Morning Prayer: 22 August – Psalm 51:18; Haggai 1:2-5; Matthew 17:24-27 – on rebuilding

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentences

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 temple.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory.

Psalm 51:18

Look with favor on Zion and help her; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Huts were erected on the east side of the Abbey © Iona Community, from Outside the Safe Place: An oral history of the early years of the Iona Community. — Huts were erected on the east side of the Abbey
© Iona Community, from Outside the Safe Place: An oral history of the early years of the Iona Community.

Haggai 1:2-5

“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: The people are saying, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.’”

Then the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai: “Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you!”

Matthew 17:24-27

On their arrival in Capernaum, the collectors of the Temple tax came to Peter and asked him, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the Temple tax?”

“Yes, he does,” Peter replied. Then he went into the house.

But before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, “What do you think, Peter? Do kings tax their own people or the people they have conquered?”

“They tax the people they have conquered,” Peter replied.

“Well, then,” Jesus said, “the citizens are free! However, we don’t want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin. Take it and pay the tax for both of us.”

Reflection

IONA

In 561 Columba arrived on Iona with his twelve; in 1938 MacLeod arrived with another band of twelve, half craftsmen without jobs, half students for the ministry. They built a wooden shed to live in by the fallen monastery and began the work of re-building.

MacLeod recounts that the group needed money with which to get its project started. ‘I wrote to the richest man I knew. He replied that I should go see a psychiatrist at once. Then I asked – me a pacifist, mind you – Sir John Lithgow, a builder of warships at his Govan shipyard. He was interested, but asked if I would give up my pacifisn if he gave me the £5,000. I said “Not on your life.” “Then,” he said, “I will give you your £5,000.” Materials were hard to obtain: ‘The war was on and the government commandeered all timber. But a ship coming from Canada struck a storm and jettisoned its cargo of lumber in the Atlantic. The timber floated 80 miles, finally landed on Mull, opposite Iona – and all the right length! It roofs the Iona library today.’

James H. Forest
__________

__________

Canticle:

Christ, as a light
illumine and guide me.
Christ, as a shield
overshadow me.
Christ under me;
Christ over me;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;
in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light;
Christ as a shield;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,
wherever He may send you.
May He guide you through the wilderness,
protect you through the storm.
May He bring you home rejoicing
at the wonders He has shown you.
May He bring you home rejoicing
once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

_____________________________________

Peanut Gallery: The general format for Morning Prayer is adapted from the Northumbrian Community‘s Daily Office, as found in Celtic Daily Prayer (see online resources here.) Our Scripture readings and reflections will be taken from the Aidan Daily Readings (Celtic Daily Prayer) during the month of August. On Sundays, we’ll return to the USCCB readings (see online resources here) and various liturgical resources in order to reflect the Church’s worship and concerns throughout the world. Photo illustrations and music videos, available online, are included as they illustrate or illuminate the readings. I will try to give credit and link to sources as best I can.

Morning Prayer: 21 August – Psalm 48:1-3, 12-14; Isaiah 61:4; 2 Peter 3:8-9 – on God’s patience

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentences

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 temple.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory.

Psalm 48:1-3, 12-14

How great is the Lord, how deserving of praise, in the city of our God, which sits on his holy mountain! It is high and magnificent; the whole earth rejoices to see it! Mount Zion, the holy mountain, is the city of the great King! God himself is in Jerusalem’s towers, revealing himself as its defender.
_____

Go, inspect the city of Jerusalem. Walk around and count the many towers. Take note of the fortified walls, and tour all the citadels, that you may describe them to future generations. For that is what God is like. He is our God forever and ever, and he will guide us until we die.

Isaiah 61:4

Iona Abbey, founded by St Columba in 563 AD

They will rebuild the ancient ruins, repairing cities destroyed long ago. They will revive them, though they have been deserted for many generations.

2 Peter 3:8-9

But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

Reflection

IONA

The woodwork on the buildings of the small village gathered near the pier is so weathered that it makes them look as timeless as seagulls. At a monkish distance to the north, amid wide fields grazed by the islands sheep, the monastery looks as it must have looked when the Benedictines finished the premises 700 years ago: the plain square tower of St Mary’s Cathedral and the austere rectangular masses of the adjoining buildings are all of enduring grey stone with deep-cut windows under steep slated roofs. So solid does the monastery appear that it is hard to picture the ruined state it was in for four centuries after the Scottish Parliament outlawed the monastic life in 1561. Had the Act of Suppression come two years later it would have been a full thousand years since the first monks landed on Iona and began spreading the Christian faith in Scotland.
James H. Forest,
Sojourners magazine, May 1980)
_____

The Celtic monks, knowing the same restlessness and provocation which issues from the Almighty, depicted the Holy Spirit both as a dove and a wild goose. But where in our contemporary devotions are there glimpses that God, in the twentienth century, can be expected to surprise, contradict, upset or rile us in order that the kingdom may come?
John L. Bell & Graham A. Maule
_____

… and I say a prayer,
that the Wild Goose will come to me.
Iona, ‘Here I stand’
__________

__________

Canticle:

Blessing

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

_____________________________________

Morning Prayer: 20 August – Psalm 123:2; Numbers 24:16-17a; Revelation 22:16-18 – on watching and waiting

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentences

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 temple.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory.

Psalm 123:2

We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy, just as servants keep their eyes on their master, as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.

Numbers 24:16-17a

… the message of one who hears the words of God, who has knowledge from the Most High, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who bows down with eyes wide open:

I see him, but not here and now. I perceive him, but far in the distant future. A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel.

Revelation 22:16-18

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star.”

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let anyone who hears this say, “Come.” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life. And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book.

Reflection

IONA

The nunnery on Iona (now ruined) was established at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the nuns were at first Benedictine, then later of the Augustine order.
_____

DAWN IN THE NUNNERY
Day breaks behind the Bens of Mull
streaming across the restless Sound
blessing with thy shadows
pillars and the ruined arches of the Nunnery.

Holy place of ancient silence
basking in prayers of countless years
etching in the early sky
a benediction while a North wind snatches
the Abbey bell.

With deep compelling resonance it sounds
evoking in hearts a hidden longing
echoes of a vocation long-locked
within the rosy glow of this rough granite –
a sacred call.

Eyes uplifted, elated in expectation,
our sinful human-ness suffused with
transforming grace, we glimpse
in fleeting simplicity of soul
our Morning Star. (Fiona Martin)
__________

__________

Canticle:

Blessing

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

_____________________________________

Morning Prayer: 19 August – Psalm 22:4-5; Genesis 44:16-17; 1 Corinthians 10:15-16 – on the presence of Christ

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentences

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 temple.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory.

Psalm 22:4-5

Our ancestors trusted in you, and you rescued them. They cried out to you and were saved. They trusted in you and were never disgraced.

Genesis 44:16-17

Judah answered, “Oh, my lord, what can we say to you? How can we explain this? How can we prove our innocence? God is punishing us for our sins. My lord, we have all returned to be your slaves — all of us, not just our brother who had your cup in his sack.”

“No,” Joseph said. “I would never do such a thing! Only the man who stole the cup will be my slave. The rest of you may go back to your father in peace.”

1 Corinthians 10:15-16

You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves if what I am saying is true. When we bless the cup at the Lord’s Table, aren’t we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren’t we sharing in the body of Christ?

Reflection

IONA

Kenneth Macleod speaks in the same breath of Iona and of the Holy Grail, that cup which Christ blessed at His last supper, and which Joseph of Arimathea is often portrayed as holding at Christ’s wounded side to catch the drops of His blood. There is at once a simplicity, a deep mystery, and a faith that goes beyond purely rational considerations that is at the heart of the experience which is Iona, and as with the Grail, if the mystery it points to is Christ Himself and a love for Him, then perhaps that is what matters most, through the ebb and flow of many a tide.
_____

TO IONA
For their sake who lived and died in thee,
sang their faith and taught their joy to me,
for their sake I bow the knee,
Iona the blest,
isle of my heart, my grail. (Kenneth Macleod)
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THOU GRAIL-LIT IONA
My heart’s own shrine
where only lives what seemed to die,
my Grail-lit Isle,
ebb-tide, flow-tide, Christ is nigh. (Kenneth Macleod)
__________

__________

Canticle:

Blessing

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

_____________________________________

Morning Prayer: 18 August – Psalm 139:6-12; 2 Samuel 15:21; Revelation 12:11 – on facing death

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentences

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 temple.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory.

Psalm 139:6-12

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!

Traigh Bhan - The White Strand of the Monks The sand on the northeastern coast of Iona is beautifully clean and fine. The English name for this beach refers to the monks of the ancient abbey of Iona, a holy place for centuries. — Traigh Bhan – The White Strand of the Monks
The sand on the northeastern coast of Iona is beautifully clean and fine. The English name for this beach refers to the monks of the ancient abbey of Iona, a holy place for centuries.

I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night — but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.

2 Samuel 15:21

But Ittai said to the king, “I vow by the Lord and by your own life that I will go wherever my lord the king goes, no matter what happens — whether it means life or death.”

Revelation 12:11

And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.

Reflection

IONA

The White Sands of Iona skirt its north-western shore. They are of unusual whiteness, and are composed of the powdered shells of innumerable land-snails. The stretch of sand known as Traigh Bhan nam Manach (White Sands of the Monks) is believed to have been the scene of the third slaughter of Iona monks by the Danes, and the hard steep rock at the northern extremity is said to have been stained with the blood of the victims.
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Here I stand looking out to sea
where a thousand souls have prayed
and a thousand lives were laid on the sand…
(Iona)
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Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.
Psalm 116:15
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THE WHITE STRAND OF MONKS

Sea-sharp winds
shriek between rocks,
hurling gulls seaward,
shredding their thin cries,
clawing fragile clouds
till, remnant-torn,
their sharp tears
spatter matted heather,
and cleft rocks
bleed by a white strand
where wide-eyed monks
trembling wait.
(Fiona Martin)
__________

Canticle:

Blessing

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

_____________________________________

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