by Christine Sine
I am in the mood for reflecting on the photos I took over the last through weeks. It is a wonderfully reflective and inspiring practice
I took this photo of the sun shining through the clouds from our prayer tower a couple of weeks ago. At first I was really frustrated because I could not get a clear view of it without the interfering cable, telephone and other wires that got in the way. I tried to zoom in but the image became fuzzy and unfocused. I thought of walking to a place where the wires no longer got in the way but I knew that by then the sun would have set.
I thought about doctoring the image on photoshop to get rid of the wires, but that seemed like cheating. These wires represent the infrastructure of our society. They carry electricity, and internet. They give us light and connectivity. They are as much a part of our landscape as the sun and the clouds are. They are there, and they are there to stay.
As I reflected on this I wondered: How often is my view of the sun obstructed by the framework of our society? How often is my view of God obscured by the wires – social media, shopping and other distractions as well as the work I give my time to?
Yes I know the clouds obscure the sun too, but, at least on the day I took the photos, the sun still shone through. The clouds added to the beauty of the sky, they did not detract from it. The wires, on the other hand, seemed ugly and out of place.
It is only when I pause to gaze on the beauty of God and God’s world that I also become aware of the ugly wires in my life that obscure my image of God. At other times they don’t even register on my consciousness.
This morning as I sit here reflecting on this I would like you to reflect on two questions with me:
What else obstructs my view of God because I don’t take the time to gaze beyond it to the beauty of God?
Where has my image of God become unfocused because I tried to ignore these obstructions?
What could I do to change this?
by Catherine Knights and David Pott
Sunday May 14th is Rogation Sunday. Sixty years ago if you asked people what Rogation Sunday was, many people here in the UK would be able to give an answer, but nowadays few people know about. The origins of Rogationtide are very interesting…
Right back in the 5th century, during the time of Bishop Mamertus of Vienne in Gaul, Vienne suffered a series of natural disasters: there was an earthquake, a fire burned down the town hall, and wild deer made an incursion into the town. In response to these disasters, St. Mamertus ordered the faithful of Vienne to make three successive processions on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before the feast of the Ascension, in which they were to say sorry for their sins and to ask God for deliverance from their troubles. As they processed, they sang psalms and responses and stopped to pray at various points on their route. And these particular processions became renowned in the Church of the time because of two things: they were highly effective (the natural disasters ceased) and the people of Vienne took them seriously – unlike previous attempts at prayer walking that had been luke-warm, half-hearted supplications for rain or fair weather.
Of course, most people in most years over the centuries that followed didn’t suffer the especially frightening disasters first experienced by the people of Vienne, so they did not feel an urgent need to ask God specifically for an end to earthquakes or beast-incursions. But still, the majority of folk before our modern, industrial era, were well aware of the deadly power of nature and their dependence upon successful harvests, good weather and a balanced amount of rain. So, as time passed, the Rogationtide tradition of saying sorry to God for sin, in order to avert natural disasters and to bring in good harvests, took hold. Indeed, it became a valuable reminder to the faithful of man’s extreme smallness and vulnerability before the powers of nature, not letting them forget that their very lives depended upon God’s forbearance and generosity in doing good. On the Rogation Days, the faithful acknowledged the truth that God is a just judge who holds all of us (and our fruitfulness) in the palm of his hand.
One particularly valuable aspect of Rogationtide processions, right from the beginning, (and it’s the same of all religious processions) was their communal ethos. In them, the faithful moved together as one body, and thus identified themselves, in a very public and conspicuous way, as members of the Christian community. As the community sought to avert God’s anger by its prayers, the faithful gained a powerful sense that they were engaged in an urgent, unified work for the common good. And the visible, purposeful movement of the processing faithful helped to give each individual the courage to acknowledge his own sins – something that’s often easier to do when you’re not doing it on your own.
Over the course of history, the way people practiced Rogationtide changed. Rogation Sundays were associated with “beating the pounds” which meant walking and praying around parish boundaries. Rather than the three days before Ascension, walks started to take place on the Sunday before Ascension Day.
Of course, western cultures of the 1960s, in the light of scientific developments, may have imagined that their heirs would gain ever greater control over nature, and so would have little motivation to pray to God for the aversion of natural disasters. Perhaps that is why churches tended to stop the practice. But we now know that this vision has not come true. Our recent experience of Covid and our knowledge of natural disasters in every corner of the world has taught us that life remains very fragile. Plagues still kill; hurricanes lay waste; droughts parch the land; storms imperil sailors; torrents destroy crops; Covid causes lockdowns. Rogationtide taught the faithful that it is always right, in times good and bad, to turn to God in humble prayer, not only for spiritual graces but also to ask for nature to be kind. The thing is that we are sinners who deserve nothing of God – yet he, who governs all things, is ever merciful.
