Tag: David Cole

• Devotional Reading for the Three Celtic Lents

  Previously I have written about how, in ancient times, Celtic monks observed three “Lents” — which is to say, three forty-day periods of fasting, prayer, and sacrifice, in preparation for three sacred moments in the year:

  • The actual season of Lent (forty days prior to Easter)
  • A summertime “Lent” (forty days prior to the Feast of the Transfiguration)
  • A forty-day period of Advent (prior to Christmas).

  I love the spirit of the three Lents, because, all told, it means that about 1/3 of the year (120 days) are devoted to times of particular prayer, reflection, discipline and generosity. Especially if we approach Lent not as a morbid period of excessive austerity, but rather as a joyful time of letting-go and immersing ourselves into Divine Love, then the idea of three “Lents” becomes especially appealing.

  Unfortunately, none of the mainstream churches or faith communities observe the three Lents — as I bemoaned in my previous post, very few Christians nowadays even bother with the one Lent! So if you are interested in embracing the Celtic spirituality of the three Lents, you may be doing it on your own.

  However, there is now a trilogy of devotional books written specifically to help folks like you and me to embrace the spirituality of the three Lents. I heartily encourage you to explore these titles and see if they might be a blessing for your faith journey. They come from the hand of David Cole, who is the newly appointed Deputy Guardian of the Community of Aidan and Hilda, a dispersed new monastic community anchored in the Celtic tradition. Disclaimer: David is also a good friend of mine.

  The first book of his Celtic trilogy is 40 Days with the Celtic Saints. While this devotional guide could be profitably used at any time during the year, it is especially appropriate for the season leading up the Feast of the Transfiguration (June 27 – August 5). Each day Cole introduces us to a different saint of the Celtic world, from the well-known (Brigid, Columba, Patrick) to many lesser-renowned gems (Æbbe, Boisil, Melangell). He’s done a good job at including saints from throughout the Celtic lands, with figures from Cornwall, Northumbia, Wales and Brittany featured alongside the more internationally-recognized Irish saints.

  Each daily meditation begins with a brief biography of the featured saint, followed by a meditation prompt, a scripture passage (suitable for lectio divina) and a blessing, of course. It makes for a rich devotional guidebook that can be the centerpiece for your daily spiritual practice over this forty-day period.

  To supplement the first book, the author has now produced Celtic Advent and Celtic Lent. As the titles indicate, each book is geared toward the preparation period leading up to Christmas and Easter, respectively.

  Whereas most churches that mark Advent follow a standard season consisting of four Sundays (approximately 22-28 days in length), Celtic Advent invites the reader to join with the ancient Celts in marking a full forty days prior to Christmas — thus beginning on November 15. It makes for a much more meaningful season of preparation — and, perhaps, a more helpful antidote to the commercialization of the pre-Christmas season.

  The forty-day period is divided into sections: five days of orientation toward the advent season, followed by ten days devoted to each of the three advents of Christ — the first advent at Bethlehem, the second advent into the heart of each believer, and the final advent at the end of history. The final five days focus specifically on the joy of Christmas.

  Following a format similar to the Celtic Saints devotional, each day includes a meditative reading, a prompt for contemplation, a scripture passage, and a prayer suitable for the day.

  Completing the trilogy is Cole’s newly released book, Celtic Lent. It’s due to be released next week, so I haven’t seen it yet, but I trust it will follow a similar format, only this time leading us into the wisdom of preparation for the paschal mystery and the joy of Easter. The publisher has this to say about the book:

  This inspirational book takes the reader through the 40 days of Lent to the celebration of Easter through the eyes and beliefs of Celtic Christianity. Drawing on primary sources of pastoral letters, monastic rules and the theological teaching of the Celtic church, the author presents a different perspective on the cross of Christ and draws us to see our own life journeys with a new and transforming vision.

  These three books, taken together, offer a rich invitation to the reader: to allow the saints, wisdom, and unique viewpoint of the Celtic tradition to encircle your daily walk with Christ, throughout the rhythm of the year. it’s a tradition imbued with joy, optimism, zeal, and wonder. And David Cole is a fine guide to making this mysteries truly present in our daily lives.

  November 21, 2018

  Celtic, Celtic Christianity, Celtic Spirituality, David Cole, Lent

  ---

• Praying with Evelyn Underhill — and the Celtic Saints

  Believe it or not, Lent is just over two weeks away.

  Which means it is time to select your Lenten book for devotional reading.

