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The Beltane Blessing - from the Carmina Gadelica

4/30/2013

"The Maying of Queen Guinivere"

“BEALLTAIN, Beltane, is the first day of May. On May Day all the fires of the district were extinguished and 'tein eigin,' need-fire, produced on the knoll. This fire was divided in two, and people and cattle rushed through for purification and safeguarding against 'ealtraigh agus dosgaidh,' mischance and murrain, during the year. The people obtained fires for their homes from this need-fire. The practice of producing the need-fire came down in the Highlands and Islands to the first quarter of this century. The writer found traces of it in such distant places as Arran, Uist, and Sutherland. In 1895 a woman p. 183 in Arran said that in the time of her father the people made the need-fire on the knoll, and then rushed home and brought out their 'creatairean,' creatures, and put them round the fire to safeguard them, 'bho ’n bhana bhuitsich mhoir Nic-creafain,' from the arch-witch Crawford.

The ordeal of passing through the fires gave rise to a proverb which I heard used by an old man in Lewis in 1873:--'A Mhoire! mhicean, bu dora dhomhsa sin a dheanamh dhuit na dhol eadar dha theine mhoir Bheaill,' Ah Mary! sonnie, it were worse for me to do that for thee, than to pass between the two great fires of Beall.”

“BLESS, O Threefold true and bountiful,
Myself, my spouse, and my children,
My tender children and their beloved mother at their head.
On the fragrant plain, on the gay mountain sheiling,
On the fragrant plain, on the gay mountain sheiling.

Everything within my dwelling or in my possession,
All kine and crops, all flocks and
BLESS, O Threefold true and bountiful,
Myself, my spouse, and my children,
My tender children and their beloved mother at their head.
On the fragrant plain, on the gay mountain sheiling,
On the fragrant plain, on the gay mountain sheiling.

Everything within my dwelling or in my possession,
All kine and crops, all flocks and corn,
From Hallow Eve to Beltane Eve,
With goodly progress and gentle blessing,
From sea to sea, and every river mouth,
From wave to wave, and base of waterfall.

Be the Three Persons taking possession of all to me belonging,
Be the sure Trinity protecting me in truth;
Oh! satisfy my soul in the words of Paul,
And shield my loved ones beneath the wing of Thy glory,
Shield my loved ones beneath the wing of Thy glory.

Bless everything and every one,
Of this little household by my side;
Place the cross of Christ on us with the power of love,
Till we see the land of joy,
Till we see the land of joy,

What time the kine shall forsake the stalls,
What time the sheep shall forsake the folds,
What time the goats shall ascend to the mount of mist,
May the tending of the Triune follow them,
May the tending of the Triune follow them.

Thou Being who didst create me at the beginning,
Listen and attend me as I bend the knee to Thee,
Morning and evening as is becoming in me,
In Thine own presence, O God of life,
In Thine own presence, O God of life.”

"The Vision of Wholness"

4/28/2013

from “Celtic Mysticism" by Revd Anthony Duncan

“There is nothing slight or sentimental about Celtic spirituality, it is grounded in a deep realism. It is quite wrong to romanticise it or to imagine that all things were at all times nothing but sweetness and light. Nor are all Celts necessarily natural mystics; true mystics are rare in any generation. What is distinctive about Celtic spirituality, as it has evolved through the centuries from paganism to a mature Christian faith, is its realism. It is close to nature and open both to intuition and reason. There is a sense of unity between all the elements of life: the angels, the saints, the farmer and his cow.

The Celtic world was shielded by force of historical circumstances from influences which over the years tended to obscure the Church's vision of this holistic approach. There is, for example, nothing of the disturbed and disturbing equation of sex with sin, or any implication that material creation is in some way imperfect, which have hung around the edges of the Church's mind, though wholly foreign to the teaching of the gospels. Celtic spirituality is essentially primitive and rooted in oneness with nature.”

from "Of Wanting and of the Gift" by St Tugdual

4/14/2013

"...the way to abide in the Truth is to keep our eyes firmly fixed on God alone. If we expose our souls as much as possible to the rays of the Sun of Justice we will be adopting the surest means available for the purification of our souls of the leprosy of sin. By keeping our eyes on God alone we will allow ourselves to be wrapped up in eternal justice and, little by little, through a daily process of healing arrive at justification, deification and sanctification."

From "Of Wanting and of the Gift" by St Tugdual

4/11/2013

St Tugdual outside his hermitage near St Dolay, Brittany

How can it be of any concern to the hermit whether he spends his time working in the garden or preaching to the visitors? What matters is to know at any given moment that one is of little significance.
All these fluctuating desires are temptations that it is necessary to break upon the rock of faith in Christ the Son of the Living God.

Is it not by divine order and in answer to a divine call that a hermit finds himself in a particular retreat? If the hermit doubts the Master on this point is he not failing to place all his trust in Him? It is not at all necessary to achieve contentment and the ability to accept the choices God makes by coming the long way round through doubt and questioning. If our Saviour has chosen us, led us, guarded us until we end up in solitude in a certain place can we then question whether he knows what he is doing? He who is omniscience itself and uncreated Wisdom! Now then let us do all with a good heart and live well and in peace wherever He puts us. Let us never
forget the Golden Rule: “Any and everything we do has value only in so far as it conforms to the all-Holy will of God.” this divine will is always revealed to the hermit through his rule of life, through his prayer and ascesis and the work of his hands, through the words of his elder and the holy practices and customs of monasticism and through the things that happen to him by the operation of Divine Providence in the daily course of his existence.

Guigo's Praise of Life in Solitude
By Guigo I, 5th Prior of La Grande Chartreuse

St Bruno's hermitage above La Grande Chartreuse

In praise of solitude, to which we have been called in a special way, we will say but little; since we know that it has already obtained enthusiastic recommendation from many saints and wise men of such great authority, that we are not worthy to follow
in their steps.

