Lenten Meditations: Saturday 20 February
SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY – St. Mildred of Thanet, Abbess, 732
LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: The Minster where Mildred was Abbess is in the Isle of Thanet was founded by the granddaughter of the first Christian King of Kent. The first and was dedicated by St. Theodore, the Archbishop of Canterbury about 670. He also gave the veil to Ermenburga, St. Mildred’s widowed mother and installed her as the first abbess in the monastery, where she was known as Domna Eva. In the meantime,
Mildred had been sent to Chelles to be trained in the religious life. It was not long
before her mother resigned the charge of the abbey to Mildred, who became one of the most famous and well-loved of the Anglo-Saxon saints. Although the government of the abbey was firm, she always preserved an easy temper and showed humility in dealing with those who came to her, particularly to the widows and orphans, the poor and the afflicted. Eventually the community grew to such a size that it became necessary to
build a larger complex and this was sited a few hundred yards from the old one.
The minister was part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry Tudor but in 1937 a small group of Benedictine nuns from St. Walburga’s Abbey at Eichstadt came to occupy the remains of the old abbey and safeguard a relic of St. Mildred from in the altar of the small chapel they have built.
MEDITATION OF THE DAY: The story of Nathaniel is one that captures our attention
in this jaded world, often because of a simple phrase in the King James Version, which reads in whom there is no guile “, (the NIV translates it as “in whom nothing is false.” What a charism to have, what discipline and spiritual purity must have been deeply part of the person of Nathaniel! In Nathaniel l, what you see and hear is what is there. You know where you stand. Not that he cannot be persuaded otherwise, for he quickly endorses Jesus once he feels known by him. Perhaps that is why he expresses what so many thoughts, but did not say, when he says, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” He wasn’t being mean spirited but simply going on what he understood and was willing to be corrected if wrong. The fact is that we are very much like Nathanael — many of us start out skeptical; we need to meet Jesus personally for him to change our lives. He was open. He was willing to “Come and See”. Once he did, he fell on his knees and declared: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” The key he found is to do so not only with one’s lips but with one’s life. This type of humility and guilelessness was not unlike Mildred who is commemorated today. Both she and Nathaniel show us that living a holy and, righteous and sober life
is quite possible and can change not only us but the world around us.
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Lord this day I seek you, hoping to stand in your holy place with clean hands and a pure heart. Give me wisdom so as not to be tricked into lies and falsehoods of this world. Lord, help me to be free of duplicity and guile. Help me to be a person of honesty, integrity and sincerity. Thank You for the example of holy men and holy women who have done so, and I pray for the grace I need to imitate such virtue. I ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen.
ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: “God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.- Soren Kierkegaard.
LENTEN DISCIPLINE – Seek out a person who has been duplicitous with you and find a path for honesty and renewal in the relationship.
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