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| Image by Dr. Mary Gillham |
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Celtic Animals and their Saints
A GREETING
My heart is ready, O God,
and I will sing, sing your praise,
with all my heart.
(Psalm 108:1)
A READING
You bring darkness on, night falls,
and all the forest animals come out—
savage lions roaring for their prey,
claiming their food from God.
The sun rises, they retire,
going back to lie down in their lairs,
and people go out to work,
to labor again until evening.
O God, what variety you have created,
arranging everything so wisely!
The earth is filled with your creativity!
(Psalm 104:20-24)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
From the beginning, good things were created for the good.
(Sirach 39:25a)
A REFLECTION
I’ve found that stories reach the heart better than any facts or figures. People remember the message in a well-told story even if they don’t remember all the details...Sharing these stories gives people hope—hope that we can do better.
- from The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times,
by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams
A POEM PRAYER
O Holy Spirit,
Come as the wind to forward our goings.
Come as the dove to launch us heavenward.
Come as the water to purify our spirits.
Come as the cloud to abate our temptations.
Come as the dew to revive our langour.
Come as fire to purge our souls;
for your truth and for our name's sake. Amen
- "A Prayer" by Christina Rossetti
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| Orthodox icon of Saint Ita, found on the website of the Orthodox Church in America |
The Celtic Christians of the 5th - 8th centuries did not live in cities and towns. They formed agricultural districts and communities around farming needs. They had small villages where everyone was known, but no larger centers. Therefore, agricultural life was at the very heart of everything. Since animals are essential to most agricultural life, animals were considered partners in wellbeing.
Although Brigid is the most famous Irish female saint, Ita (pronounced "Eeda") of Killeedy ("Ita's church") was the most important mentor of the remembered Celtic monastic leaders. St. Ita formed a convent school and educated many children, often giving them their earliest formation before they were sent to other places (particularly the boys) at the age of six or seven. The tenderness she showed toward children extended also to animals. Many stories of the saints describe an inherent holiness in the saint that animals recognized and were drawn to. Ita is credited with having a doe that slept outside her cell, a swan that lived near her and many other birds that nested near to her.
There was a donkey that she developed a long and meaningful spiritual connection with. In a West Limerick (the region of Killeedy) oral tradition, the donkey accompanied her daily on an errand to get milk for the children from a neighbouring farm. Eventually it could make the errand on its own, despite a distance of several miles. One time the donkey returned, bloody and beaten from an attack by dogs and men. She nursed it to health and retracing its steps, found the site of the attack and cursed it. Unlike the saints of later medieval stories, like Francis, Cetic saints were capable of wide-ranging emotions. They were not afraid to express anger and even rage -- most often towards acts of injustice.
Recognizing the innate intelligence of chimpanzees is the hallmark of the research work of Jane Goodall. For many decades, her work at Gombe National Park in western Tanzania relied on the relational way in which she observed the natural behaviour of the chimps. After months and years of observation, she was trusted enough to sit among them. Goodall learned to appreciate and love their sentience and expressiveness. She came to understand how they form relationships built on emotional connection. The loss of a family member might cause death in a survivor chimp, simply from the broken heart. Much of Goodall's work was directed toward helping to rehabilitate and heal abandoned chimpanzees and rewilding them.
In our own lives, many of us have animal friends with whom we have deeply meaningful relationships. Sometimes it seems as if our animal companions 'get us' in a way that other human loved ones may not. How might we reflect on this bond as an aspect of divine energy? How much do these relationships grow our capacity to see God in all creatures?
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The embrace of Jane Goodall and Wounda at Tchindzoulou Island, where Goodall and her team relocated many chimps -- is the most available and most-watched footage of any of Goodall's interactions with chimps. The embrace itself, filmed in 2013 by Fernando Turmo of the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center in the Republic of the Congo, is the reason for its popularity: the spontanaeity of the connection is clearly an embrace of friendship and gratitude. The footage has been seen in viral social media posts ever since, often abbreviated, re-edited, adding text and different music or sound effects and other embellishments. There are literally hundreds of versions of it. This video, produced by the Jane Goodall Institute USA, appears to be the longest and most authentic. It gives due space to the woman who actually rehabilitated the chimp, Dr. Rebecca Atencia, and preserves all of Goodall's commentary.
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Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible.
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LC† Vigil in Hope is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!
