Celtic Spirituality - 3 - Iona

Just to explain, these posts are about 2 weeks displaced in time. I was in Iona about 2 weeks ago. It has taken until we settled in Dingle to get around to writing. I hope to catch up to current time n about a week.

A view on the Isle of Mull.

Mary arrived and I was not there to meet her. I had a flat tire and was working on getting it repaired when she arrived. The schedule was set back by about an hour or so. Once we got together we drove north to Oban in hopes of catching the ferry after the one we had planned. It was booked solid. So was the one after that. But the third one still had space, so we had dinner together and then rode the ferry across from Oban to Craignure. From there is was an hours drive across the island to the town of Fionnphort; pronounced "Fin-fort".

Sheep on the road are common.

It was a gorgeous drive on a one lane road. Since we were so late we encountered very little traffic and our excitement just grew as we approached or stop for the night. Sheep and cattle on the road, a flock of chickens, and the occasional car were all we saw in that hour. That and spectacular scenery.

Iona Abbey from the ferry

We arrived before dark - about 10:15pm and went to sleep as soon as possible after. The next morning we woke to a wonderful Scottish breakfast and took an early ferry to Iona. The abbey seems to rise up straight out of the rock it is built upon. It is almost like organic stone. After such a long haul we were finally close to one of my favorite thin places. (For an  excellent article on thin places click here.). Disembarking from the ferry we headed toward the abbey. Mary has a hip that needs replacement so the walk was slow and sometimes a bit painful for her.

The Abbey as seen from the nunnery

Our first stop on the way to the Abbey - The nunnery. Women had a separate place to live and pray on Iona. The place has not been restored, but it at least being preserved as is. We could see the goal, but did not yet approach. Instead we decided to walk to the other side of the island. Saving the abbey for later.

Walking to the other side.

It is a small island and to walk to the other side was about 1.5 miles to get to the beach. Mary was game and we went at an easy pace. We had lots of time to catch up with each other, having been apart for about 6 weeks up until the day before. We also talked about what it must be like to live in such a place now and what it must have been like when St. Columba first arrived and started the Abbey.

Tidal pool on the beach.

When we arrived at the beach we took lots of time and photos. Mary grew up in Los Angeles and so the beach holds a special place in her heart. I walked out onto the rocks where the tide was currently out and peered into the tidal pools. It struck me that life grows everywhere it can. The gospel is kind of like that. There are places too hostile for the gospel for a time, but even those places are few. In this wild and windy place, in a puddle left by the receding tide, there were plants and animals making a living and witnessing the magnificence of God. Everything has a place; everyplace has the hope of life; every heart too has a hope. For those who cannot name the yearning but know it nonetheless, this pool can be their hope. It will be reunited with the sea when the tide rises again. Everyone can be reunited to relationship when they are ready.

Shadows on the ground means clear skies above!

As we made our way back to toward the Abbey the sun broke through the clouds. We celebrated and took photos of our shadows.  After lunch we made our way deliberately for the abbey. There is so much I could scribble about this place. St. Columba or Colm Cille (Church Dove) arrive in 563 to build a  community of Christian believers. With electricity and cell service available most places on the island it is hard to picture the wildness of the place 1500 years ago. The chunk of civilization that Columba brought was distinctly monastic, Christian and Celtic.

View from inside the cloisters.

The monastery fell into disrepair for a long time, but was rebuilt/renewed starting in 1938 when Rev. George MacCleod founded a new community there. In the last 80 years it has become a huge focus for modern Celtic Spirituality and music.  One more interesting note - the Book of Kells was written here; that book now lives in Dublin.

A high cross in the front of the Abbey.

This sacred space in this wild place is such a remarkable testament to the faith of Christians. The abbey was a training ground for missionaries that went into Northumbria to bring Christianity to the Anglo Saxons. Eventually Vikings raided and drove off the Christians for a time, but they too converted to Christianity. Through the centuries many Scottish kings and chiefs  have been buried here as they also recognized its special thinness.

The abbey from on top of Dun I.

Above and behind the Abbey is a hill - Dun I. I took the opportunity to climb it. No simple easy path leads to the top. It is also a bit wild with some treacherous spots. It was meditative to go up. My whole life has been a series of approaches and departures from the presence of God. As the years have unfolded there have been times when the going was easy and the view was clear. There have also been times that the journey has been hard and the point was invisible. Reaching the summit, was great. I could see so clearly the whole of the island. It was a beautiful day for the climb. There are times in my life when for a moment everything makes sense, the path I have followed is suddenly clear and comprehensible. I feel as close to God as is possible for me to feel. Unfortunately that time is fleeting as is the time on top of the mountain.

