Matthew under the arm 18

I carry a little radio with me wherever I go. What is so strange is that Columba doesn't seem to want to listen to the news with me, certainly not as much as I listen to it! And yet, he seems to have a deep awareness of what's going on. He is profoundly aware of what happens as a result of decisions being made out of fear rather than love. He looks at my face when I listen to the news that Saddam Hussein has been executed and sees my fear of what might be the consequences. What is more, he sees even more poignantly that my fear is not really for the consequences of further agony in the Middle East, but fear for myself. 'What will happen to me?' He sees that I too stand 'looking at' the execution with all its moral implications. Not that Columba judges. His compassion for my fearful self-absoprtion is one that he has for all those we encounter. I am reminded of T S Eliot's Four Quartets: 'We all go into the dark'. The paradox is that in acknowledging this, the Light of Christ begins to penetrate. Have I the courage to live the life of non-resistance let alone to proclaim it as the way of Christ for us?


Matthew 5:38-42

‘…do not resist…’. Pacifism can be an assertive way of promoting or defending a cause. However, the focus of the Sermon on the Mount is God. In God, life and death are part of the way we are created. We can find God in all of creation without exception, hard though that may be. However, there is the disturbing defensiveness in our attitudes and actions that arises from our fears. To practice non-resistance is to try working with faith in non-violence that God enables. Tragically, it maybe that circumstances force us to be and do otherwise. That is why all aggression, even if ethically necessary, is a matter of confession and repentance.


My Grace brings healing to the roots of your fear


In prayer, there is a realisation of the otherness of God - ‘Holiness’ – beyond understanding. In Christ, that otherness is intimately present. When you can, try to pray for a while before or after a Eucharist, because the Body and Blood of Christ point to the otherness of God and yet you take God into ourselves. So, in this prayer, try recalling someone with whom you have had conflict. Don’t spend too long recollecting images of aggression as that is unnecessarily disturbing to your praying. Invite Christ to be with you and let Christ enter deeply into your fears. This is no instant panacea, but a life-time’s faithfulness to peace-making and reconciliation.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 17

Walking withColumba through a back street of this town, he stopped to talk to two men on a wall holding empty bottles of cheap sherry. He simply listened to their abusive attitude. He looked as if he was exposing the terror in their hearts. From his ruck-sack he took out his sandwiches and his flask, gave it to them and walked away having laid his hand on each of their heads - a simple blessing. 'What are you going to eat?', I asked him. 'Well, there's your sandwiches isn't there?'


Matthew 5:33-37
The legal industry depends on swearing. International politics is punctuated by swearing: the making of treaties, vows or oaths. Because of our human insecurity, when we desire a relationship with someone, there goes with it the desire that they somehow bind themselves to us: ‘swear allegiance’. The truth is that we want to possess relationships. All this arises from the basic desire for security. Christianity, on the other hand, has that strange wisdom of insecurity!Christ demands utter simplicity because all relationships in the Kingdom are simple and free: ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Here and now, we are asked to begin practicing a kind of insecurity – so that we are focused on the simplicity of God.

That my words and actions may reflect the simplicity of Your Truth within me.

Going into prayer brings with it an insecurity. There seem to be no certainties. All I may seem be doing is negotiating with the four walls around me. There is a courage in practicing prayer. There is nothing to possess! However, there is a unique freedom in praying in the presence of the Love of God. It is helpful to have a friend who will help you discern where your ‘allegiance’ lies. The sentence above is about freedom – becoming detached from the desire to possess. What happens then is that in the depth of your heart you are enfolded in a love that is beyond any allegiance.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 16

Already on thius pilgrimage, I have grown to love Columba. He listens. He watches. He is there - no - here (!) for me totally... or so it seems. I walk beside him and am aware that as he looks into the middle distance, he 'holds' me in his heart, but I don't feel suffocated by that holding. What is so strange though is that I notice that as he leant across a fence yesterday to talk to a farmer feeding his cattle, he was uniquely attaentive to him as well. I was jealous. I want Columba's company on this pilgrimage just for me; my possession! Oh dear.... I better open the passage....


Matthew 5:27-32
Lust and adultery are not in themselves central to this passage! The expectations of the arrival of a Kingdom among religiously aware people were acute. The Gospel imperative is entirely centred on God. Anything that gets in the way of that might well lead not only to moral collapse but more importantly to a lack of preparedness for urgent coming of the Kingdom. It’s not so much sexuality itself, but possessiveness that gets in the way. That is a universal truth. The longing for sexual fulfilment is delightful and healthy! However, the desire to possess the one I long for... that's where the deadening of love begins. Possessiveness is a poison: it is inordinate attachment to that which I desire. Being 'cast into hell' is a poetic description of what it is to be separated from love – separated from the freedom that is the non-possessiveness of the Love of God.