At Rogationtide, it’s so important for the faithful to be mindful of both the justice and the mercy of God; to remember that Christ is both our judge and our Saviour. Rightly, the Church never talks of the judgement of God without also mentioning His mercy – but it’s also all too easy to marginalise the judgement of God to the point that we forget that we’ve committed real offences and that God’s mercy is not automatic: we do at least need to ask for it, and with some sense of sorrow for what we’ve done wrong. Rogationtide reminds us of this basic truth.
…………………………………..
We live in the town of Bishop Auckland in North East England and we are reviving this excellent practice to bear witness to God together in praise, to acknowledge the ways in which we have let Him down here in Bishop Auckland and to ask for His mercy for our town. This is how we plan to do it…
It’s about 12 miles to walk around Bishop Auckland and the adjacent West Auckland. We are going to meet together at a car park by the River Wear on the north side of town and then split into two groups. Catherine will lead a group clockwise to the east and David will lead the other group anti-clockwise to the west. Both groups will be circulating round and praying at significant sites before we meet about 3 hours later at a farm shop on the south side of the town.
Map
Untitled
Newton Cap viaduct – a site of many suicides where we will pause to pray
We will be praying in different ways including using some walking prayers including this Irish prayer which is good for health and safety before we set off! –
May God make safe for us each step
May God make us one on our journey
May God make clear the path ahead
And may He take us in the clasp of his own two hands.
We will be saying the first and last few verses of Psalm 136, but have then inserted verses which are locally relevant in this way:
Who made the Rivers Wear and Gaunless to flow through this area;
for his love endures for ever;
Who caused King Canute to give Auckland – additional land – here to the Bishop of Durham;
for his love endures for ever.
Who led the Bishops of Durham to establish a residence here;
for his love endures for ever;
Who brought the Canons from Durham here to establish St Andrew’s Church
for his love endures for ever;
Who led this town of Bishop Auckland to grow up around the Castle and the Church
for his love endures for ever;
Who protected Auckland Castle during the Commonwealth and enabled it to become the Bishop of Durham’s residence again at the Restoration;
for his love endures for ever;
It is he who enabled the railways to be developed in the nineteenth century;
for his love endures for ever;
And then allowed the mining of coal to flourish;
for his love endures for ever.
Who has brought new life to this town through the Auckland Project and other initiatives;
for his love endures for ever.
Who has brought us here to be his people in this town;
for his love endures for ever.
NB Here are two sources we have used for some of the above information:
https://adoremus.org/2022/04/be-careful-what-you-dont-ask-for-why-the-rogation-days-still-matter/
by Christine Sine
Tuesday (May 16th) is St Brendan’s feast day and as he is one of my favourite Celtic saints (maybe because I lived on a ship for so many years) I wanted to repost this.
Brendan’s voyage via http://www.puzzlewarehouse.com/St-Brendan-the-Navigator-pur357.html
The Prayer of St. Brendan
Listen too to this rendition of St Brendan’s Voyage
Here are the lyrics:
St. Brendan’s Voyage
Christy Moore
A boat sailed out of Brandon in the year of 501
’twas a damp and dirty mornin’ Brendan’s voyage it began.
Tired of thinnin’ turnips and cuttin’ curley kale
When he got back from the creamery he hoisted up the sail.
He ploughed a lonely furrow to the north, south, east and west
Of all the navigators, St. Brendan was the best.
When he ran out of candles he was forced to make a stop,
He tied up in Long Island and put America on the map.
Did you know that Honolulu was found by a Kerryman,
Who went on to find Australia then China and Japan.
When he was touchin’ 70, he began to miss the crack,
Turnin’ to his albatross he sez “I’m headin’ back”.
To make it fast he bent the mast and built up mighty steam.
Around Terra del Fuego and up the warm Gulf Stream,
He crossed the last horizon, Mt. Brandon came in sight
And when he cleared the customs into Dingle for the night.
When he got the Cordon Bleu he went to douse the drought,
He headed west to Kruger’s* to murder pints of stout
Around by Ballyferriter and up the Conor Pass
He freewheeled into Brandon, the saint was home at last.