Cows near the abbey

Coming back down and returning to the Abbey to get Mary for the trip back, I passed by two highland cattle lounging in the sun with the abbey in the background. What a perfect end to the walk. Spirituality and lofty ideas are lovely. It is great to spend time apart; to spend time in prayer and contemplation. But life is lived in a place where others also live. It is lived where there are cows and cow poo. It is lived in the reality that God made us of flesh and intended for us to live with all that entails. I know I am weak and fallible. I also know that God loves me as I am. I have been close to that love. This thin place will always sing in my heart the song of a God that is magnificent and generous and has given me so much. These questions will remain; how to sing that song when I get home? How to sing that song the rest of my days?

Celtic Spirituality - 2

Hexham Abbey

The front of Hexham Abbey

On the last day before my wife joined me, I had the opportunity to visit Hexham Abbey in northern England. What a beautiful place! The Abbey is a thriving local church today that has gone to great lengths to make it's history and faith easy to understand. Excellent interactive displays and labeling/signage to help interpret the place added to the richness there.

The side of Hexham Abbey

The most interesting part of the abbey to me was a 7th century Bishop's chair. It is padded today, but I can imagine, back in history it might not have been. Notice the amazing scroll work on the arms. It reminds me a bit of Capt. Kirk's chair in the original Star Trek TV program.

Bishop Chair from the 7th century

Also in the Abbey is a relatively recent (1611) Breeches' Bible. It is relatively rare version of the Geneva Bible where the words in Genesis 3:7 were changed from the first English bibles which said; "sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons" to read; "they sewed fig tree leaves together and made themselves breeches." Some day I plan to do an adult forum on early versions of English bibles and why certain things were kept, tossed, or changed.

Breeches Bible

Next to this very interesting bible there was an illustrated bible designed "for the amusement youth" first published about 1784. It is called "A CURIOUS HIEROGLYPHIC BIBLE".

Illustrated Bible

Another interesting part to this abbey is the "night stair". When monks would wake in the wee hours to come to pray, instead of walking the longer or sometime outdoor route to prayers they could directly access the church via the night stair which ran from their rooms to the church proper. This particular night stair is climbable and affords a lovely view back into the church proper. 

Night Stair

Celtic Spirituality - 1

A rule.

One of the things Mary and I worked on at St. Mikes before I left for this sabbatical was establishing a rule of life for ourselves. For me it has been daily morning and evening prayer for the prayer part. Some time doing physical activity every day - sometimes something extravagant, but at least 30 minutes of yoga. Reading each day - starting with archeology texts, and moving on to spirituality texts. There are other things, but one can start to get an idea of the kinds of things that a rule might encompass.

One of the planes I rode in to get to Edinburgh.

Why a rule? The goal is to live intentionally. So the time I spend is spent in service to a higher goal. In my case, the goal is to discover a deeper walk with God, with my wife and with myself. To that end, the most important part of the rule - be in the moment. I am working each day to focus my efforts and intentions on what is actually going on, where I am and who I am with.

The high cross outside of Durham Cathedral

This is how monasteries worked back in the day. Each group of folks had a rule they lived by. So when you see images of monastic places, that is one of the reasons they are extra interesting to me. The history of all the people who have lived intentionally in those places. Some of the places I have been in the last 10 days have been wild places. Some places have been holy places. Some places have been thin places. The thin place is a place where one can sense a holiness about the place. Where the veil between this reality and heaven is especially thin. For me a common thin place is in front of a tabernacle that is occupied. Monastic sites are often like that; churches and cathedrals too. Groups of people gathered in prayer also often qualify.

The east coast of Scotland on a Sunny day.

When I arrived in Scotland I had a few days before Mary arrived. It was a day of travel that started with a wake alarm at 5am and ended with lights out in a hotel at 11:00pm. I was exhausted. It was good to sleep. I woke the next morning and prayed, stretched and read a little. Then I traveled down the east coast of Scotland to Durham Cathedral. It it still a magnificent place. It was a huge center of learning and praying and still anchors a college and a thriving community.

The view from the bell tower to the Cathedral floor - almost 500 steps high.