Let your heart be open to the Love of My Holiness

In praying, I may be afraid of moving into what is apparently a loneliness, a void, emptiness. If I choose God over against possessing what I desire: sex or otherwise, I fear I might be left with nothing. That seems frightening. I ask in my meditation for the gift of being open (and that means using the gift of faith given by God) to the possibility of freedom and not possession. Out of that, I may be some instrument of freedom for others. I no longer need to possess you. You are free. And that is love! And that is so hard. It’s a crucifixion almost. Holiness is nothing other than the space, the freedom of God. There is a beautiful pain in this meditation as in the silence I am bound to encounter the possessiveness that strangles my freedom. Staying with the sentence will help me to move beyond the choke of possessiveness to the freedom of God, just a little.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 15

Columba has noticed something in my face. We had stopped to buy some sandwiches and fill our flasks. I sat on a bench in the square just staring at nothing, or so I thought. Columba came and sat beside me. 'You are carrying something in your heart. Do you want to tell me about it?', he asked. There was no point in resisting his intent look into my eyes. He knew. So, with a sigh, a told him that I had been hoping that the pilgrimage would be an opportunity to deal with a deep hurt in me. Instaed of that it has grown worse....

Matthew 5:20-26…
‘…go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering.’ Forgiveness is so difficult because hurt is so deeply implanted in the memory. To work on forgiveness has been shown to have psychological, ethical and, indeedn physical value. However, reconciliation is a living out of the activity of God’s forgiveness. The hurt is used, transfigured by God, not forgotten. So the priority is not what I feel or remember. Putting it bluntly, God demands forgiveness. For that is the nature of God in Christ. For me, to be reconciled with you is to cooperate with the process of God’s work, not primarily to make me or even you feel better. You and I are called, indeed summoned, to live beyond ourselves. It may not be possible to forgive to any significant extent without my realisation of the Spirit of God reconciling within me. Strangely, we can relax and not try so hard.


Let the Spirit of God deepen my desire for Your Reconciliation

To think of someone who has hurt you, brings feelings of resentment and worse. It maybe that you have spoken words of forgiveness but the feelings lie beyond words and maybe even for a life-time. Maybe you can't even bear the thought of meeting the person. The reconciliation of God comes to heal and transfigure your feelings – use them. So just see the person or persons you have hurt or who have hurt you. Let them pass before you without too much time spent on how you feel. Above don't analyse... that's a trap. Then use the meditation sentence ‘pointed’ towards God. If feelings do arise, do not force them away. Simply acknowledge them. A crucifix before you can point you away from unnecessarily negative feelings of yourself. You might find it helpful to write down the feelings to help you let them go for a while. Just focus your attention on the sentence.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 14

For days on this pilgrimage, I have done everything I could to avoid praying and being still. I have tried every excuse under the sun. Columba is smiling at me... he doesn't have to say anything. he knows! Not that this is about guilt - the 'oughts' and 'shoulds' again. He is simply making me aware of my inclination to avoid... to resist... So I am breathing rhythmically and gently... and smiling at myself!

Matthew 5.17-19
This little passage is about balance. On the one hand, the ‘Law’ basically is about obedience to God and the sacred instructions as to how we are to be obedient. A central part of Moses Law was, of course, the Ten Commandments. On the other hand, the ‘Prophets’ were those who had insight into the Revelation of God in their midst – God among us – Immanuel. Nothing must get in the way of the Love of God. The prophets are those who point the ways in which we avoid or evade that obedience.


Let My Love of You draw you into My Way and My Truth

It is worth remembering the Ten Commandments by heart. (Exodus Ch 20). They may seem to some bald and even possessive. What matters is that they point to life in God that must not be blocked by any attitude that negates that life. They also point beyond the dangers of individualism. Jewish and Christian spirituality is about community and relationship. To be 'in Christ' takes in life and death and demands obedience to the Love of God. Prayer is the beginning of this obedience and must be disciplined in order to have the focus of my life shifted on to the work of God’s love in history, including your intimate history. The sentence is a way of having the very depths of our consciousness disciplined – ‘drawn’ into God. Remember, obedience is not subservience. When you are passionate, when you are in love, you may not think of it in this way, but you are being obedient to that passion and love which you are experiencing. Give sometime to thinking and praying of examples of obeience which you have admired and perhaps been challenged by.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 13

Is this walking with Columba of any real 'use'...? Is there not something more creative, more enjoyable that I might be doing? Sometimes it seems that I am just putting one foot in front of the other and waiting for the next hot chocolate or....! As for Columba, well he seems to have his eyes permanently on the look out, not for danger, but as if he is expecting someone else to join us. Strangely this is not distracting him but making his own walking more attentive. He is on the look out for Christ, of course. Sometimes I notice him smile. He is smiling at himself and shaking his head. Columba, he is saying to himself, waken up! Christ is already with you...!

