The Christ of Nature

The Christ of Nature
He loved cherry sunsets growing heavy on the branches of the evening;
He loved bud coloured dawns opening from the east’s earth.
He loved the sea, green in its happiness, seeking the shore;
He loved to see it languishing back stonily from its crest to its groove.
He loved the character of birds, the flock that trusted in His Father;
He loved lambs, the most skilfully fashioned: the lambs,
the most innocent in their nature.
He loved the beasts of the borders: the ones that dwelt in the wild;
He loved their sure dependence on that which the wilderness provided.
He loved wheat shivering as it became golden and heavy headed with nourishment;
He loved the fortressed mountain country, the desolation where peace grew.
He loved the earth, loved it as a lover, because it is God’s earth;
He loved it, because it was created by His Father from nothingness to be Life’s temple.
- Donald Evans, Cread Crist, Cyhoeddiadau Barddus, 1986
(trans. Cynthia and Saunders Davies)

Lord, be with us

Lord, be with us this day,
Within us to purify us;
Above us to draw us up;
Beneath us to sustain us;
Before us to lead us;
Behind us to restrain us;
Around us to protect us.
- St Patrick

A Prayer from the Hebrides

The Gospel of the God of life
To shelter thee, to aid thee,
Yea, the Gospel of beloved Christ
The holy Gospel of the Lord.

To keep thee from all malice,
From every dole and dolour;
To keep thee from all spite,
From evil eye and anguish.

Thou shalt travel thither, thou shalt travel
hither,
Thou shalt travel hill and headland,
Thou shalt travel down, thou shalt travel up,
Thou shalt travel ocean and narrow.

Christ Himself is shepherd over thee,
Enfolding thee on every side;
He will not forsake thee hand or foot,
Nor let evil come anight thee.

Monastic Life Ideals

Could we live, ourselves, with the ideals of (at least aspects of) "those humble yet august souls, who dare to live upon the very confines of the great mystery, waiting between the world closed to them and heaven not yet opened, turned toward the daylight not yet seen, with only the happiness of thinking that they know where it is, their aspirations directed toward the abyss and the unknown, their gaze fixed on the motionless gloom, kneeling, stufefied, shuddering and half borne away at certain times by the deep pulsations of Eternity."
- Victor Hugo, 'Les Miserables"


What would I do if I was 'half borne away at times by the deep pulsations of Eternity?

Colonies of Heaven

The Monastery - "that singular place, from which, as from the summit of a lofty mountain, we perceive, on one side, the abyss in which we are, and on the other, the abyss wherein we are to be; it is a narrow and misty boundary that separates two worlds, where the unfeebled ray of life commingles with the uncertain ray of death."
- Victor Hugo, 'Les Miserables'