For, as you know, in the Old Testament, and still more so in the new, almost all of God's secrets of major importance and hidden meaning were revealed to His servants, not in the turbulence of the crowd but in the silence of solitude; and you know, too, that these same servants of God, when they wished to penetrate more profoundly some spiritual truth, or to pray with greater freedom, or to become a stranger to things earthly in an ardent elevation of the soul, nearly always fled the hindrance of the multitude for the benefits of solitude.

Thus — to illustrate by some examples — when seeking a place for meditation, Isaac went out to a field  alone (Genesis 24:63); and this, one may assume, was his normal practice, and not an
isolated incident. Likewise, it was when Jacob was alone, having dispatched his retinue ahead of him, that he saw God face to face (Genesis 32:24-30), and was thus favored with a blessing and a new and better name, thus receiving more in one moment of solitude than in a whole lifetime of social contact.

Scripture also tells us how Moses, Elijah and Elisha esteemed solitude, and how conducive they found it to an even  deeper penetration of the divine secrets; and note, too, what perils constantly surrounded them when among men, and how God visited them when alone.

Overwhelmed by the spectacle of God's indignation, Jeremiah, too, sat alone (Jeremiah 15:17). He asked that his head might be a fountain, his eyes a spring for tears, to mourn the slain of his people (cf. Jeremiah 9:1); and that he might the more freely give himself to this holy work he exclaimed, "O, that I had in the desert a wayfarer's shelter!" (cf. Jeremiah 9:2), clearly implying that he could not do this in a city, and thus indicating what an impediment companions are to the gift of tears. Jeremiah also said, "It is good for a man to await the salvation of God in silence" (Lamentations 3:26) - which longing solitude greatly favors; and he adds, "It is good also for
the man who has borne the yoke from early youth" (Lamentations 3:27) — a very consoling text for us, many of whom have embraced this vocation from early manhood; and yet again he speaks saying, "The solitary will sit and keep silence, for he
will lift himself above himself" (Lamentations 3:28). Here  the prophet makes reference to nearly all that is best in our life: peace, solitude, silence, and ardent thirst for the things  of heaven.

Later, as an example of the supreme patience and perfect humility of those formed in this school, Jeremiah speaks  of "Jeering of the multitude and cheek buffeted in scorn, bravely endured."

John the Baptist, greater than whom, the Savior tells us, has not arisen among those born of women (Matthew 11:11),  is another striking example of the safety and value of solitude. Trusting not in the fact that divine prophecy had foretold that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb, and that he would go before Christ the Lord in the spirit  and power of Elijah (cf. Luke 1:11-17); nor in the fact that his birth had been miraculous, and that his parents were saints, he fled the society of men as something dangerous and chose the security of desert solitude (cf. Luke 1:80); and, in actual fact, as long as he dwelt alone in the desert, he knew neither
danger nor death. Moreover the virtue and merit he attained there are amply attested by his unique call to baptize Christ, and by his acceptance of death for the sake of justice. For, schooled in sanctity in solitude, he alone of all men became worthy to wash Christ (cf. Matthew 3:13-17) — Christ who washes all things clean —, and worthy, too, to undergo prison bonds and death itself in the cause of truth (cf. Matthew 14:3-12).

Jesus himself, God and Lord, whose virtue was above both the assistance of solitude and the hindrance of social contact, wished nevertheless, to teach us by his example; so before beginning to preach or work miracles he was, as it were, proved  by a period of fasting and temptation in the solitude of the desert (cf. Matthew 4:1-11); similarly, Scripture speaks of him  leaving his disciples and ascending the mountain alone to pray (cf. Matthew 14:23). Then there was that striking example of the value of solitude as a help to prayer when Christ, just as his Passion was approaching, left even his Apostles to pray alone (cf. Matthew 26:39-44) — a clear indication that solitude is to be preferred for prayer even to the company of Apostles.

[We cannot here pass over in silence a mystery that merits our deepest consideration; the fact that this same Lord and Savior of mankind deigned to live as the first exemplar of our Carthusian life when he retired alone to the desert and gave himself to prayer and the interior life; treating his body hard with fasting, vigils and other penances; and conquering the devil and his temptations with spiritual arms(cf. Matthew 4:1-11).]*

And now, dear reader, ponder and reflect on the great spiritual benefits derived from solitude by the holy and venerable  Fathers — Paul, Antony, Hilarion, Benedict, and others without number — and you will readily agree that for the spiritual savor of psalmody; for penetrating the message of the written page; for kindling the fire of fervent prayer; for engaging in profound meditation; for losing oneself in mystic contemplation; for obtaining the heavenly dew of purifying tears, — nothing is more helpful than solitude.

The reader should not rest content with the above examples in praise of our vocation; let him gather together many more, either from present experience or from the pages of Holy Writ.

St Bruno

The Beltane Blessing - from the Carmina Gadelica

"The Vision of Wholness"

from "Of Wanting and of the Gift" by St Tugdual

From "Of Wanting and of the Gift" by St Tugdual

Guigo's Praise of Life in Solitude
By Guigo I, 5th Prior of La Grande Chartreuse

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The Beltane Blessing - from the Carmina Gadelica

"The Vision of Wholness"

from "Of Wanting and of the Gift" by St Tugdual

From "Of Wanting and of the Gift" by St Tugdual

Guigo's Praise of Life in SolitudeBy Guigo I, 5th Prior of La Grande Chartreuse

Various

Archives

Categories

Guigo's Praise of Life in Solitude
By Guigo I, 5th Prior of La Grande Chartreuse