Matthew 5.13-16
‘…that seeing your good works, they may give praise to your Father’. So the good works point away from me and to God. Once again, this little passage reminds us of John the Baptist pointing to Christ and not getting in the way. I have a particular piece of work I am asked to do for God. I may be unclear what it is, but someone close to me might know. So the light of Christ shines through me as I am....the one Christ loves! The rest is the work of the Spirit of God. That involves trust. And that’s hard!

I would know Your Light within me to be a source of hope to those in darkness


What is the work that Christ wants of you? Well, ask Him! Be careful! You may well be doing that work and you don’t know it. So don’t be hard on yourself. Guilt is destructive in prayer let alone in living. In your imagination, picture someone you admire (a famous person in history for example….) asking you to work for her or him. What do you imagine that to be? Don’t think too hard – just let your imagination run - and enjoy it. Now imagine Christ asking you to do something…. Just let yourself be free and stay with the images and feelings. After you have left your meditation, note down any reactions, images or feelings you had.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles.

Matthew under the arm 12

So sorry.... This is another attempt at the posting Matthew under the arm 12. Tripped on my boot lace!

I have just felt an arm around my shoulder.... Yes, it's yours Columba. You noticed I was not really 'present' to the walking - to the pilgrimage. It feels, as you hold me, as if I am caught up into the passion of your single-heartedness in Christ. A simple touch from you, Columba, is a blessing, a beatitude. Oh dear! I can't never remember how many beatitudes there are in the Gospel. Goodness! Me a Bishop and I don't know the Beatitudes, by heart?!! ... What I want you to do, Columba, is open your Gospel and read the Beatitudes to me. We'll sit on this stone for a bit. I'll close my eyes, eat my bacon sandwich and listen to you... Then I'll repeat what you have read, verse by verse... as you eat your bacon sandwich...

Matthew 5.1-12
The trouble about the term ‘Beatitudes’ is that it feels like a collection of objects. ("I wonder where I left the beatitudes... I must have dropped them somewhere!") No. They are processes or ways of God. These verses contain the eight ways of being brought into God. A beatitude or blessing is a active sign of this process. We are being brought to live in unity with God. The deeper this unity, the less I have to force the response that is the affect of the blessing on those around me. It happens! The temptation is to turn my living with God into a work project. The eight ways are the ways of Christ in you in the whole of your lives. Spiritual integration begins to happen when you see your prayer and the rest of your life affect each other and become one. Try to recall a recent feeling of being blessed which brought your into a sense of oneness....

Let the poverty of your heart draw you into My Way

It is worth remembering the Beatitudes, the ‘eight ways’ of blessing ‘by heart’. To do so is to allow them to enter deeply into you. There is a greater chance that they become part of you. Another approach to praying this passage is to focus on just one of the ‘ways’, as the sentence above illustrates. Poverty is not a pejorative judgement of something that you lack – it is a willingness to be empty in order to receive. One of the methods of letting yourself experience this spiritual emptiness is to imagine that Christ’s eyes are fixed on you as he speaks the words of the Beatitudes. So doing, you will recognise the poverty in you and long more and more for the gaze of Christ.

Matthew under the arm 12

I have just felt an arm around my shoulder.... Yes, it's yours Columba. You noticed I was not really 'present' to the walking - to the pilgrimage. It feels, as you hold me, as if I am caught up into the passion of your single-heartedness in Christ. A simple touch from you, Columba, is a blessing, a beatitude. Oh dear! I can't never remember how many beatitudes there are in the Gospel. Goodness! Me a Bishop and I don't know the Beatitudes, by heart?!! ... What I want you to do, Columba, is open your Gospel and read the Beatitudes to me. We'll sit on this stone for a bit. I'll close my eyes, eat my bacon sandwich and listen to you... Then I'll repeat what you have read, verse by verse... as you eat your bacon sandwich...