  Lent is a time for prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. According to the Rule of Saint Benedict, it’s also an ideal time for devotional reading. In The Rule of Saint Benedict we find this mandate:

  During this time of Lent each one is to receive a book from the library, and is to read the whole of it straight through. These books are to be distributed at the beginning of Lent.(RSB 48:15-16)

  With this in mind, here are two recently published books, either or both of which I would recommend for your Lenten reading. If you’d like a devotional with a Celtic flavor, go for 40 Days with the Celtic Saints by David Cole. For a more general collection of prayers, check out Evelyn Underhill’s Prayer Book edited by Robyn Wrigley-Carr.

  

  40 Days with the Celtic Saints

  David Cole of the Celtic Community of Aidan and Hilda has written a number of wonderful books on Celtic and contemplative spirituality — and this latest offering is ideal for Lenten devotion (or, as he points out in his introduction to the book, suitable for any time of “preparation,” including Advent). The book is a simple daily devotional, with each entry introducing you to a Celtic saint, including a brief biography of the saint of the day, a relevant scripture passage, a meditation prompt, and a brief blessing.

  The saints include the usual suspects: St. Brendan, St. Brigid, St. David, St. Cuthbert — along with a number of lesser known figures, with colorful names like Boisil, Cadoc, and Tysilio. Even the controversial Pelagius is included (with a thoughtful biography that suggests we should not judge Pelagius the man by Pelagianism the heresy).

  Although the book simply presents these various saints in alphabetical order, a chart at the end also arranges them according to their feast day (I’m writing this on January 29, the feast day of Saint Gildas the Wise, a Welsh historian who settled in Brittany).

  What I love about this book is that it not only functions as a useful daily devotional, but by the time you’ve worked through it you get a very rich introduction to the breadth and variety of the Celtic holy men and women.

  Order 40 Days with the Celtic Saints

  

  Evelyn Underhill’s Prayer Book

  Anyone who is at all familiar with my work knows that I simply adore Evelyn Underhill. She introduced me to Christian mysticism, and her work as a lay retreat director has been a direct inspiration for my own ministry.

  So you can imagine my delight when it was announced recently that Evelyn Underhill’s two notebooks filled with her personal collection of prayers — including prayers she wrote, but also many collected from other authors throughout Christian history — had been discovered in the library of one of the retreat houses she frequented. These two handwritten notebooks were thought to be lost, much to the chagrin of Underhill scholars, for she often made reference to her prayer books in her retreat notes.

  Thanks to a doctoral student, Robyn Wrigley-Carr, doing research at the Pleshey Retreat house, the notebooks finally came to light, and now for the first time they have been published, so we all can a glimpse into the kinds of prayers that Evelyn Underhill loved to share with her retreatants — and, we may assume, the kinds of prayers that shaped her own rich interior life.

  And what a treasury it is! Many of the greatest lights in Christian spirituality are included in this collection: saints like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Teresa of Ávila, Francis of Assisi, along with other luminaries like Eriugena, deCaussade, and John Henry Newman. But a few surprising figures show up as well, like Christina Rossetti or the Sufi poet Rabia; and even a few prayers by friends of Evelyn Underhill’s like Margaret Cropper (not to mention many unattributed prayers, which the editor suggests are probably Underhill’s own work).

  Here is just one gem, from the 19th century French Jesuit mystic, Jean Nicolas Grou:

   Teach us, O God, that silent language which says all things. Teach our souls to remain silent in Your presence; that we may adore You in the depths of our being, and await all things from You, while asking of You nothing but the accomplishment of Your will. Teach us to remain quiet under Your action and produce in our souls that deep and simple prayer which says nothing and experiences everything, which specifies nothing and includes everything. Do pray in us, that our prayer may ever tend to Your glory, and our desires and intentions may not be fixed on ourselves, but wholly directed to You.

  There’s much more where that came from.

  I’m finding that when I read a few pages of Evelyn Underhill’s Prayer Book that it has the same effect on me that reciting the daily office has — in other words, it invites me to rest in that vast silent place within, even as I am praying the words of love and devotion that Underhill so carefully curated almost a century ago. It is a superb collection of prayers, and since it is only about 120 pages long, it’s perfectly suited for a Lenten devotional — read a page or two each morning and evening, and you’ll pray  your way through Lent.

  Order Evelyn Underhill’s Prayer Book

  I hope you will prayerfully consider one of these books for your Lenten reading this year — but get them both! One more tidbit from Saint Benedict, who suggested that for monks, life is a “continual Lent.” For contemplatives that means we are always invited into deeper prayer and devotion, not just during the forty days before Holy Week. So read one of these books now, and savor the other one later. They both will bless you.

  January 29, 2018

  David Cole, Evelyn Underhill, Lent, Prayer, Resource

  ---