Matthew under the arm 27
[Woops the last blog should have been No 26.... ]
We stopped to eat our sandwiches today, a little late. It would be about 3 in the afternoon. It was calm and still. I just adore simple food while walking on pilgrimage. Columba asked if he might use my knife to cut up his apple. As I handed him the knife, he smiled and asked if I would like a piece of his apple. 'I have my own', I answered. 'Yes, I know', he replied. He then sliced the apple carefully. I was puzzled. You would think he was a sculptor, the way he applied maximum attention and care to his cutting. He then handed me a slice. It wasn't just that I was eating a piece of his apple. It was if I had never seen or tasted an apple before. Columba's attention turned our sharing into a sacrament.
Matthew 7:6
This verse demonstrates a disturbing aspect of Jesus’ unpredictable personality. What lies behind this is that all things are holy. We will, therefore, have veneration for all creatures, including dogs and pigs. Particular places and people are sacred. They are there, however, to remind us to discover the sacred in the profane. We move into a sacred space in order to leave it and discover and create with God sacredness wherever we are. We don’t leave it to the saints!
Let My Holiness go before all your words and actions
Wherever you are praying – in a shrine, a church or by your prayer corner… anywhere, you are in a sacred place and in a sacred time. Maybe you have a favourite place to pray but are not there now – a shrine that you love to visit or have heard of. Imagine it now. Be there. What makes it holy? You can go there any time in your imagination. Then use the sentence and linger in the holiness. As you leave your prayer ask God for the strength to ‘be’ that holiness in your words and actions. You will then bring sacredness to the people and places where you are. But remember, you will be the last to know, if ever!
+Martin
Argyll and The Isles
We stopped to eat our sandwiches today, a little late. It would be about 3 in the afternoon. It was calm and still. I just adore simple food while walking on pilgrimage. Columba asked if he might use my knife to cut up his apple. As I handed him the knife, he smiled and asked if I would like a piece of his apple. 'I have my own', I answered. 'Yes, I know', he replied. He then sliced the apple carefully. I was puzzled. You would think he was a sculptor, the way he applied maximum attention and care to his cutting. He then handed me a slice. It wasn't just that I was eating a piece of his apple. It was if I had never seen or tasted an apple before. Columba's attention turned our sharing into a sacrament.
Matthew 7:6
This verse demonstrates a disturbing aspect of Jesus’ unpredictable personality. What lies behind this is that all things are holy. We will, therefore, have veneration for all creatures, including dogs and pigs. Particular places and people are sacred. They are there, however, to remind us to discover the sacred in the profane. We move into a sacred space in order to leave it and discover and create with God sacredness wherever we are. We don’t leave it to the saints!
Let My Holiness go before all your words and actions
Wherever you are praying – in a shrine, a church or by your prayer corner… anywhere, you are in a sacred place and in a sacred time. Maybe you have a favourite place to pray but are not there now – a shrine that you love to visit or have heard of. Imagine it now. Be there. What makes it holy? You can go there any time in your imagination. Then use the sentence and linger in the holiness. As you leave your prayer ask God for the strength to ‘be’ that holiness in your words and actions. You will then bring sacredness to the people and places where you are. But remember, you will be the last to know, if ever!
+Martin
Argyll and The Isles
posted by Martin at 8:45 pm
3 Comments:
I like the idea of visualizing a favorite sacred place, and being able to visit it at any time.
The first one that comes to mind is the garden by my parish church, where my mother's ashes are buried and her name is etched on a little brass plaque. One passes from the street, under a Gothic arch, past bushes and flowers, to a space used liturgically for the lighting of the paschal flame during the Vigil of Easter Eve, from which parishioners carry candles into the nave.
If that garden were only used for "storage" and the burying of ashes, we'd probably avoid walking through it. Instead it's actively used for prayers at the Resurrection Feast.
Thank you, bishop.
Josh Thomas
Indiana, USA
Therefore by your reasoning the pig slaughtered on the sacrifical table by the Romans in the temple in AD 70 was holy?
Well, The pig was part of the 'fullness of the earthwhich belongs to the Lord' so yes it was holy though the action in slaughtering it was not.
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