Matthew 5.1-12
The trouble about the term ‘Beatitudes’ is that it feels like a collection of objects. ("I wonder where I left the beatitudes... I must have dropped them somewhere!") No. They are processes or ways of God. These verses contain the eight ways of being brought into God. A beatitude or blessing is a active sign of this process. We are being brought to live in unity with God. The deeper this unity, the less I have to force the response that is the affect of the blessing on those around me. It happens! The temptation is to turn my living with God into a work project. The eight ways are the ways of Christ in you in the whole of your lives. Spiritual integration begins to happen when you see your prayer and the rest of your life affect each other and become one. Try to recall a recent feeling of being blessed which brought your into a sense of oneness....

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles





Let the poverty of your heart draw you into My Way



It is worth remembering the Beatitudes, the ‘eight ways’ of blessing ‘by heart’. To do so is to allow them to enter deeply into you. There is a greater chance that they become part of you. Another approach to praying this passage is to focus on just one of the ‘ways’, as the sentence above illustrates. Poverty is not a pejorative judgement of something that you lack – it is a willingness to be empty in order to receive. One of the methods of letting yourself experience this spiritual emptiness is to imagine that Christ’s eyes are fixed on you as he speaks the words of the Beatitudes. So doing, you will recognise the poverty in you and long more and more for the gaze of Christ.

Matthew under the arm 11

Oh dear! For a few miles along the way with Columba I have been asking myself: Do I really want to carry on this pilgrimage? When I'm feeling low and, frankly, fed up, I just want to turn off the path... Columba walks behind me at that point, not to poke me in the back; not to tell me what I ought or ought not to feel let alone do. He says the simplest of things: I am with you and feel what you feel because Christ walks with us. Stop, Martin, get your thermos out again, open your Bible... Try the meditation and have a little nap! Then remember why you are on this pilgrimage....

Matthew 4.23-25
Being brought to Jesus.... Desperate people have the attention on them in these verses. However, it is easy to miss those that brought the sick to Jesus. 'Being brought' carries on the process begun in John the Baptist. He points away from himself to Christ. The people who bring the sick to Christ point away from themselves. They know to whom they are 'pointing'. This is the summons of the Gospel – to know Christ so that I can point to Him. In Christ, there is health amidst poverty and disease and there is hope among the hopeless. Where Christ is, God is.

Through the Spirit within me, let me bring others to Your Hope and Your Health


When someone brings you to a place or to meet someone, you are dependent. There is a relaxation in conscious dependence. St Teresa of Avila was in internal turmoil for years and she allowed herself to be 'carried' by others. They prayed not only for her but instead of her. So in your meditation let this question drop down deep into your memory: Who has brought you to places where you can relax and feel free? Maybe it is someone who has brought you healing, forgiveness or well-being that comes from being loved. See this person and ‘feel’ that person bringing you to Christ. They have not got in the way. Who have you brought, carried to a place of peace and health? Is there someone you can bring now in your imagination? Do not get in the way you are perhaps involved in the act of love – the Love of God.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 10

I remember going on a long walk and being told off for using binoculars too much! 'You wont, Martin, be taken by surprise by what is present with you here if you keep on looking into the distance.' Mmmm. Perhaps. However, pilgrimages are about 'presence', what is going here and now! The wind is blowing in my face and I can't hear what Columba is saying to me. So I'll just pull my anorak hood over my head, get my little torch out and read this.... Oh then I'll take some time just walking in some kind of rhythm, weather permitting, and praying with my breath and my footsteps....

Matthew 4.18-22
Attractive and hazardous! No caution. Instantaneous obedience to following Christ. There are no requests for security. It is a waste of time speculating on the motive behind this following. What is supreme is God’s imperative and your obedience. To follow Christ expects a single-hearted response. The nets of the fisherman are vital, perhaps even for the local economy, but Christ’s demand puts a question mark over all enterprises, including those that look sensible! No attempt to make this passage easier to stomach works. When Love calls there is an option –Yes or No!

I would receive Your Gifts of Truth and Freedom that I may follow You


Heroism is to courage as following Christ is to Faith. Obedience to God – following Christ - is not heroism. It is the simple action of focusing on service of the lowliest – God - without necessarily being noticed. Serving the humdrum with the best you have. So what gets in the way of this? Let Christ drop into your heart the words: 'Follow me!' Don’t work at outcomes that raise the chances of false expectations. Just listen and watch in prayer and the more that that happens the more you will respond with the only response possible for you. Yes!

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles