spending Advent and Christmas on the move has made me rethink my practices for the season.
Keep it simple, make it meaningful, stick to it, the mantra that has seen me through many transitions in my spiritual practices is once more guiding my creativity. Here are the steps I used to help me focus. Let me know if you find them helpful in shaping your own practices for the season.
Dream Possibilities
I started last week by setting aside time to reflect, imagine and create what I thought would be most helpful for me during this season.
I closed my eyes and imagined what the next few weeks could look like and thought about what I would like God to accomplish in my life during the weeks ahead. I thought of the places I would stay and imagined where I could practice my spiritual exercises. I wondered about how I would carve out time in the midst of the desire to spend every moment with friends and family.
Going through this exercise before I stepped in the busyness of the upcoming weeks helped me prioritize my desires and put my faith back at the centre of my time away. The stores are already focused on getting us ready for Christmas, our faith practices should be doing the same.
Choose themes for the weeks ahead.
Out of my times of prayer and reflection I wrote down the thoughts that came to mind. I chatted to friends and advisors about the upcoming season and wrote down the new thoughts that emerged. I sat with them for a while and allowed those that spoke to my heart to emerge. Out of this I chose themes for the upcoming weeks – Seek God; Breathe deeply; Rest Quietly; Share joy; Love others; Let God find you; Create a sacred path for others to follow.
Then I went on line to find artistic fonts to print out my themes. I chose a different font for each theme. This in itself was a fun exercise.How would I use them? Did I just want fonts that looked interesting? Did I want to be able to colour them? Did I want to be able to craft them myself as this article on Creative lettering for Art Journalling spells out? This process too helped shaped what I planned to do over the upcoming months and enabled me to develop more structure for the time ahead.
Select a Medium for Recording Your Journey.
My questioning above made me realize that I needed a special journal for the season, one that was not too large that I could both write and colour in without the gel pens bleeding through to the next page. I wanted a loose leaf journal, but could not find one smaller than 8×11 so I chose a nice leather covered journal with parchment paper. I added a special pen that is made from the teak deck boards of the Anastasis where I spent 12 years of my life, printed out my themes on pieces of paper as well as some of my prayers and appropriate scriptures, pulled out a supply of gel pens (probably to be pruned down before I travel) and thought that I was ready to start.
At first I planned to distribute my theme pages evenly throughout the journal and glue them in, but then I realized that it would be easier to colour these pages before I pasted them in. I also realized that this gave me much more flexibility. Some themes might take more than a week to reflect on. I did not want to hurry God through the season. Perhaps this will see me not just through Christmas but into the new year as well.
Develop a Process.
When I got all my bits and pieces together I was so excited that I wanted to start immediately. I sat down to start but my mind went blank. I got distracted by a work project I had left on my desk and soon realized I needed a well thought out process to focus my practice and discipline my actions. I am still working on the details but thought you would like to know what I have come up with so far.
- Sit quietly in my chosen space taking deep breaths in and out for a couple of minutes.
- Recite one of my centering or breathing prayers.
- Add some colour to the words of my chosen theme and allow their meaning to seep into my soul. As I worked on this a couple of days ago I smudged my colouring. My immediate response was to start over, then I realized that the smudge too was part of the pattern God wanted me to learn from. I smudged it because I tried to colour too much too quickly, obviously getting ahead of what God wanted to do that day. As I thought about this I was reminded of the Japanese art of kintsugi in which the artist takes a broken piece of pottery and mends it with gold lacquer. The repair is highlighted and adds to the beauty, just as God is able to use the mistakes and broken places in our lives to increase the beauty of who we become.
- Read through the prayer/poem that anchors me in my theme. For my first week, I have written this prayer into my journal and go over it every morning, not just reading it but tracing out the letters with a different coloured pen each day.
- Reflect on words, scripture or images that come to mind. There are several ways to do this depending on what I sense God is saying. I love variety and so having these options allows me to flow wherever the Spirit wants to take me.
