O Christ, will You help me on the wild waves?

I've been meditating on various scriptures relating to water recently, including Noah building the Arc and Peter walking on water. Trusting God can sometimes seem as scary as walking on water or sailing across the ocean in a flimsy coracle! Saint Brendan the Navigator is famous for his courage at sea - his trust, determination and obedience were so strong, that he is said to have been the first person to sail across the Atlantic! I love the faith and humility expressed in this emotive prayer which is attributed to St Brendan:


Shall I abandon, O King of mysteries, the soft comforts of home? 
Shall I turn my back on my native land, and turn my face towards the sea?
Shall I put myself wholly at your mercy, without silver, without a horse, without fame, without honor? 
Shall I throw myself wholly upon You, without sword and shield, without food and drink, without a bed to lie on? 
Shall I say farewell to my beautiful land, placing myself under Your yoke?
Shall I pour out my heart to You, confessing my manifold sins and begging forgiveness, tears streaming down my cheeks? 
Shall I leave the prints of my knees on the sandy beach, a record of my final prayer in my native land?
Shall I then suffer every kind of wound that the sea can inflict? 
Shall I take my tiny boat across the wide sparkling ocean? 
O King of the Glorious Heaven, shall I go of my own choice upon the sea? 
O Christ, will You help me on the wild waves?
(Ascribed to Saint Brendan the Navigator before sailing across the Atlantic.)

A prayer for these uncertain times.

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. (Deuteronomy 33:27)

I love this beautiful Celtic encircling prayer from Iona. It reminds me of the prayer for protection and safety in Ephesians 6 - The Armour of God. It's a really moving one to pray during these uncertain times.

My Christ, 

My shield,

My encircler,

each day,

each night,

each light,

each dark,

be near me,

uphold me,

my treasure,

my triumph.

Should St Aidan be new patron saint of UK?

Today is Saint George's Day and I'm reminded of leading theologian Ian Bradley's suggestion that St Aidan would make a better patron saint of the UK than St Goerge. What are your thoughts? Here are some of his reasons:

"St George had nothing to do with Britain and his legend was brought back here with the Crusades. St Andrew similarly had no links with Scotland and St Patrick was born in Scotland or England and put into slavery by the Irish. On the other hand, St Aidan unites three of the countries by having lived there and is, I believe, a better symbol for Britishness.

"Aidan was the sort of hybrid Briton that sums up the overlapping spiritual identities of Britain.

"He also makes a good patron saint of Britain because of his character. He was particularly humble and believed in talking directly to people. When he was given a horse by King Oswald of Northumbria, he immediately gave it away because he was worried that he would not be able to communicate properly.

"He was also not shy of reprimanding the mighty and powerful about their failings. He saw it as part of his job to remind secular rulers not to get above themselves.... he had a sense of openness and diversity for his time that I think makes him a good candidate as the patron saint of Britain."

Ashes to ashes

 The Celts were great storytellers and poets. We need our contemporary storytellers to help us understand the times. 

Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, has written a poem called 'Silver Linings' inspired by the volcanic eruption in Iceland.

You an hear Carol reading this poem by clicking on the link 

Carol Ann Duffy video

Five miles up the hush and shush of ash,
Yet the sky is as clean as a white slate -
I could write my childhood there.
Selfish to sit in this garden, listening to the past
(A gentleman bee wooing its flower, a lawnmower)
When the grounded planes mean ruined plans,
Holidays on hold, sore absences at weddings, funerals ... wingless commerce.
But Britain's birds sing in this spring
From Inverness to Liverpool, from Crieff to Cardiff,
Oxford, Londontown, Land's End to John O' Groats.
The music's silent summons,
That Shakespeare heard and Edward Thomas and, briefly, us.

Carol Ann Duffy

He is risen!

Today on this Easter Sunday, and after a wonderful week of fasting from Internet communication, I want to share with you a very personal message that I've written as love poem to God:

Stone upon stone

upon river 

upon stream

my Lover is calling

He is beckoning to me.

A love consummated on a cross

and sealed in a tomb.

we rise to new life

                                  Bride and Bridegroom.

                                   (Liz Babbs)

So who was St Patrick?

We have much to learn from those who have gone before us in the faith and so I thought I'd give you a brief overview of St Patrick. 

Saint Patrick (387-461) is the most famous Irishman of all time and yet he wasn’t born in Ireland but at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton in Scotland. He was the son of a deacon and worked on his father’s farm as a young boy, but at the age of sixteen, he was captured by Irish raiders and sold into slavery in Ireland. He escaped six years later when it is said God appeared to him in a vision and showed him how to escape. Patrick embraced the monastic way of life and became a priest, but God called him back to Ireland and he later became Bishop of Ireland. Many stories have been told of Patrick’s travels across Ireland, preaching and converting people as he went.  Irish people all around the world will be celebrating his achievements tomorrow, March 17^th, which is said to be the anniversary of his death. This extract from St Patrick’s Declaration gives a wonderful insight into his life: 

After coming to Ireland I was put to work tending cattle, sheep and hogs, and many times during that day I would pray. More and more the love of God and the fear of God came to me, so that my faith was strengthened and my spirit moved. In a single day I would pray as often as a hundred times, and nearly as often at night, when I was staying in the woods and the mountains, I would rouse myself before daylight to pray, whether in snow, frost, or rain; it made no difference, and I felt no bad effects. Because the Spirit in me was fervent, I knew no sluggishness. St Patrick

(Quoted from p.26 Celtic Treasure - Liz Babbs)

Why are Americans interested in St Patrick?

I'm fascinated by the lengths Americans will go to in order to celebrate St Patrick's Day, so I thought I'd ask American author Cindy Thompson why she was is interested in St Patrick.

"Oh, my goodness! St. Patrick’s Day is huge in America. But for Americans the saint means green stuff: green beer, green carnations, shamrocks, cupcakes with green icing…and it’s also a time for celebrating Irish America, which is a good thing. However, my experience has been that Americans know little about the saint himself. The stories we hear is that he drove the snakes out of Ireland, that he brought Christianity to Ireland, and that he explained the Triune God by using the three-leafed shamrock as an example. None of these things, by the way, is supported by historical evidence. There is so much more to St. Patrick than that!

Most people know that there were no snakes in Ireland—there still aren’t. It’s generally accepted that the reference to snakes was symbolic, either as evil or as the old religion. However, none of St. Patrick’s writings refer to snakes. He did spread Christianity throughout Ireland, however what most people don’t know is that there were Christians in Ireland before St. Patrick came to convert it. What a lot of Americans don’t realize is that St. Patrick was not Irish. He was kidnapped and brought to the island as a slave, and was born somewhere in Wales or Scotland or northern England."