Yesterday was the natal festivity of my dear friend Kathy. Here she is at Sandia Peak with the eastern hills behind her. I have shared some of her e-mail comments here though she does not comment here directly. She still swings by daily. Kathy is an awesome woman with an ever-exploring, ever-wondering mind and we are celebrating tomorrow evening.
Happy Birthday, Kathy!
Saint Aidan, Chapel, Holy Cross Monastery, West Park NYPhoto by Randy, OHC - via Wikimedia Commons
h/t to Sister Ellie
Monday, 31 August, was the Feast of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, the missionary from Iona who founded the Lindisfarne community and evangelized Northumbria. He raised up a generation of saints that followed. St Cuthbert's call to the monastic life was triggered by Aidan's death. Aidan walked the lanes and did not live in fear or pomp, staying in contact with the people he encountered. King Oswald sometimes acted as his interpreter so Saxons could understand what the Irish-speaking Aidan was saying.
I apologize to Aidan for not mentioning his feast on the day.
O loving God, you called your servant Aidan from the peace of a cloister to re-establish the Christian mission in northern England, and endowed him with gentleness, simplicity, and strength: Grant that we, following his example, may use what you have given us for the relief of human need, and may persevere in commending the saving Gospel of our Redeemer Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gregory the Great(c) Paul E Strid
Yesterday, 3 September, was also the Feast of Saint Gregory the Great on the Roman Catholic calender. Episcopalians celebrate him on March 12. He was my friend Bill's favorite saint and we agreed to skip the various Saints William and celebrate Gregory as Bill's saint's day. So, Happy Saint's Day, Bill! We will be celebrating that tomorrow evening along with Kathy's birthday.
Almighty and merciful God, you raised up Gregory of Rome to be a servant of the servants of God, and inspired him to send missionaries to preach the Gospel to the English people: Preserve in your Church the catholic and apostolic faith they taught, that your people, being fruitful in every good work, may receive the crown of glory that never fades away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
--the BB
5 comments:
You do have a good assortment of Saints in the Anglican traditon.
You do realize that these people are dead, that you can't talk to them and expect them to hear you?
There is treatment for this.
Usually, by the time we're adults we've stopped having invisible friends.
I have never claimed to have grown up.
My guess is that 90% of these people are chosen at your denomination's national meetings, by committees, and that 90% of your membership is oblivious to them-and to the people who choose them as "saints". Somehow mentioning them once a year or putting up their pictures will make you moral/spiritual/'diverse'/'multi-cultural seems to be the theory.
My guess is that the next step will be lighting candles to them, carrying statues of them through the streets (a la "Godfather II") and making them "patrons" of this, that and the other (blindness, the transgendered, illegal aliens, blind, transgendered illegal aliens).
You may still be a child but games were a lot more fun when I was a kid.
Brad, you are quite right about the process for newer names on the calendar, though most of them come from older tradition. I started a doctoral program in church history (long ago, and dropped out) so the stories of the saints and their historical context are much more vivid for me than for most. For some there is a mystical connection and for others they are heroes of faith whose better qualities are to be imitated (we are comfortable with them being "mixed bags" and imperfect).
I can be completely skeptical about our traditions in historical or scientific terms and completely comfortable with "folk religion" at the same time.
I will keep an eye out for the patron saint of transgendered illegal aliens. I have had friends who were undocumented and known folks who are transgendered. It is just a matter of time.
Have a great weekend.
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