- I have plenty of space to write down the thoughts that come to me and am writing these in colour, highlighting special words, open to what God is saying. It has already revealed much to me as I begin this journey. It is making me more attentive to listen to what is happening in me, around me and in my relationship to God.
- I have printed out a couple of scriptures on my theme Seek God – Acts 17:26-30 and Luke 12:28-34 from The Voice. These too can provide a focus for my reflections.
- I am beginning to experiment with some artistic designs. This is a little scary for me. It makes me feel very vulnerable for some reason, more vulnerable than when I paint on rocks and add them to my meditation gardens, but I realize that God has called me to both step outside the boxes of the traditional and also be willing to be vulnerable.
Create Your On Path
What do you plan to use as spiritual practices for the seasons of Advent and Christmas? My plan of action is not shared for you to follow. It is shared to stir your creativity to imagine the unique and special pathway God wants you to follow through the upcoming season.
God has gifted all of us with creativity and imagination that needs to be stirred and developed so that our practices strengthen rather than weaken our faith. We are all formed from God’s creative act to be co-creators in this God infused world we live in. Take some time, take back your life and make Christ the focus of all you do over the coming months.
Today’s post is a repost from last year in memory of Leonard Cohen who died a couple of days ago. His song “Anthem” which I link to at the bottom of the post was the inspiration for this reflection. His prophetic voice and challenging words are very appropriate for our world today. He reminds us that there is indeed a crack in everything but this is not a reason for despair but rather for hope because this is indeed how the light gets in.
In Eager to Love, Richard Rohr comments that St Francis of Assisi asked us to stay close to the cracks in the social fabric of our world. It is a thought worth reflecting on.
Everything in our lives and in our world has cracks, wounds and broken places that tell of pain and suffering. Sometimes we try to cover them over, attempting to seal them off from the light. But this only makes them fester and get worse.
Yet it is in the cracks, the broken places of our lives, where violence flares and pain cries out that healing also happens. When we acknowledge imperfections and the pain they cause, we take the first step towards wholeness. It is into the cracks that light can shine and water can seep. It is in the cracks in the concrete that seeds can lodge, germinate and take root. And as green shoots reach for the sky, the crack enlarges, the concrete crumbles and what was meant to live and breathe thrives once more.
What is your response?
Sit quietly in the presence of God, allowing the love of the holy and ever present One to wash over you. Read through the prayer above several times. What cracks in your world, what places of woundedness and vulnerability that give you ongoing pain come to mind? In what ways have you tried to cover these over, perhaps with a facade of laughter or with a semblance of respectability? Are there ways you respond, perhaps with fear, or anger or intolerance that show these are festering? Perhaps there are things you need to confess or seek forgiveness for. Offer these up to God in prayer.
Now think of the light that has shone into those cracks. Where have you seen glimmers of God’s wholeness? What has it begun to give life to? Are you aware of green shoots emerging towards the sun? How could you nurture their growth and make help them to thrive?
At our local mall recently I noticed that what was once a solid concrete slab of parking slots has now been transformed. Deliberate “cracks” have been added between the rows of cars – small gardens that channel the water into the topsoil and down into the water table are thriving. The rain no longer creates a flood of water that overflows the drains and clogs the waterways.
Sometimes when we stay close to the cracks we realize that they need to be nurtured and strengthened to rebuild the fabric of our lives and our society. And as we nurture these it is not only the surface life that thrives but it is the deep wellsprings of the water table that flourishes too.
What is your response?
Read through the prayer above again. What slabs of pavement are you aware of in your life and society that need to be broken up with gardens? Is there something the spirit of God is prompting you to do that could help accomplish this?
Now listen to the song below and allow the spirit of God to stir your imagination. Is there another response God is asking of you?