The bones of St. Cuthbert and The Venerable Bede are both here anchoring opposite ends of the Cathedral. At some point I will have lots to say about both - probably at an adult forum in the fall. For now, I'll just let you know the places they are buried feel exceedingly thin to me. There are no photos allowed inside the cathedral so I'll just have to use words. The high altar has Cuthbert. It is set in a special place of prayer. I did get to spend some time there trying to comprehend the connection of my current spiritual practice to this gifted missionary monk.

A work of art outside the cathedral. Six monks carrying a casket.

We can learn much from stories of Cuthbert's life. It is a story that happened after he died that I will share today. Durham was chosen by the monks who were Cuthbert's successors as the place they would build a church with him as the major relic. They only did this after walking around for 7 years, carrying his casket on their shoulders. They were looking for a place that would be safe from Viking raiders. They found their spot on a bend in the river Wear. The cathedral is on a spit of land surrounded almost completely by the river on top of a rocky outcrop.

The Cathedral.

Venerable Bede at the other end of the Cathedral overlapped Cuthbert's life by about 12 years. Bede is famous for several important things. In writing an early history - The Ecclesiastical History of the English Church - he used a couple of innovations. He was the first to use footnotes and apparently the first English writer to use the idea of AD - Anno Domini - After Christ. Bede wrote in a narrative style, another first; and footnotes allowed him to include important information, while not breaking the flow of the narrative. The slab on his grave features a poem that uses the Latin for venerable because it worked better than any other word to describe him and rhyme. That is why Bede is The Venerable and not Saint Bede. I was free to spend as long as I wanted in that place. It was lovely to pray and ask for learning and understanding.

The refuge knocker. If you knocked on the door, you could expect unquestioning refuge for a period of time while you worked out your affairs.

Also in Durham is a lovely tower will bells and 460+ steps to climb. The view is great from there and the bells are much much louder. There is so much more to tell about Durham. I will tell it at an adult forum some time in the future. One last bit - I have a son-in-law who is pretty serious about Lego, so I paid to place a brick onto the Lego Cathedral they are building as a fundraiser and as a tribute to him.

Paris - 3

The Musee D'Orsay

This museum is the one that speaks more to my soul than any other. On my final full day in Paris, I had a chance to visit this soul affirming place. This post will be heavy on images and light on words. The photos are all by me, and I am still amazed that anyone is welcome to take pictures of almost everything that is in the museum.

Imagine being a school child in Paris and having art class in such a museum.

The part of the museum that most addresses my soul is the impressionists. Monet, Manet, Degas and even post impressionists like Van Gogh. Upon entry, I turned left and went up 5 flights of stairs directly to the top floor and the hall of impressionists. There is so much joy to be found here. I had all the time in the world to stand or sit in front of anything I wished for as long as I wished. This singular piece has filled my soul in the past. It is possibly my favorite painting.

Monet - Bordighera 
This reminds me both of where I grew up and a wonderful vacation location.

The next few are all by Degas. His series of dancer works have always left me speechless.  Tragically on this visit many of the pastels that Degas did of dancers were not on display. They only show from time to time because of the art works are so fragile. However, those pieces of his that were on display are spectacular.

Degas - Blue Dancers

Degas - Dancer ascending a stair

Degas - The Little Dancer
She looks like she could move at any moment.

Surprising to me is the image of London's parliament building. As many times as I have seen that spectacular building, it has never looked this good. I can imagine the foggy morning that this painting was based on. The light and shadow are ethereal.

Monet - London Parliament

Every time I go to this museum I find something new to dazzle me. This trip was no exception.  For the first time I noticed this work by Caillebotte. These floor scrapers struck me because I know exactly what they are doing and why, but even more how the camaraderie of hard work makes the work go better. And the partially drunk bottle of wine on the hearth speaks to good end to a long day.

Caillebotte - Floor Scrapers

From the top floor of the museum, there is a place where one has a lovely view of Monmarte. The hill with the big white church of Sacré Cœur. I did not make it up the hill to visit this church, but got a swell view of it for a few minutes. It remains impressive even from quite a ways off.

Sacré Cœur

No trip would be complete without seeing Van Gogh. There were only a few of his works on display, but they are among his most famous. This museum has an active program of lending out art for other museums to display. So if you got to Denver to see the impressionists there a couple years ago, you can thank the Musee d'Orsay for their generosity.  If you did not get to see it, then, I highly recommend you take a chance next time. For the end of the post I will leave off with two by Van Gogh.

