St. Martin's Lent

This morning I put my medals (Timothy and Benedict) back on after a period of weeks wearing a different sort of cross, now safely gifted to someone else. As an aside I love networking by giving gifts. Jewelry is particularly good in that it allows a part of you connected with the receiver to continue wearing that token while you recenter perhaps under a different signature. So I return to my monastic path having accomplished the tasks outside the monastery that were mine to do.

This past friday was Martinmas, i.e. the Feast of St. Martin of Tours, who was a very early convert to Christianity having been a Roman soldier. He settled at Tours and eventually became bishop of that place. One of his primary legends is that of slicing his cloak in two in order to share with someone who had none.

Centuries ago Advent developed in the period before Christmas and was seen as a preparatory or even penitential period before the feast of the incarnation. Forty days placed a convenient starting point at the Feast of St. Martin, longer than our current advent of four Sundays. It is this advent that feels active for me this year.

On Friday I attended a wedding at the cathedral that chose to use the readings for the feast of the day as the couple felt they espoused the stress fo charity and justice that was key to their understanding of Christianity and the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. This prepared the way for the realization that I came to at Sunday Eucharist this morning.

Having just past through this period of indulgence and activity in order to do work to which I felt called, I now need a period of cleansing in order to properly enter into the darkest of the Winter months, the anniversary of my father's death, and the finding again of light with the Solstice and the celebration of Our Lord's birth.

Project 119 as discussed in my last post was an incredible experience of grounding which helped to get me out of a very difficult and disorganized period in order to have the strength to live and work as needed to be done. I will return to some elements of this project as a way of entering into this purifying Advent.

Though more recently I had been looking at other translations of this psalm, I believe I need to return and dive deeply again into the Book of Common Prayer as the source for my personal liturgy. It's phrases were able to stick with me and echo through the walk of my days in a way that holds the sanctity of the law which is celebrated in the psalm.

Many blessings on your Advent whether taken up now or in a short few weeks time.