In Search of the Mystery of God

Cuthbert is given the Herculean task of winning the Lindisfarne monks over to the Benedictine rule of life, which he, himself, has only newly adopted after the Synod of Whitby. But, despite the bitterness and aggression shown towards him by those who were reluctant to change, he remained patient, kind, and sensitive to others, yet strong and resolute. Also interesting that Bede understands the &#3...

Something about Cuthbert's sensitivity to others allows him to hear the Holy Spirit speaking through a husband's distress. There is no doubt that his life of disciplined prayer, praise, worship and work has transformed him into an effective bearer of God's healing presence. This is nothing to do with 'works', and everything to do with cultivating the good soil of which Jesus sp...

The second of two stories about villages catching fire. This time the fire is real and Cuthbert takes it more seriously. We learn another piece of evidence suggesting that Cuthbert probably was from an aristocratic family as he was brought up by a wet nurse, of whom he clearly remained very fond. But he still had to take his turn looking after the sheep on the hills at night as a young lad. Perhap...

The first of a pair of stories about villages catching fire. In this one the fire is a 'phantom' fire that roars and crackles, is spread by the wind, appears to do damage, but can't be extinguished with water. Its purpose is distraction, rather like the seed choked by thorns and thistles. It is only overcome by Cuthbert's prayer, whereupon it vanishes. Fire is a metaphor for many d...

The only time in Cuthbert's 'Vita' that we possibly find him angry. And probably my favourite story of Cuthbert, perhaps even for that reason. I apologise in advance for the disturbing shock in the middle of it, but it is the only way I know how to read it. This story, more than any other, underlines the Anglo-Saxon understanding of our co-equality with the rest of creation before God....

Somewhat optimistically Cuthbert and companions set off on a winter’s sailing trip without provisions, and come unstuck. It seems that Cuthbert is not a great planner; there are several of these stories where he runs out of provisions while on a journey. Rather, he lives in the moment and trusts God for the rest. And if that means he goes hungry, he uses the opportunity to fast and pray. The fact...

Perhaps the best known of the stories about Cuthbert. Yet if anyone thought 'Celtic' Christianity, or more correctly Irish monasticism, a romantic idealism, this story must surely dispel any such myth. Cuthbert spends night after night up to his armpits secretly praying in the freezing North Sea, reciting the psalms. Nobody even knew he was doing it until after his death. This level of asc...

On Boisil's death, Cuthbert takes over as head of the monastery at Melrose. Bede spends a lot of time describing Cuthbert's ministry, not just within the cloister, but more significantly, without it. He is driven by genuine compassion to seek out those that no-one else will visit because of their remoteness and poverty. This description of his life is so important to Bede that he repeats t...

Having founded, and been given oversight of the new monastery at Ripon, Eata, Cuthbert, and the rest of the monks are kicked out when the king is persuaded to give it over the Wilfred, newly returned from Rome, instead. The year is 664, a year of plague and the Synod of Whitby, where Wilfred wins the argument over the calculation for the date of Easter, and the type of monastic discipline monks sh...

Abbot Eata took Cuthbert and some of the other monks from Melrose south, to the newly-built monastery at Ripon, leaving Boisil in charge. At this stage they were still following the Irish monastic tradition, rather than the Roman (that was to change after the Synod of Whitby in 664). Cuthbert is given the role of guestmaster, the public face of the monastery. The practices of hospitality related i...

Having been contemplating his future path for some time, Cuthbert decides to take the plunge. He trades in his spear for a pruning hook, his sword for a ploughshare, and his horse for a family. He is drawn to his local monastery of Melrose, rather than the renowned community on Holy Island, by the reputation for holiness of the prior, Boisil, with whom he was to form a firm bond of friendship and...

Researching family trees has become a widespread pastime in recent decades, as folk seek to discover the characters behind their ancestral past. We never read Jesus' family tree in the liturgical calendar - its considered too tedious and of little more than academic interest. Yet two Gospel writers thought it important enough to include the two versions. Today we listen to the names of each of...

