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| Image by Michael Matti |
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'Modranecht' and St. Hilda
A GREETING
My soul [magnifies] your greatness, O God,
and my spirit rejoices in you, my Saviour.
(Luke 1:46)
A READING
Your mercy reaches from age to age
for those who fear you.
You have shown strength with your arm;
you have scattered the proud in their conceit;
you have deposed the mighty from their thrones
and raised the lowly to high places.
You have filled the hungry with good things.
(Luke 1:50b-53)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
I will send forth my teaching like prohecy,
and will it to future generations.
(Sirach 24:32)
A PRAYER
And now I yearn for justice;
like an infant that cries for the breast,
and cannot be pacified,
I hunger and thirst for oppression to be removed,
and to see the right prevail.
So while I live I will seek your wisdom oh God;
while I have strength to search, I will follow her ways.
For her words are like rivers in the desert;
she is like rain on parched ground,
like a fountain whose waters fail not.
Then shall my soul spring up like grass,
and my heart recover her greenness;
and from the deepest places of my soul
shall flow streams of living water.
- a prayer of the St. Hilda Community,
- found in The Flowering of the Soul: A Book of Prayers by Women,
edited by Lucinda Vardey
VERSE OF THE DAY
From this day forward all generations will call me blessed.
(Luke 1:48)
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| "The 47 Most Wanted Foremothers," by Outi Pieski (2019), found as part of her installation, Rematriation of a Ládjogahpir—Return to Máttaráhkká" (2022), mounted at the Bonniers Konsthall gallery in Stockholm, Sweden in February - April, 2022. Pieski is a Sámi-Finnish artist. The Ládjogahpir is a traditional Sámi women's head garment. Screenshot of a photo by Jean-Baptiste Béranger |
The festival of modranecht is described by Venerable Bede, an eighth-century historian, in his book "On the Reckoning of Time." In that work, he tries to make sense of the various traditions of measuring time that had converged in the Northumbria region of England. (It is from Bede that we get 'Anno Domini.') Modranecht means 'night of the mothers' in Anglo-Saxon. It closely followed the solstice and was a time of celebrating ancestral mothers and goddess figures, not only human beings, but in nature as well. According to Bede, the precise date for this festival was December 25th. Christmas had been set down on that date also in the early 4th century in Rome. The two feast days had coincidental dates -- but venerating the feminine principle and its capacity to generate life seemed to flow between the two, as it did also among the early Celtic Christians who had fallen in love with Mary, mother of Jesus.
One Celtic Christian mothering figure of this time is Hilda, who established a double monastery for women and men. Hilda continues to inspire communities in her name in England. In the prayer of the St. Hilda Community above, Wisdom is invoked in verses that sound very similar to Saturday's concluding verses of Sirach 24. Wisdom is equated with teaching that will flow out in watery ways 'like prophecy,' but which here more than in Sirach, strongly focus on justice. Modranecht and Hilda's prayerful communities (then and now) hold a profound yearning for the restoration of the world, something we hear echoed in Mary's song, the Magnificat.
Northumbria in northeast England in this era, had something in common with Nazareth in the Galilee, in that it was a melting pot of peoples coming and going from other places. Later in this same century the Vikings would arrive and start an era of terror. Today's music looks ahead in the biblical story to the suffering of mothers that will take place at the hand of Herod. It describes the cry of the mothers of the Innocents lost to Herod's purge. Then and now, in places where there is danger from war and strife, mothers sing to comfort and/or mourn their children -- and they endure.
Who are the mothering women in your life who first taught you the true meaning of Christ's coming? And who are the ones that have been present to you through times of struggle?
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| Image by Michael Matti |
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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!
