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| Image by Tony Armstrong-Sly |
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Celtic Animals and their Saints
A GREETING
I love you, O God, for you have heard my cry for mercy.
You have listened to me; I will call on you all my days.
(Psalm 116:1-2)
A READING
All creatures depend on you
to feed them at the proper time.
Give it to them—they gather it up.
open your hand—they are well satisfied.
(Psalm 104:27-28)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
All of God’s works are desirable,
even the smallest spark visible to the eye!
(Sirach 42:22)
A REFLECTION
I believe in the power of prayer. It serves to strengthen my resolve, it helps me to keep on fighting for the environment even when at times it seems that nothing can prevail against the greed and corruption of many of those in positions of power. And then I pray that we may find a way to reach their hearts. For, whatever the odds against us, we must go on with the struggle to save as much as we can of that which we love – the beauty of the forests and woodlands, the grasslands and moors, the mountains and the oceans, the parks and gardens and roadside verges where wild flowers are allowed to grow to provide nectar for the bees and butterflies. So on this day, I am praying to the great spiritual power that I feel so strongly in the wild places, to give me the strength to play my part, to continue spreading awareness that each one of us has a role to play, that each action is important no matter how small it may seem. This is my prayer.
- from Jane Goodall's Prayer for the Care of Creation
published in September, 2017 on janegoodall.org
VERSE FOR THE DAY
Grant success to the work of our hands, success to the work of our hands!
(Psalm 90:17b)
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In the Celtic Christian tradition there is the principle of ‘peregrenatio,’ in which a spiritual seeker surrenders completely to the will of God, through a 'wandering' without a known destination. Some of the first monastic missioners would put themselves out in a boat to sea — without oars. These 'coracles' were built to be sturdy enough to sustain a long voyage -- but they were still small and could not be called ships. Trusting the currents and the winds, the voyagers would simply drift until they landed where God had called them to be. For them, trusting God required a complete surrender to God’s will in the present moment. While a ‘pilgrimage’ has a clear end in sight, a ‘peregrinatio’ does not.
A Celtic tradition of the fifth and sixth century monks was also to search out the place of their resurrection. This entailed voyaging in the spirit of ‘peregrinatio.' The sixth-century monk Gobnait longed to find such a place for herself. As with other monks, she was guided by an angel who spoke to her ina. dream, saying that when she found the right place, nine deer would greet her. Deer were often a sign of the holy -- and were therefore very trusted when they came in a vision. Gobnait voyaged out in a coracle with some companions and first made a hermitage by the Cliffs of Moher, where she had seen three deer. Later, she moved to Inis Oirr, one of the Aran Islands where there had been six. Wanting to fulfill the oracle of the angel, she kept moving and finally experienced the nine deer (all white) near the river Sullane in Ballyvourney. Here she went on to found a monastic community.
Gobnait is most remembered, however, for her kinship with bees. She is the patron saint of bees. With her bees she made honey and used it in her own medical practice with those in her community. The bees also protected her from invaders and other uninvited guests by swarming them on command. Legend says she would travel from place to place surrounded by the bees, without ever being stung.
As we know well, pollinators like bees and butterflies are severely endangered in the current climate crisis. In the video above, Jane Goodall dreams aloud her hopes for the Jane Goodall Pollinator Garden, housed at Terra, the Sustainability Pavilion within Expo City in Dubai. The garden allows young people to see how bees work by observing colonies in action.
While the 'oarless' voyage was a helpful spiritual practice for the Celtic monks, in our own time we need tangible goals and action for saving the critical species of our planet. How are we called in faith to help preserve the bees and butterflies? What pollinator garden can we start planning now for the back garden, or as a church community project?
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Video footage captured in August 2025 by the Otonabee River, Lakefield, Ontario
by Sherry Coman. Volume may need to be turned up.
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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!