The entire population came (281) the place was chock-a-block
Love nor money wouldn’t get your nose inside the shop.
The fishermen hauled up their nets, the farmers left their hay,
Kerry people know that saints don’t turn up every day.
Everythin’ was goin’ great ’til Brendan did announce
His reason for returnin’ was to try and set up house.
The girls were flabbergasted at St. Bredan’s neck
To seek a wife so late in life and him a total wreck.
Worn down by rejection that pierced his humble pride,
“Begod”, sez Brendan “If I run I’ll surely catch the tide”
Turnin’ on his sandals he made straight for the docks
And haulin’ up his anchor he cast off from the rocks.
As he sailed past Inishvickallaun there stood the albatross
“I knew you’d never stick it out, ’tis great to see you boss”
“I’m bailin’ out” sez Brendan, “I badly need a break
A fortnight is about as much as any aul saint could take.”
CHORUS
“Is it right or left for Gibraltar”
“What tack do I take for Mizen Head?”
“I’d love to settle down near Ventry Harbour”,
St. Brendan to his albatross he said.
And a beautiful animated version of Brendan’s voyage as related by children
If you are interested in the craft these intrepid explorers travelled in read this article
NOTE: you might also like to check out the following posts about St Brendan
St Brendan the Navigator by Brenda Griffin Warren
Pilgrimage and St Brendan by Derek Olsen
Looking for hospitality inspiration? We have an entire resource page dedicated to hospitality. Find recipes and reflections on numerous hospitality topics, including Celtic hospitality, prayers, and liturgies. Click on Hospitality for more!
The Door is still Open
Propped Open
Cross the threshold into a thinplace
Into Peace
and Rest
and Joy.
Into Wonder
Into Beauty
Into Creation and Creativity
The Door is Open!
Propped Open!
Are you Ready to go through it?
Are you Willing?
It just takes One Step at a Time!
Walk forward and Believe
Walk forward and Receive…
.All that the Thinplace has to show you!
All that the Thinplace has to offer.
Leave your mat!
Rise and Walk.
Written on Iona in Oran’s Chapel May 2023 ©Lilly Lewin
We all have thinplaces in our lives. Places where we have experienced the presence of God, the presence of the Holy. Like the mountains or the ocean or watching a beautiful sunrise or sunset. I believe we also have thinplaces in our regular lives. Things we do, or love that help us to experience the presence of God. We all need to allow ourselves, to give ourselves permission, to do more of those thinplace things! You might experience thinplace while working in the garden or baking bread. For some people it’s through music, playing it or singing it. For others, their thinplace it outdoors, running, hiking, even surfing! it might be in your creating something or in writing
Where do you feel God’s pleasure and God’s presence? That’s your thinplace!
Take some time to consider the places you’ve experienced God’s presence in the past and take time to be be grateful and thank Jesus for these experiences and places.
Take some time to consider what your regular life thinplaces might be….How can you experience more of the thinplace in the days, months ahead?
What would it take to put aside your fears and walk through the doorway, across the threshold into a new thinplace with Jesus in the months ahead? Ask Him to show you!
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
If you might be interested in Finding Your Thinplace , JOIN US FINDING YOUR THINPLACE Pilgrimage August 28-Sept.4th this summer. We are looking for a few more pilgrims to join us to discover the beauty and wonder of Iona! Find out more HERE!
by Christine Sine
I am back into doing daily awe and wonder walks, and it is wonderful. The delight of absorbing the beauty of spring and the joy of inhaling the fragrance of flowering trees is intoxicating. For the last couple of years I restricted my walks because of its impact on my asthma. Now I feel I have a new lease of life.
Last week I walked around Greenlake for the first time for months and drank in the beauty and the tranquility of the early morning scene. I often think that it must have been scenes like this that inspired my Celtic forebears to write poetry. It often has that impact on me, though I must confess I kind of cheat. I took a number of photos because I know that for me, these photos are a wonderful stimulus to meditation as they draw me back into the landscape that inspired my awe and wonder. Since then I have been mesmerized by this photo that I took during my walk and it inspired the prayer below.
Today I sat in silence for a few minutes reliving that scene and once more drinking in the beauty. I hope you too will pause in your day to absorb the beauty of God’s world around you and enter the serenity and peace that it beckons us into.
Still waters,
Reflections in the lake,
Serenity catches me by surprise.
I makes me pause,
And hold my breath,
When I catch glimpses,
Of this surpassing beauty.