As a young lad, Cuthbert was a hill shepherd. Like David in the days of King Saul, the Judean hill shepherds in Palestine on the night Jesus was born, and the Transylvanian hill shepherds of today, that meant staying with the sheep at night out on the hills to protect them from lions (in Palestine) and wolves (in Europe). It was dangerous work. While Cuthbert keeps vigil as the other shepherds sle...

Some monks are in trouble at sea - and the Tynesiders jeer at them. But Cuthbert, as a young man, shows incredible strength of character, speaking out against the crowd and facing their taunts. Not sure I could have done what he did, but, interestingly, his reasoning has to do with what it means to be human. In our Gospel, Christ is born. The shepherds watching their sheep on the hill see a vision...

We learn that Cuthbert, as a young lad, lived in a household with servants, and his family therefore had some status. Later in the story, as a young man, we find he had a horse and spear, so was probably one of the king's warriors. But he was also a shepherd, spending nights out on the Cheviots looking after the sheep, which we will come to on Day 4. However, in this episode Cuthbert is in exc...

The first of a series of 15-20 minute times of morning prayer through Lent to start the day with readings from the psalms, the Gospel of Luke, a chapter from Bede’s Life of Cuthbert, and some prayers. The pace is deliberately slow, to allow for contemplation, reflection, and supplication. If you are looking for something quick and amusing, you won’t find it here… St Cuthbert is the Anglo-Saxon sai...

A man was once convicted as a 'terrorist' for advocating a system of beliefs that threatened the status quo. He was tried before a kangaroo court and executed as a common criminal on wasteland outside the city wall. This man, apparently, displays both God's wisdom and his power. What? To understand, we turn to the Gospels. But we can't approach them like any other book because we a...

What does it mean to "dwell in darkness"? While we can probably all identify "dark" situations around the world, if we are honest with ourselves, most of us might recognise that each of us have dark areas in our lives. They might result from external circumstances where we are held in some form of captivity by someone, possibly close to us, or oppressive situations in which we find...

Its eight days after Christmas and a recently-born Jewish baby is circumcised and named on his 8th day of life, as all Jewish boys have been for over 3000 years. But why is this one special, and why on the eighth day? In a world where all time is governed by a 7-day cycle, what does this eight mean? It all goes back (as everything does) to the opening chapters of Genesis, and that extraordinarily...

We hear the Christmas story year after year; the shepherds, the angels, the wise men. And it all seems so obvious, so blatant. But what did the shepherds actually see? Just an ordinary wrapped baby in the byre with a young mother and father. How was that a recognisable sign? Or the wise men who travelled following a moving star (what does that even mean?). All they found, too, was an ordinary baby...

Like a thief in the night, the Lord will come on clouds in Glory. The paradox is resolved in the fact that clouds hide the light. The Gospels are littered with warnings that we might miss his coming unless we are very careful. And then we discover that Christ is already here - our task is to live in his light in the midst of the darkness, to beat the swords into ploughshares, the spears into pruni...

Jesus was mockingly called 'The King of The Jews'. He was given a purple robe, a sceptre, a crown and a throne - all the regalia still used by the British monarchy today. We vest the wealth of the nation in our monarchy, and they are bathed with military honours. But for all our tradition, does this actually have anything to do with kingship? And who decides what a real king looks like, an...

War begins in the soul. It is planted through the stories we are told by those around us, and that we then tell ourselves - stories of 'us' and 'them'. In these stories our fellow humans are cast as somehow different, other than 'us'; not 'us'. This, then, allows us to distance ourselves from them, and in that move lies the licence to deny them the same humanity as...

Turmoil and uncertainty all around. From the crisis in social care, to terrifying food, energy, and mortgage inflation; from government sleaze to the 'invasion' by the destitute and homeless; from children dying of starvation to personal rockets to the moon; from the Trumpeting of the end of democracy to the rise of nationalism and xenophobia; from corporate mega-profits to the extinction...

Hell is separation from the God whose being is Love. It is the place of bitterness, hatred, manipulation, vindictiveness, violence,loneliness, emptiness, worthlessness. All of us have been there, many live there. We have all pointed the finger of blame at others while failing to notice the three pointing back at us. Jesus confronts our hypocrisy by visiting those who 'deserve' our hatred....