Andy Wade —
Resting in chaos is never easy. Chaos either pushes me into action or drives me into isolation. What I should do is turn my face toward God. Our source of rest is God. Our source of peace is Jesus. Our inspiration to action springs from returning to our source and getting our heads in a right place so that any action is the action of God flowing though those grounded in God’s desire for the world.
Chaos is a curve ball, changing direction as it approaches and throwing me off balance. I can swing wildly at that ball, and miss, I can tense up, freeze, and let it whiz by me, or I can focus my gaze on Christ, keep my eyes on the ball, and be prepared to act accordingly.
We all respond differently to chaos. The first step in finding rest and a sense of peace is to know ourselves.
- How do I typically respond when life gets hectic?
- How do I react when all of my plans seem to fall apart?
- What emotions seep to the surface when I feel out of control?
Knowing ourselves makes it easier to begin to enter that place of rest.
“I’m feeling anxious and angry! That’s often a symptom of fear because I’m out of control.”
Simply being able to recognize and verbalize this reality returns a sense of control to my life. Now that I recognize what’s going on I can remember, “Oh, what really helps me when this happens is to __________.” (you fill in the blank).
In a post from several years ago Christine Sine quoted this re-write of Habakkuk 1 & 3 from Dave Timmer. Dave is the Project Director for A Rocha in Northwest Washington. This is a beautiful example of one thing you might try – rewrite a portion of scripture to speak personally into the situation you’re facing.
Habakkuk Revisited:
An advent rewrite inspired by Habakkuk 1 and 3.
Habakkuk’s Complaint
How long O Lord, must we call for help, but you do not listen?
Or see the violence! But you do not save?
Why do you make me witness injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongs?
Destruction and violence cover the earth;
there is strife and conflict abounds.
Therefore Love is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The Lord’s Answer
Look at the creation and watch –
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe.
I am raising up believers,
who are caring and thoughtful people,
who sweep across the whole earth
to give of themselves for others.
They are a delightful and respected people;
they share their knowledge
in a bountiful manner.
Their churches plunge headlong
their people dig in where they are.
They soar like an eagle uplifting the lowly;
they come bent on Peace.
Their people are like a forest breeze
freeing the oppressed like wind.
They find the lost
and push forth the last.
They laugh in their cities
building lasting friendships and enjoying them.
Then they bless their communities
and hold fast –
beautiful people, whose God is their strength.
Habakkuk’s Prayer
Lord I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your creation, O Lord.
Renew it in our day,
in our time restore your handiwork;
in grace and mercy.
Christ the Lord incarnated amongst us
the Son came down from Heaven.
His glory covered the heavens
and his praise filled the earth.
His splendor was like a sunrise;
rays flashed from his hands
from which his love was made apparent.
Mercy went before him;
justice followed in his footsteps.
He stood and took our pain;
he lives and makes us humble.
His Kingdom is eternal.
Will your rivers run free, O Lord?
Will your streams flow uncontaminated?
Will you refill the oceans with creatures
as Peace spreads through creation
and your Kingdom is fulfilled.
You will pour out your compassion
and call for justice.
You will supply dry earth with water;
the mountains with ancient forests
and springs of water will nourish our crops.
Chaos will be pushed away
and its destruction will cease.
Sun and moon will not be obscured by pollution
as your kingdom unfurls
as your redemption continues.
In peace you will stroll through the earth
and in grace you will sustain your creation.
You came down to deliver your people,
to save your creation.
You’ve reclaimed the leaders of destruction
and brought down the powerful.
With their own greed you brought them down
when their arrogance attempted to scatter us.
You scattered the agents of confusion
bringing understanding upon the earth.
I hear this and my heart pounds
my lips quiver in anxiety;
My bones ache with anticipation
but my legs are slowed with time.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of Shalom
to come upon the earth.
Though the church is ignorant
and its people are content,
though the widow is not looked after
and the orphan finds no shelter.
Though our society poisons creation
and our culture encourages destruction,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in Christ my Savior.
The Lord Almighty is my strength;
he gives me confidence in his ways.
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