A never to be forgotten moment.
An image imprinted on my mind.
God’s glory held in the stillness ,
Of a lake.
(c) Christine Sine 2023
by Shiao Chong
Mother’s Day makes me think about God’s maternal side. Christianity has been guilty of a patriarchal history that has been oppressive of women. Our conception of God as masculine, e.g. God as Father or King, certainly contributes to our slide into patriarchy. Although written in patriarchal contexts, the Bible itself does not refer to God exclusively in masculine metaphors. There are, albeit few, feminine metaphors used to describe God in the Bible. In this post, I want to highlight the maternal or motherly metaphors used.
God as Mother Bird & Mother Bear
One of the common images is God as a mother bird sheltering her children under her wings. We see this in Ruth 2:12 – “May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” (All references are from Today’s New International Version.) The Psalms used this imagery a number of times:
“Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” (Psa. 17:8)
“… I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.” (Psa. 57:1)
“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge …” (Psa. 91:4)
Jesus picks up these images when he laments over Jerusalem:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” (Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34)
These images paint God as a protecting and sheltering God for his people. But a variation of this image paints a God who also pushes his children to be independent and to grow stronger. Mother eagles are known to teach their young ones to fly by deliberately pushing them out of its nest but catching them before they plunge to their doom: “[God] guarded [Jacob] as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft.” (Deuteronomy 32:10-11)
Before we claim that the Bible only reinforces stereotypes of motherly warmth and care with these images of God, check out Hosea 13:8 – “Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open,” says the Lord. Here, we see that the maternal instinct to protect the children can produce wrath as much as warmth. Beware the fury of a mother! No sentimental mother-image here.
God as Human Mother
Of all the prophets, Isaiah seems to be the fondest in painting God as an actual human mother as these three verses attest:
“For a long time I [God] have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant.” (Isa. 42:14)
“As a mother comforts her child, so will I [God] comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.” (Isa. 66:13)
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I [God] will not forget you!” (Isa. 49:15)
That last verse is one of my favourite verses for use in the assurance of forgiveness in a worship service. I like it for its compassionate and faithful portrayal of God but also because it is one of the few feminine images of God that I can use in a service. It reminds the congregation that God is beyond gender; the gender pronouns are simply metaphors to help us understand God who is always beyond our full understanding. As theologian Lynn Japinga wrote, “Language about God should help us to understand and encounter God, but we should not confuse the reality of God with the limits of our language.” (Feminism and Christianity: An Essential Guide, Abingdon: 1999, p. 64)
I know there are many conservative Christians who are uneasy with using feminine images for God. But using female metaphors for God is not a radical feminist innovation as the biblical passages above show. It is also part of early Christian history. Here, I refer again to Japinga:
In the second century, Clement of Alexandria mixed his metaphors in his description of Christians nursing at the breast of God the Father. Medieval mystic Meister Eckhart described God’s activity: “What does God do all day long? God gives birth. From all eternity God lies on a maternity bed giving birth.” (Feminism and Christianity, p. 65)
But Never Called Mother God
It is true, however, that despite these maternal images, the Bible never used the feminine gender for God, and never called God “mother”. In an ancient patriarchal culture, it is not surprising that the ancient Hebrews used masculine pronouns for God. But I don’t think that was to suggest that God has a masculine gender.
According to the Hebrew scholar Samuel Terrien, the reason why the ancient Hebrews never called God “Mother” was that “they reacted against the allurement of the Mother Goddess cult because they somehow sensed the difference between true divinity and deified nature.” (Till The Heart Sings: A Biblical Theology of Manhood and Womanhood, Eerdmans, 1985, p. 60) According to Terrien, ancient mother goddess worship, unlike certain modern-day revivals, was never about empowering or glorifying women. It was about glorifying Nature, with a capital N. It was born not from a veneration of female humanity but rather born from a confusion of the divine with nature; in essence, Mother Earth was worshiped as Mother Goddess. Thus, all that are primary issues with nature, i.e. fertility, sexuality, life, health and death, were associated with the ancient Mother Goddess cults. These religions tend to merge sex with religious ecstasy and economic security (agriculture and husbandry). It is not surprising, then, that many of their religious rituals involved sexuality, even temple prostitutes.
