By Pastor Bruce
A number of years ago, Susan and I attended a spiritual retreat led by a group called the Northumbrian Community. We were somewhere in the mountains of Colorado, but our hearts and minds were drawn to the Northumberland coast in the northeast of England. As Richard Foster says, “It is rugged terrain, and in the ancient days the Celtic saints of Northumbria developed an equally rugged spirituality.”
As you can see, Lindisfarne which is also called Holy Island is linked to the mainland by a causeway which is accessible during low tide but is covered with water and impassable at high tide. This is the very feature which defined the life of the Lindisfarne Monastery founded by the Irish monk, Saint Aidan around 634 CE. At low tide the monks could easily walk to the mainland to minister to the people of the surrounding area as well as purchase the necessities of life. However, before the tide came in, whatever they were doing had to stop and they had to head back to the island or be stuck on the mainland for the night.
Their explanation of this rhythm of daily retreat to a place of community and prayer deeply affected me as I was at the time a younger pastor with a self-imposed sense of 24/7 responsibility to the congregation I served. I prided myself in being available at all hours of day and night, dropping whatever I was doing to respond to any need that arose. This pattern of life was due more to fear and job security than I would like to admit. I did not have a rhythm of work and prayer, of exertion and renewal, of engagement and solitude, of speaking and listening.
And so I was deeply impressed by these very ordinary people from England as they led our retreat and as they shared what they called the Daily Office which was a pattern of pausing for prayer four times a day: morning, noon, evening, and bedtime. The Daily Office gave their ordinary workaday lives a spiritual depth that was palpable and contagious.
We purchased the book of Celtic Daily Prayer and have used it ever since, not as faithfully as four times a day, but regularly enough that it has had a good effect on our daily lives.
The morning prayer begins this way:
One thing I have asked of the Lord,
This is what I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life;
To behold the beauty of the Lord
And to seek him in his holy temple.
With simple melodies which were easy to learn, we sang this prayer each morning of the retreat. Perhaps you can pause and listen to this prayer now by clicking on this YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekKGRnuakuc
We learned that the modern Northumbrian Community does not live on Lindisfarne Island like St Aidan and his successor St. Cuthbert did but is a worldwide community of faith consisting of men and women with a variety of jobs and vocations who have taken vows of “availability and vulnerability,” made a commitment to live by the ethic of the Sermon on the Mount, and whose daily lives are built around the four times of prayer they call the Daily Office.
Many of these saints do live in north Northumberland with a motherhouse and administrative center in Nether Springs. (As some of you know, Susan was going to lead a group of students to Ireland this May and I was going to join her after Ireland and possibly drive across England to make a retreat with the Northumbrian Community, but alas, this is 2020, a year unlike any other in our lives…)
If you are interested in learning more about this community or just downloading their daily prayers for your personal use, you can find all this and more on their website:
https://www.northumbriacommunity.org
Since this is Friday, I will leave you with the compline (bedtime prayer) for today:
O Lord, You will keep us safe
and protect us forever.
I am placing my soul and my body
in Thy safe keeping this night, O God,
in Thy safe keeping, O Jesus Christ,
in Thy safe keeping, O Spirit of perfect truth.
The Three who would defend my cause
be keeping me this night from harm.
I call on You, O God,
for You will answer me;
give ear to me and hear my prayer.
Show the wonder of Your great love,
You who save by Your right hand
those who take refuge in You from their foes.
Keep me as the apple of Your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings.
Lighten my darkness, Lord.
Let the light of Your presence
dispel the shadows of night.
Christ with me sleeping,
Christ with me waking,
Christ with me watching,
each day and each night.
Save us, Lord, while we are awake,
guard us while we are asleep;
that, awake, we may watch with Christ,
and, asleep, may rest in His peace.
God with me protecting,
the Lord with me directing,
the Spirit with me strengthening
forever and for evermore.
In the name of the Father precious,
and of the Spirit of healing balm.
In the name of the Lord Jesus,
I lay me down to rest.
The peace of all peace
be mine this night
in the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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