Wednesday Afternoon: Hilda and Brigid: Living in God’s Presence
Many passages of Scripture speak of God’s presence with us:
Exodus 33: 12-14
Isaiah 63: 9
Matthew 28: 20
Ephesians 4: 10
John14: 17-18 and 20-23
‘we know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit’
(1 John 4: 13)
Prof John Macquarrie, in his book ‘Paths to Spirituality’ identifies the key feature of Celtic spirituality as “an intense sense of presence”. He goes on to observe that the Celt was very much a “God intoxicated man/woman whose life was embraced on all sides by the divine being”.
(The Celtic Way by Ian Bradley, Page 32)
But first I want to introduce you to two remarkable Celtic women. The Celts valued the place of women in their society and we know of at least one great Celtic woman military leader, Boudicca, who led the Celts to convincing victories over the Roman armies in Britain
Brigid
Born in Ireland in the 5th Century, Brigid was the daughter of the King of Leinster and her mother, a Christian, was one of the King’s bondservants. Shortly before Brigid’s birth, the King sold her mother, Broisseach, to a Driud priest. So Brigid was born of a Christian mother but in a pagan household. There was clearly something special about her from a young age and it is believed that Patrick discerned the call of God on her life and baptised her. Some years later the King decided he wanted his daughter back, but soon regretted it as she had the ‘annoying’ habit of giving away goods and food from the palace to the poor. The King decided to get rid of his daughter and offered her to a local nobleman in marriage. Brigid refused and announced she was becoming a nun. The King accepted her decision and so began a remarkable ministry. She was strong willed and buoyant and having persuaded a local chief to grant her some land she founded a monastery at Kildare.
Brigid is known as the initiator and founder of the first women’s monastic community in Ireland. She was the first Abbess of this great community at Kildare (built on the site in an oak grove which had previously been a pagan shrine). Later this became a joint monastery for men and women. Apart from her natural beauty, words which are used to describe Brigid’s character are: strong, compassionate, gay, wise and imbued with a shining charity. Many of the miracles and wonders attributed to her were to meet the physical and spiritual needs of her community.
Brigid was particularly remembered for her concern for those in need and for the generosity of her listening heart. She combined spiritual insight with worldly wisdom and embodies for us the very early Celtic tradition of soul friendship. A fire, which was kept alight continuously in the monastery at Kildare, representing the light of Christ, was tended to by her nuns and kept alight for a thousand years after her death in AD 525. She was clearly one who knew what it meant to live continuously in God’s presence.
Hilda
Known as the ‘mother’ of the church in Britain, Hilda was born in AD 614, a niece of King Edwin of Northumbria. She was baptised at age 13 and twenty years later she became a nun.
Her spirituality had been shaped by Aidan and the community on Holy Island. Aidan encouraged her to remain in Northumbria and to assist him in pioneering the Gospel in that part of Britain. Aidan installed her as Abbess of a small convent near Hartleypool. Later she moved to Whitby where she became the Abbess of the great monastery for men and women and remained there for the rest of her life.
Six of the monks who trained under Hilda became bishops and it was Hilda who recognised the gift of God in the life of the illiterate cowherd Caedmon who became the first composer of English ‘Scripture songs and poetry’ (Michael Mitton Page 63 – 64). The great Synod, called by King Oswy in 664 was held at Whitby. Another Celtic woman of deep faith and a great leader who knew what it meant to live in God’s presence.
So David Adam writes of the Celtic Church:
‘When we turn to the Celtic Church, we discover men and women who are quite simple, are not particularly clever or gifted, but to them, God is a living and glorious reality which supernaturalises their everyday life and transforms their most ordinary events into sublime worship. For them God is not of the past, or confined to the Bible and the Holy Land, but the Divine Reality to be encountered each day, in each event and each decision. This is the God of the now, involved in the present situation, and His will and way are to be discovered and followed. We arise today in the Divine Presence and that is reality.’
(The Cry of the Deer by David Adam, page 97-98)
I believe that it was through the Pentecostal/Charismatic Renewal of the last century and into this century that God brought His church back again to that reality of His Presence with His people that the Celts knew and which we had lost. That is indeed my prayer for us all; that we might know God’s presence and live in his presence day by day.
Esther de Waal:
‘At the heart of what I have been writing about in the previous chapter is a deep sense of the presence of God – God here and now, with me, close at hand, a God present in life and in work, immediate and accessible. …….. I guess they (the Celtic Christians) knew better than many of us today ……. this vivid sense of God, a God who knows, loves, supports, is close at hand, and actually present in their lives. ….…. it is one of the many gifts of the Celtic tradition to us, and perhaps the most important.’
(The Celtic Way of Prayer by Esther de Waal, page 69–70)
Sadly, I believe, that for too long the church presented a God who was transcendent, which indeed he is, and focussed on ‘right belief’, which equally is important, and information which is also important, but we failed to lead our people into a living encounter with God who has made himself known to us in Christ Jesus and who promises to baptise us in his Spirit. Even those churches which focussed on conversion often left their people believing that conversion was the climax of their pilgrimage rather than teaching that conversion is but the start of a process of transformation and sanctification which is a work of the Holy Spirit.
Jerry Doherty:
‘If the churches want people to return and believe, the churches must be relevant to life. They must be a community of faith and teach people to believe. What is needed is a new mysticism. Mysticism simply means to feel acutely the presence of God. A mystic is someone who knows God exists because they feel it. God is not far away, a theistic God, but a God who is close by ………. people don’t just need to believe, they need to feel it.’
(A Celtic Model of Ministry by Gerry Doherty, page 82)
St Patrick clearly lived this reality as reflected in this extract from his prayer ( a Lorica or breastplate prayer):
St Partick’s Breastplate
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in the hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
(C.F. Alexander’s translation)
Albert Nolan a South African author writes:
‘The challenge then is to grow in awareness of God’s presence and closeness. In other words, we must become more conscious of the presence of mystery in us and all around us. The mystery is very close to us. In it we live and move and have our being. Our experience of God begins as an experience of wonder and awe in the presence of mystery, here and now in everything – including ourselves.’
(Jesus Today by Albert Nolan, page 143)
My own ‘recipe’ for growing in awareness of God’s presence is to teach that conversion to Christ (which can be a dramatic saving event or a process) and being baptised in the Holy Spirit (which may happen simultaneously) needs to be followed by:
A Awareness of His presence
B Bible; Lectio Divina
C Contemplation
Richard Foster:
Does not see the renewal of the church worldwide coming through the ‘Mega Churches’ because of their focus on:
A attendance
B buildings
C cash
Finally a comment regarding the popular slogan What Would Jesus Do? Good as it may be I think the best way to highlight what I want to say is reflected in a ‘conversation with Jesus’ in The Shack:
‘Jesus chuckled. Good intention, bad idea. Let me know how it works for you, if that’s the way you choose to go. He paused and grew sober. Seriously, my life was not meant to be an example to copy. Being my follower is not trying to be like Jesus, it means for your independence to be kicked. I came to give you life, real life. We will come to live our life inside of you, so that you begin to see with our eyes, and hear with our ears, and touch with our hands, and think as we do. But we will never force that union on you. If you want to do your thing, have a go at it. Time is on our side.’
(The Shack by William P Young, page 149)