Hence, the Old Testament’s refusal to call God “mother” was not a misogynist act. It was an attempt to emphasize God’s transcendence over nature and to steer away from the ancient goddess religions that over-emphasized divine immanence in nature. Neither was calling God “father” a glorification of human fathers or males but rather, the Old Testament consistently merged the images and metaphors of the fatherly God with motherly compassion and love, as the maternal images above suggest.
Something True About God
Mother’s Day is as appropriate as any occasion to recapture the biblical maternal images for God to help us see further truths about God. “People described God in feminine terms, not because God is actually a woman, but because feminine or maternal traits say something true about God and about their experience with God.” (Japinga, Feminism and Christianity, p. 66). The same must be said of masculine and paternal images for God. We must not confuse these metaphors with God’s reality.
- What do you think of God as a mother?
- Have you heard it used in a worship service?
- How did you feel or react?
Do you feel uneasy about such images or terminologies?
Shiao Chong is the Christian Reformed Campus Minister serving at York University in Toronto Canada as the Director of a student Christian club on campus. He attends Rehoboth Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Toronto. He is married to Martha with three daughters. Chong has written articles for various Christian publications and blogs. His blogs at 3dchristianity.wordpress.com where this article first appeared.
This post has been reposted for 2023 but was originally part of a series posted for Mother’s day that focuses on the mothering aspects of God. Here are the rest of the posts: Enjoy
Meditation Monday – Connecting to the Mother heart of God
Biblical Maternal Images of God by Shiao Chong
Maternal Images of God – a video – reposted 2019
Let’s Get Creative – Honouring Our Mothers
Anselm’s Prayer to St Paul: Our Greatest Mother
We all need the Wholeness of God…this resource includes reflections and activities for coping and thriving during challenges in search of shalom as well as hope for restoration.
It’s been quite a week hasn’t it? For my British friends in particular, the coronation of King Charles III took centre stage and provided all of us with an incredible spectacle. I watched it with a mixture of delight and despair. I loved the pomp and ceremony and the strong affirmation of Christian faith while emphasizing the need to embrace people of all faiths and all cultures. I loved that Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic were all incorporated into the service, but like so many I grieve the impact of conquest and colonialism initiated by Kings and Queens of the past that devastated peoples and cultures, around the world including the Welsh, Irish and Scottish cultures. As I listened to the Welsh prayer, I remembered talking to a Welsh theologian in the mid 1990s who still struggled with how the English sought to annihilate his culture and customs.
The British Monarchy was not alone in its history of colonial conquest and genocide of Indigenous people. In many parts of the world the figure of the barbaric savage wandering the landscape aimlessly in search of food was manufactured to facilitate the theft of tribal lands. Here in the U.S. there was a deliberate policy to destroy the wild gardens native peoples cultivated, and slaughter the great herds of the plains they relied on for food. This made it easier to force Indigenous peoples onto reservations, often hundreds of miles away from their ancestral homelands. Even in Australia, I grew up with movies about the “savage” Indians who killed the white settlers.
My Meditation Monday: The Spiritual Practice of Changing Perspectives this week talked about the need to change the way we look at the world around us. It seemed very appropriate after watching the coronation. I talk about the need for more awe and wonder in our lives, which is a great place to start as it draws us out of ourselves and toward others and inspires pro-social behavior like generosity and compassion. We live in a changing world and need to change our perspectives on so many things in order to move forward in a way that will bring light and life and love into all we see and do.
Over the weekend 2 posts appeared on Godspace that I was too busy gardening and watching the coronation, to publicize. The first was the beautiful Taize style worship at St Andrews Episcopal Church. The second was a repost of another Mother’s Day focused article: Honouring Our Mothers which provides a number of creative ways to honour our mothers living or dead. I created a photo album for my Mum’s 90th birthday which I still love to look at on her birthday every year.
Freerange Friday last week was a guest post written by Hailey Scandrette. Reaching for Connections is a must read as I think we see in her comment “I truly believe that pursuing connection is a radical practice that grounds us in our own humanity in ways that can shift how we see ourselves and how we show up to the world around us. “
Our most popular post last week was Biblical Maternal Images of God in which I weave liturgy and scripture together. I produced the video several years ago, and love watching it each year. It makes me feel I am embraced by the God who is both mother and father to us.
May you too keep your eyes and ears open this week to the ways that God would challenge your perspectives on the world. Let me end with a prayer that might help with this.
Breathe in the peace of God,
Let it take root in the depths of your soul.
May your spirit grow and blossom,
And give fruit in its season.
Fruit to nourish the life of others,
And bring light wherever you go.
Many blessings
Christine Sine
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