Van Gogh - The church at Auvers

Van Gogh - Starry Night

Paris - 2

The Louve

Later on the same day I was at the Archeological museum, I stopped at the Louve. I had planned it that way, because this was the night the Louvre stays open late. I figured I would have a walk about, then have dinner, rest and walk some more. I could stay until 9pm. As it turns out, my brain can only take in so much in one day. My mind was exhausted by 6pm. My feet were done in too. Turns out this was a 17,000 step day. There was (as always) quite a crowd to see Mona.

There she is... way in the back!

The Louvre has so much. Of course I was obligated to see Mona Lisa.  She is enigmatic in as much as she gets soooo much attention. There is a crazy lot of art in the Louvre, but this is a major draw.  Take a good look here if you have never seen her before. I'm fairly impressed with my cell phone camera, but if you want to see better images; pretty much anything you want is available via google in super high resolution.

Mona, up close

When looking away from Mona, one sees a gigantic wall sized canvas. It is one of the largest paintings I have ever seen. It is richly colored and highly detailed. See if you can guess what it is depicting. I'll put the title in the next paragraph.

The name of this is below - see if you can figure it out

Notice the people on left in the foreground so you can get a sense of the massive scale of this image. There is so much going on! Jesus in the center of the image might throw you off. This bible story does not have Jesus in the middle of the image in my mind. Look to the lower left, There is a man and woman and she is in white. Notice in the front of the table there is someone pouring out wine. There are musicians. If you don't have it yet - notice it is a giant feast! It is the Wedding at Cana.

John the Baptist's head

Saint paintings are some of my favorites. This is John the Baptist - well, just his head, on a platter. It is dark and brooding. There are many artists whose images of John are in the Louvre. This one stands out for me because of the starkness. The rim of the platter sort does a halo effect and for me, this is a reminder of the high cost that sometimes accompanies being who God calls us to be. I do not aspire to be beheaded, but I do aspire to actually follow God and not just sort of do it.

Sebastian

St. Sebastian has an interesting story. In the time of Roman persecutions of Christians, it was found out that Sebastian was a Christian. He was imprisoned and people came to persuade him to give up the faith. Instead, he converted another 16 people to Christianity before the emperor had him bound in a field and shot with arrows "until he resembled a sea urchin". When Irene of Rome came to collect his body, she found him - not dead! So she nursed him to health. Some time later Sebastian had the opportunity to criticize the emperor, as the Emperor passed by, for doing despicable things to Christians. The emperor was shocked but recovered quickly. He ordered Sebastian to be bound and beaten with clubs until he was dead. This time the murder worked. Sebastian was really dead.

Michael defeating the devil

As you can imagine I have seen many, many images of Michael the Archangel. I'll just post this on here because I find it to be the most striking image of our beloved saint. The similarity to the statue in the gathering place at church is difficult to miss. Michael, patron of the military, please help us always fight for the good only.

Lady Liberty leading the people.

There is another kind of art which I find so interesting.  I'll call it idea art. Marianne is an allegorical figure in the painting "Liberty leading the people." She has a tricolor flag and a rifle. She is surrounded by people from many social strata and while she is striding on top of a pile of corpses, she is clearly leading the charge to liberty. A woman of the people, she is barefoot and wearing a type of cap that has been a symbol for freed slaves for more than 1000 years.

Cops buying donut equivalents in the metro in Paris

On a slightly humorous note, I was headed to the hotel on the metro and encountered these fellows shopping for dessert. Cops have the stereotype of donut eaters, because often enough they do just that. These guys all looked super fit and super serious. When the fellow closest noticed me taking a photo he asked what I was doing. I let him know I was a fan and just enjoyed that cops here are like cops back home. He laughed and replied; "we all gotta eat"  or something close to that. I have to say, walking around fearless was easy because while there are certainly bad people planning bad things out there, there are plenty of good people working hard to keep things as safe as possible. When we give in the the fear of what might happen, that's when the bad people win. Walking the streets and riding the metro in big crowds did not feel risky at all. I feel more danger in the US knowing how many people carry firearms on a regular basis. Those people might feel safer carrying, but I feel more danger from them carrying. Interesting how our actions have consequences for others even when we don't know or care.

Paris - 1

The Museum of Archeology

Gold from the Celts.

