“Without a vision, the
people perish.” – Proverbs 29:18
New Year's Eve walk along the beach
Cape Canaveral
In just a few minutes my
taxi will arrive to take me to the airport. I am headed to Geneva this day to
meet a group of European Franciscans whom I will accompany to the Scottish isle
of Iona this weekend.
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,
Be all else but naught to me, save that thou art;
Thou my best thought in the day and the night,
Both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.
Iona has a long history of
being a deeply spiritual place. Inhabited by Celts long before the coming of
the Irish monks, evidence of pre-Christian Iron Age religious practice are to
be found all over the island. With the coming of St. Columba, a Benedictine
monk from Ireland, in the 6th CE, Iona became a very generative
place for Celtic Christianity which eventually would missionize the entirety of
Britain.
Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word,
Be thou ever with me, and I with thee Lord;
Be thou my great Father, and I thy true son;
Be thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.
It is on Iona that the
Indo-European fertility symbols of lingam and yoni were combined to create the
beloved Celtic Cross with its symbols of the four directions and universality.
And it is on Iona that the Book of Kells would be created, having been spirited
off to Ireland in advance of one of the many waves of invading Norsemen who
periodically swept in off the North Sea to destroy the monastery on the island.
An interfaith community now
inhabits the rebuilt monastery with a long history of musical and liturgical
innovation. We will be staying with them.
Iona is a routinely
described as a magical place, a place where the veil between the material and
spiritual realms is very thin. At these thin places, pilgrims have reported
visions of the divine, many of which have changed the lives of those who
experienced them.
Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise:
Be thou mine inheritance now and always;
Be thou and thou only the first in my heart;
O Sovereign of Heaven, my treasure thou art.
I awoke yesterday morning
with my favorite hymn playing in my head. Be
Thou My Vision is set to an old Celtic melody, Slane, a traditional favorite in Ireland. The link here will take
you to a beautiful Youtube instrumental rendition of this melody. Treat
yourself to the four minutes this video will take to soothe your soul if but
for a moment.
My family roots lie deeply
embedded in Celtic soil and so it is little wonder this music appeals to me. But
my memories of singing this hymn are tied to my time in California. It was the
hymn we sang in my multicultural parish in San Jose on the Kirking of the
Tartans in which the cloth from every culture represented there was placed on
the altar in a riot of color and symbols. It was also the hymn sung at my
ordination to the priesthood.
The lyrics of this hymn well
describe the stage of life at which I find myself, seeking vision for a new
phase of life that I seem unable to avoid. The wheel is turning and the door
behind me appears to be closing. No new door ahead has appeared. The way forward
is unclear, murky and frightening. I am praying that the thin places of Iona
might provide me with some kind of direction.
For those of you who pray, I
shamelessly ask your prayers. For those of you who don’t, I shameless ask for
you to keep me in your thoughts these next couple of week. I depart for this
encounter with the divine with no small amount of trepidation. Pray not only that
I find a vision of what I am to do. Pray
I find the strength and courage to engage that vision and a peace that has
eluded me for these last few years in seeking it.
High King of Heaven, thou Heaven's bright sun,
O grant me its joys after victory is won!;
Great heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be thou my vision, O Ruler of all.
There’s the taxi….
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry
Scott Coverston, J.D., M.Div. Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Professed Member, Third Order Society of St. Francis
(TSSF)
Asst. Lecturer: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
Osceola Campus, University of Central Florida, Kissimmee
If the unexamined
life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious
or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of
value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
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