The next part of the Celtic evening prayer has the words:-
Lord, You have always lightened
this darkness of mine;
and though the night is here,
today I believe.
Celtic Christians held great store by the relationship between light and darkness.
The scholar Walter Brueggemann points out that lots of pivotal events in the Bible take place at night. “Unlike the daytime, the nighttime is vulnerable and exposed and dangerous. It is that time when we cannot manage, and people are drawn to God as a source of safety when there is no other source of safety, and as a source of presence when the world feels absent”
Right in the beginning of John’s gospel we find the primary text regarding the Christ-Light penetrating darkness. “In him appeared life and this life was the light of mankind. The light still shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out.” John 1:4-5
There is a story of a little girl in London who won a prize at a flower show. Her entry was grown in an old cracked teapot and had been placed in the attic window of a rundown tenement house. When someone asked how she managed to raise such a lovely flower in such an unlikely environment, she said she moved it around so it would always be in the sunlight.
May we pray with St Columba of Iona -- "
Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me,
Be thou a smooth path below me,
and thou a kindly shepherd behind me Today
- tonight - and for ever amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment