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I wrote last year that saints choose you--and now a year later, I really understand that. Of all the things I could have learned in an apprenticeship with St. Alfred, he honored me by taking me with him through his secret, most terrible battle.
The battle of physical illness.
An interesting article appeared in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1991. An analysis of St. Alfred's physical condition suggested that the symptoms described by his biographer Asser were most consistent with Crohn's Disease. While St Alfred was also described as "sickly" as a child, this disease afflicted him the most as an adult. Crohn's disease is an inflammation of the digestive tract, causing severe bouts of pain and diarrhea.
I cannot begin to imagine what it was like to live on a horse, hide in the wilderness and lead men into battle with this horribly painful, embarrassing and debilitating disease. Yet suffered it he did, all the while growing greater in faith, inspiring learning and forging a new unity of the people. Now, I believe he chose me so that I could learned what he learned.
Shortly after that last posting, I developed the worst case of allergic asthma I have ever had. It went on and on for months. It is actually still going on in the dead of winter. I couldn't walk across my own room, much less clean it. I was on so many antihistamines I couldn't think clearly, one reason why I did not add to this blog. I shared with St Alfred and other chronically ill people the sheer terror of wondering when the illness, a crafty enemy, would sneak up on me and lay me low.I was tied to my home with Crohn's like symptoms and couldn't even go to Mass for fear of catching a common cold or the flu that might worsen my condition.
What was the worst part? The pain, the gasping for air, the onset of the attacks? All of these were bad but the worst part was the temptation of sin that came with them. Temptation to the sin of Despair.
I found myself not even asking that the illness be taken from me--I could only ask that I not fall into despair. Day after day I was tempted to emotionally "give up", as Job's wife said "Curse God and die". Some days I would think it was all getting better and then a setback. Again. Trying not to listen to the Evil One speaking through the words of Job's wife--inarticulate prayers asking for the intercession of St Michael the Archangel and St Benedict to resist the self destruction of Despair.
So I have had a year of exile in Athelney as well. A year of desperate prayer saying "Please do not let me give up hope. Please help me to bear this with dignity and courage". And as I am getting allergy shots and slowly getting a little stronger, I am thankful, but like St Alfred, I do not know whether I will truly be completely healed.
While there were many prayers. I did not ask directly for the intervention of St Alfred because I did not, at the time, truly understand that this was his battle too. However, he did intercede for me, for I was one he chose to learn the lesson that he had learned. He was there whispering to me, most assuredly it seems in the matter of my prayers to bear this as well as I could. As he did, though he bore it better than me, still he is my example.
Holy St. Alfred , please intercede for all who are ill with disease that leaves them with pain and the temptation to despair. Thank you for your example of bearing illness with dignity and courage, while yet leading your people and forging a new nation.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Eating The Burned Cake
I definitely have an ongoing struggle with pride, and I recently had to "eat the burned cake".
While the details are probably not important, I was reminded that perhaps I ought to be a little more charitable to an arrogant person that I was scolding for his arrogance. How bizarre is that?
So I backed up and ate my words, and they sure tasted like a big burned cake , lump of charcoal, going down. Eating your words is a really hard thing to do.
While again, the story of St Alfred and the burned cakes has never been verified by history, it is easy to imagine being a king who was blessed by the pope as a child failing to do the most necessary of tasks, attending to the food. Of course he wanted to be out and about doing the important things.
But when the wife scolded him for his neglect, he accepted the scolding. Perhaps he thought that his act of neglect was a consequence of pride. Perhaps he remembered that the most important tasks of men on earth don't get done if they don't eat and perhaps his pride was endangering his people. Whatever he thought, he did the right thing, accepting the scolding and probably eating that burned cake.
Now the interesting thing about a burned cake is that it is a lump of charcoal. Charcoal, you recall, is still used in medicine today to purge our systems of poisons. Tastes nasty, makes you sick, but at the end of it all, you are shaken but clean again.
St. Alfred the Great, pray for us that we may learn humility. Pray that we may be helped by the examples of Jesus, you and your companion saints to live more humbly and have the courage to eat the charcoal when we are poisoned by our pride. Amen.
While the details are probably not important, I was reminded that perhaps I ought to be a little more charitable to an arrogant person that I was scolding for his arrogance. How bizarre is that?
So I backed up and ate my words, and they sure tasted like a big burned cake , lump of charcoal, going down. Eating your words is a really hard thing to do.
While again, the story of St Alfred and the burned cakes has never been verified by history, it is easy to imagine being a king who was blessed by the pope as a child failing to do the most necessary of tasks, attending to the food. Of course he wanted to be out and about doing the important things.
But when the wife scolded him for his neglect, he accepted the scolding. Perhaps he thought that his act of neglect was a consequence of pride. Perhaps he remembered that the most important tasks of men on earth don't get done if they don't eat and perhaps his pride was endangering his people. Whatever he thought, he did the right thing, accepting the scolding and probably eating that burned cake.
Now the interesting thing about a burned cake is that it is a lump of charcoal. Charcoal, you recall, is still used in medicine today to purge our systems of poisons. Tastes nasty, makes you sick, but at the end of it all, you are shaken but clean again.
St. Alfred the Great, pray for us that we may learn humility. Pray that we may be helped by the examples of Jesus, you and your companion saints to live more humbly and have the courage to eat the charcoal when we are poisoned by our pride. Amen.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
A Season in Athelney
Lent has begun, the season of turning inward, self examination and preparation for a renewal in our world.
Almost everyone that has gone on to greatness has had a time of Lent, a time of hiding and turning inward before going once again out into the world to make a miracle happen.
For St. Alfred, his season came in Athelney, a swampy marsh in what is now the Somerset shire of England. In 878, Alfred and a few loyal followers had been driven back by the Danes to hiding on the Isle of Athelney, an island in the swamps of Somerset. A king of the Saxon peoples had been driven into an ancient fortress, defending a swamp.
This was St. Alfred's season. He entered it as a mere King of the West Saxons, and emerged to become the brave and wise ruler of all England . While the story itself may be apocryphal, it is said that here Alfred confronted the realities of daily life, learned that in order to best serve his people, he must pay attention to the everyday reality of ensuring that dinner cakes did not burn. Reportedly, he was scolded by a common goodwife to pay attention to the cakes on the hearth and not let them burn. It is said that Alfred accepted the scolding, understanding that he needed the scolding of a common person to pay attention to the everyday needs of his people and himself.
From Athelney, the newly humbled Alfred was able to call up allies who would sustain him and the fledgling England in the coming days. It is often said that Alfred went to Athelney as Alfred, King of the West Saxons, and came out as Alfred the Great of England. He learned humility, and in his humility, he was able to forge the alliances necessary to ensure the birth of a nation at the battle of Edington in May 878.
We each must go through a Lent of our lives, a season in Athelney, a time when we are beaten and discouraged and hiding in a swamp, wondering who we are and where we would ever go next . When we hide in the swamp in our own darkness, we are building toward a time in our own lives of brilliance and birth of a new world.
May we learn humility and wisdom in our season of Athelney. Let us ask Alfred, the saints and our Lord to help us use the darkness of Lent to forge a future time of light.
As St Alfred the Great did.
Almost everyone that has gone on to greatness has had a time of Lent, a time of hiding and turning inward before going once again out into the world to make a miracle happen.
For St. Alfred, his season came in Athelney, a swampy marsh in what is now the Somerset shire of England. In 878, Alfred and a few loyal followers had been driven back by the Danes to hiding on the Isle of Athelney, an island in the swamps of Somerset. A king of the Saxon peoples had been driven into an ancient fortress, defending a swamp.
This was St. Alfred's season. He entered it as a mere King of the West Saxons, and emerged to become the brave and wise ruler of all England . While the story itself may be apocryphal, it is said that here Alfred confronted the realities of daily life, learned that in order to best serve his people, he must pay attention to the everyday reality of ensuring that dinner cakes did not burn. Reportedly, he was scolded by a common goodwife to pay attention to the cakes on the hearth and not let them burn. It is said that Alfred accepted the scolding, understanding that he needed the scolding of a common person to pay attention to the everyday needs of his people and himself.
From Athelney, the newly humbled Alfred was able to call up allies who would sustain him and the fledgling England in the coming days. It is often said that Alfred went to Athelney as Alfred, King of the West Saxons, and came out as Alfred the Great of England. He learned humility, and in his humility, he was able to forge the alliances necessary to ensure the birth of a nation at the battle of Edington in May 878.
We each must go through a Lent of our lives, a season in Athelney, a time when we are beaten and discouraged and hiding in a swamp, wondering who we are and where we would ever go next . When we hide in the swamp in our own darkness, we are building toward a time in our own lives of brilliance and birth of a new world.
May we learn humility and wisdom in our season of Athelney. Let us ask Alfred, the saints and our Lord to help us use the darkness of Lent to forge a future time of light.
As St Alfred the Great did.
Monday, February 8, 2010
St. Alfred Has Chosen Us
When people come to confirmation, they often have trouble deciding which saint to choose for a patron.
Most people say, we do not choose the saint, the saint chooses us.
I easily chose a confirmation saint who was instrumental in my conversion--St Mary Magdalene. But saints DO choose us, and many people even follow a practice allowing a particular saint to choose us for a year.
I didn't set out looking for St. Alfred, but he was whispering to me, sometimes in strange ways, but whisper he did. First it was with an "accidental" discovery that he was honored by many as a saint--he didn't show up in the usual patron's list.
Then it was an obsession to see again the old movie "Alfred the Great". Forget it that he probably didn't look like David Hemmings, but he was as likely to look like David Hemmings as any of the other portrayals of him in statues and portraits, none of which was contemporary. If I had picked a face for the young Alfred, that would have probably been the face--ascetic, gentle, compassionate, passionate, courageous.
Particularly forget that part about his wife and the Dane. No matter how attractive the young Michael York was, Alfred's wife, Ealhswith, was herself a saint, so I am sure she is gritting her teeth on this one. Sacreligious? Absolutely, and a pandering to the turbulent times in which the movie was made.
What that movie DID do, though, was to keep in our memories a young man with passion and faith in his beautiful face, a man in his 20s who gave us England, and all England's children (such as the US). In the real world, he and his wife were both saints; they had children and grandchildren that were also saints. One would think that St. Alfred also did honor thus to the Holy Family, showing us what could be on earth as well as in heaven.
Ever since that movie, Alfred has whispered to me in my life, even when I didn't really know it. I was never motivated for power, just as he was not . I loved service, education, justice as he did. I was also a warrior in a passionate cause, feeling that one must indeed fight for the right. Yep, Alfred was always there for me and in me.
In this time, Alfred is choosing all of us, to help him continue his work. His gifts of wisdom, truthtelling, justice, courage, love of learning and common sense are needed as much or more now in this world as in his. Let us pray for his intercession and protection against terror, faithlessness, ignorance and deception that he fought so well in his earthly life.
Alfred has chosen us--let us, too, choose him now, for the greater good of our world.
On a side note, Mr. Hemmings has gone now, to join the saints. I like to imagine St. Alfred greeting him, in the humble way he was described to have in this life in maturity, thanking Mr. Hemmings for his memorial that keeps his name alive.
Most people say, we do not choose the saint, the saint chooses us.
I easily chose a confirmation saint who was instrumental in my conversion--St Mary Magdalene. But saints DO choose us, and many people even follow a practice allowing a particular saint to choose us for a year.
I didn't set out looking for St. Alfred, but he was whispering to me, sometimes in strange ways, but whisper he did. First it was with an "accidental" discovery that he was honored by many as a saint--he didn't show up in the usual patron's list.
Then it was an obsession to see again the old movie "Alfred the Great". Forget it that he probably didn't look like David Hemmings, but he was as likely to look like David Hemmings as any of the other portrayals of him in statues and portraits, none of which was contemporary. If I had picked a face for the young Alfred, that would have probably been the face--ascetic, gentle, compassionate, passionate, courageous.
Particularly forget that part about his wife and the Dane. No matter how attractive the young Michael York was, Alfred's wife, Ealhswith, was herself a saint, so I am sure she is gritting her teeth on this one. Sacreligious? Absolutely, and a pandering to the turbulent times in which the movie was made.
What that movie DID do, though, was to keep in our memories a young man with passion and faith in his beautiful face, a man in his 20s who gave us England, and all England's children (such as the US). In the real world, he and his wife were both saints; they had children and grandchildren that were also saints. One would think that St. Alfred also did honor thus to the Holy Family, showing us what could be on earth as well as in heaven.
Ever since that movie, Alfred has whispered to me in my life, even when I didn't really know it. I was never motivated for power, just as he was not . I loved service, education, justice as he did. I was also a warrior in a passionate cause, feeling that one must indeed fight for the right. Yep, Alfred was always there for me and in me.
In this time, Alfred is choosing all of us, to help him continue his work. His gifts of wisdom, truthtelling, justice, courage, love of learning and common sense are needed as much or more now in this world as in his. Let us pray for his intercession and protection against terror, faithlessness, ignorance and deception that he fought so well in his earthly life.
Alfred has chosen us--let us, too, choose him now, for the greater good of our world.
On a side note, Mr. Hemmings has gone now, to join the saints. I like to imagine St. Alfred greeting him, in the humble way he was described to have in this life in maturity, thanking Mr. Hemmings for his memorial that keeps his name alive.
Friday, February 5, 2010
"Sit Thy Saddle Bow, And Ride Thee Singing"
In her biography of Alfred, Beatrice Lees includes a chapter, "The Myth of Alfred". The following aphorism is attributed to him a few centuries later:
Whether or not Alfred said this particular thing, there is no doubt that such a statement captures his spirit. The key is in the ways that Alfred, as a man of Christian faith, differed from the faith of his ancestors.
"Sit thy saddle bow, and ride thee singing"
If thou hast sorrow, tell it not thy foe
Sit thy saddle bow, and ride thee singing"
Whether or not Alfred said this particular thing, there is no doubt that such a statement captures his spirit. The key is in the ways that Alfred, as a man of Christian faith, differed from the faith of his ancestors.
Alfred was a realist, but he did not succumb to the hopelessness of a notion of fate that had been a standard part of the philosophy of his pre-Christian ancestors. The Saxon, the Norse and related Germanic peoples, bereft of the hope and promise of Jesus Christ, had a very gloomy notion of life.
This was embodied in the concept of "Wyrd", fate or destiny. Fate was set by the pagan goddesses the Norn, and what was to be was inexorable. A person, a country or a world could not be changed. There could only be acceptance, but never hope, in the world of the pre-Christian Germanic pagan, Alfred's people.
The coming of Christianity brought one thing to the Saxon people. It brought hope .
What Jesus brought to Alfred and to all was an idea that things could change through grace. Faith could make a difference: we could make a difference. Apart from myth or poetry, Alfred was quoted as saying:
I say then, as say all Christian men, that the divine purpose rules, and not fate.
Is the world today dark? Most certainly .
Do we not live in a time of terror, as Alfred did? Yes, we do.
Do we not live in a time of collapse, a new version of "The Dark Ages"? Most assuredly.
But St. Alfred is here to stand beside us in these times--because he knew of the hope of grace, of the gifts to us by our Lord.
We are not the victims of "Fate".
We are children of Jesus, and in these times, the hope from Jesus and the intercession of St Alfred can help us to
"Sit thy saddle bow, and ride thee singing"
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
In The Age of Terror
We live in the age of terror. Hijackings and bombings, beheadings, terror that rains from the sky.
There was another age of terror, when terror came ashore from the sea. Villages put to the torch, churches plundered, a king exiled to a humble cottage in the swamp. Like we are today, England was heir to the fruits of terror.
In that age, there was Alfred. A fifth son and humble servant of God, who wanted to take orders, he was nevertheless called forward to save his country and the very foundation of civilization. Warrior, general, scholar and king, he brought together the basic building blocks of civilization and preserved it all in the face of darkness and the terror from the seas.
How did St. Alfred bring all this together, manage not only to save his world but to make it prosper? The answer was simply that for Alfred, everything rested first on faith, and through faith, he made a world.
In her review of Sr. Benedicta Ward's book on English spiritualism, Susan Eklund notes the following:
A terrifying judgment has begun. The final chapter likens the Danish and Norse raids with
the cross to be born by the English. The raids caused a great loss of faith. St. Alfred the Great saw Bede’s
warning about this and realized that the ‘fair-weather’ Christianity of the English was due to a lack of learning
and a lack of spiritual information in English. He turned his hand to the task while still in the field of
battle. “I began amidst the various and multifarious afflictions of this kingdom to translate into English the
book which in Latin is called Pastoral Care, in English ‘Shepherd Book’ . . .” – the contention being that the
redemption of the English will be found by the widespread use of the Shepherd Book. ...The only means of
the survival of English Christianity would be to accept the cross as the place of resurrection. That is the only
place God is in the midst of crisis. “We have now lost wealth as well as wisdom because we did not wish to
set our minds in the track.” (1)
In his wisdom, St. Alfred knew that the place to start to change the world was within oneself. When one "cleaves only to God", as he often said, only then can miracles occur, can chaos be brought into order, can ignorance be brought into knowledge.
Holy Alfred, pray for us that all may return to the earnest practice of their faith. As we follow your example and cleave to God, so then can we create the kind of world that God wishes this to be.
(1) HIGH KING OF HEAVEN: ASPECTS OF EARLY ENGLISH SPIRITUALITY by Benedicta Ward, SLG. Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, MI 1999. Book review by Susan Eklund in The ST MARK'S LION MAY 2003 VOLUME CXXVIII, NO. 5, online at http://www.westernorthodox.com/stmark/lion/lion2003-05.pdf
There was another age of terror, when terror came ashore from the sea. Villages put to the torch, churches plundered, a king exiled to a humble cottage in the swamp. Like we are today, England was heir to the fruits of terror.
In that age, there was Alfred. A fifth son and humble servant of God, who wanted to take orders, he was nevertheless called forward to save his country and the very foundation of civilization. Warrior, general, scholar and king, he brought together the basic building blocks of civilization and preserved it all in the face of darkness and the terror from the seas.
How did St. Alfred bring all this together, manage not only to save his world but to make it prosper? The answer was simply that for Alfred, everything rested first on faith, and through faith, he made a world.
In her review of Sr. Benedicta Ward's book on English spiritualism, Susan Eklund notes the following:
A terrifying judgment has begun. The final chapter likens the Danish and Norse raids with
the cross to be born by the English. The raids caused a great loss of faith. St. Alfred the Great saw Bede’s
warning about this and realized that the ‘fair-weather’ Christianity of the English was due to a lack of learning
and a lack of spiritual information in English. He turned his hand to the task while still in the field of
battle. “I began amidst the various and multifarious afflictions of this kingdom to translate into English the
book which in Latin is called Pastoral Care, in English ‘Shepherd Book’ . . .” – the contention being that the
redemption of the English will be found by the widespread use of the Shepherd Book. ...The only means of
the survival of English Christianity would be to accept the cross as the place of resurrection. That is the only
place God is in the midst of crisis. “We have now lost wealth as well as wisdom because we did not wish to
set our minds in the track.” (1)
In his wisdom, St. Alfred knew that the place to start to change the world was within oneself. When one "cleaves only to God", as he often said, only then can miracles occur, can chaos be brought into order, can ignorance be brought into knowledge.
Holy Alfred, pray for us that all may return to the earnest practice of their faith. As we follow your example and cleave to God, so then can we create the kind of world that God wishes this to be.
(1) HIGH KING OF HEAVEN: ASPECTS OF EARLY ENGLISH SPIRITUALITY by Benedicta Ward, SLG. Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, MI 1999. Book review by Susan Eklund in The ST MARK'S LION MAY 2003 VOLUME CXXVIII, NO. 5, online at http://www.westernorthodox.com/stmark/lion/lion2003-05.pdf
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
A Litany Of St Alfred
Consider praying the Litany daily in the cause of peace, justice and knowledge.
R/ Lord, have mercy.
V/ Christ, have mercy.
R/ Christ, have mercy.
V/ Lord, have mercy.
R/ Lord, have mercy.
V/ Jesus, hear us.
R/ Jesus, graciously hear us.
V/ God, the Father of Heaven,
R/ have mercy on us.
V/ God, the Son, Redeemer of the world,
R/ have mercy on us.
V/ God, the Holy Spirit,
R/ have mercy on us.
V/ Holy Trinity, One God,
R/ have mercy on us.
R/for ff: pray for us.
Holy Alfred
Defender of the faith
Defender of the homeland
Defender of learning
Defender of humility
Defender of England and her children
Blessed Alfred
Enemy of government corruption
Enemy of ignorance
Enemy of arrogant ruin
Enemy of social chaos
Enemy of human destruction
Terror of the violent heathen
Champion of the people
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,
R/ spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,
R/ graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world.
R/ have mercy on us.
He made him the father of nations.
R/ And prince of piety and knowledge.
Let us pray. O God, in your ineffable providence you were pleased to send your servant Alfred into a world of violence to bring order, learning and peace. In this time of the violence of the heathen , who transgress against You in Your Name, make us worthy of the intercession of Alfred to bring order, peace and true faith to the world. R/ Amen
Litany of St. Alfred
V/ Lord, have mercy.
R/ Lord, have mercy.
V/ Christ, have mercy.
R/ Christ, have mercy.
V/ Lord, have mercy.
R/ Lord, have mercy.
V/ Jesus, hear us.
R/ Jesus, graciously hear us.
V/ God, the Father of Heaven,
R/ have mercy on us.
V/ God, the Son, Redeemer of the world,
R/ have mercy on us.
V/ God, the Holy Spirit,
R/ have mercy on us.
V/ Holy Trinity, One God,
R/ have mercy on us.
R/for ff: pray for us.
Holy Alfred
Defender of the faith
Defender of the homeland
Defender of learning
Defender of humility
Defender of England and her children
Blessed Alfred
Enemy of government corruption
Enemy of ignorance
Enemy of arrogant ruin
Enemy of social chaos
Enemy of human destruction
Terror of the violent heathen
Champion of the people
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,
R/ spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,
R/ graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world.
R/ have mercy on us.
He made him the father of nations.
R/ And prince of piety and knowledge.
Let us pray. O God, in your ineffable providence you were pleased to send your servant Alfred into a world of violence to bring order, learning and peace. In this time of the violence of the heathen , who transgress against You in Your Name, make us worthy of the intercession of Alfred to bring order, peace and true faith to the world. R/ Amen
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