When one thinks of Paris, lots of different images might come to mind. The Eiffel tower, The Louvre, The Left Bank, the metro, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur and so many others might start the wheels turning. I started my Paris adventure at the National Museum of Archeology. In some ways like others I have seen, in others so very different. To get to it, one takes an RER train - not a metro. It is located in an outlying suburb and so requires more than just a metro pass to get to it.  These trains stop inside the city center, but are a separate system with much heavier trains. On the bright side, exiting the station plops one across the street from the museum. They had a rigid security check, for just me. No line of people streaming in and out.

Bronze age chest armor. Six exquisite pieces in one cabinet.

The amazing part of this national museum is the wide variety of items they can choose to display and the depth of selection of items means what one does see is some of the the most excellent of it's kind. They have the ability to pull from finds all over France and even had some things from Hallstatt in Austria and Hochdorf in Germany.

Bronze age arm and neck rings.

Iron Age wrist and arm bands.

What became really clear in this museum was the relative wealth and influence of the Celts in the Bronze and iron ages.  The iron age brought greater prosperity to the Celts and they traded more widely with the help of the new technology. The tribes organized into bigger units to support leaders who could pile up more wealth. This made the group more effective at holding off the Germanic tribes to the north and east and the Romans to the south.

What an interesting assortment of Bronze art. It seems like every surface had some sort of dimpling, stippling or striping.

There were a few really unique pieces from the Bronze age on display too. There was a cone that I could not suss out its purpose apart from decoration and a display of wealth/power. As interesting as the bronze was, the iron stole the show. Anything you can imagine a blacksmith making, they were already hard at work making in those days.  Most curious to me were the 6 foot tall iron hoops that were the rims on chariot wheels. Rims in this context being the outside edges of the wheel, not the hub the tire is mounted on.

I'm in the picture to give perspective on just how tall these wheels were.

Everything the bronze smiths managed earlier, the iron smiths did even more intensely. There was a single exception that I found however. It is difficult for me to even imagine this, but apparently 600 years before Christ, there were people who had figured our how to polish bronze well enough to have - a mirror!

Not as shiny as it once was, but what an item!

Some clever types had also worked out needles of many types and sizes. Not surprising since neolithic man had worked out needles using bone way back in the day. But still awfully cool to see in bronze or iron.

Bronze needles of various types.

Then I went father back in time to the neolithic. There was such a gigantic variety of stone knives, spear tips, cutting and scraping tools, and arrow tips that were displayed to show off the progression in technique for making the objects. The stone objects got smaller, more refined and more effective as time went on. But then there was the neolithic art. Apparently wide hips were appreciated back in the day. Probably because it meant the risk of dying in childbirth went down.

Various neolithic art pieces.

There were examples of cave art made in a number of ways. But the object from neolithic times that impressed me the most was also the feature photo for the museum's advertising. It is about 25,000 years old. An amazing piece of art today.  From then, it just boggles my mind. It is about 1.5 inches tall. It is called - Venus of Brassempouy.

Venus.

Because I had a chance to return to the city before Notre Dame had closed, I stopped to see her as well.  It is looking much better inside. Lighting improvements and restorations are continuing and showing off what they own to greater effect. Notre-Dame de Paris translates to Our Lady of Paris. There is a lot of what can be shown of the Cathedral, but I'm going to limit myself to just two objects to see. These are statues of the patrons saints of France.

Joan of Arc.

You might recognize the above as Joan of Arc. She has such a well know look about her.  The sign next to her proclaims she was burned as a witch and a heretic, but later the decision to rehabilitate her was made in this Cathedral. I'm always amazed at the judgments we pass on each other. In the superstitious frightened world of 1431, I understand how she was betrayed and convicted wrongly. But gee golly, she was "rehabilitated"? The men who killed her were wrong and the men who rehabilitated her don't impress me much either. I'm skeptical of anyone proclaiming that in the name of God someone else is good, or bad or deserving punishment or murder. The sins of the ancient church still echo to us today.

Will you be able to pick out my all time favorite saint over my shoulder?

Denis is the fellow with his head in his hands, not the person texting.

If you guessed St. Denis (pronounced Sanct Den-Knee).  You are correct. He preceded Joan by a very long time. Denis was sent to the area of Paris back in the early 200's. When he was beheaded, it is said he picked his head up and carried it about 6 miles, preaching the whole way. My favorite bit about this particular statue is how the halo remains above his neck indicating a belief that the sacred soul resides in the person, not the brain or head.