Another thing has begun to happen in our days. The holy places have begun to come to life. Who could have foreseen the revival of pilgrimage to Lindisfarne and Glastonbury, or still more surprisingly, to Walsingham? What is it which draws people to such places? It is the presence of the saints and the prayers of the saints.
The praises of God in the mouths of his Saints are not so restrained to their own particular, but that others may both conveniently and fruitfully use them; first, because the mystical communion of all faithful men is such as maketh every one to be interested in those precious blessings which any one of them receiveth at God’s hands;
Death has come to reveal the faith.
It has begun with us, and it will end with us.
O you who fear death, do not fear death.
How glad I am to find this short chapter from the Rule on the celebration of Vigils or Matins on the anniversaries of saints. It adds another dimension to the sense of time and order that Benedict is giving us.
While it is often quite difficult to distinguish or disentangle the “metaculture” (universal elements) from the local variations or indigenous forms, plural cultural expressions can be designated as part of a larger world religion because one can identify “striking continuities over time and space.”
A survey of his extant works illustrates two features typical of Wyclif’s writings. First, the analytic rigor with which Wyclif approaches any problem, whether it be the nature of a mental act, a universal, a sacrament, the church, or scripture, is relentless. To readers unaccustomed to fourteenth-century philosophy, including many of the nineteenth-century editors of Wyclif’s Latin works, this seems to be academic nitpicking.
Mr. Hannington was just the man to be a favourite—as an Oxford undergraduate he won all hearts. He was the leader in everything, and though his heart was not yet given wholly to God, it had desires after Him, and no doubt the Spirit of God was striving with him. Thus he was kept from vicious ways—his influence was always to be found on the side of religion.
Scholars tell us that it is this aspect of Christianity, the infinite value of every person, that caused the church to grow so explosively in the early decades. Christianity flourished not because it fashioned attractive doctrinal alternatives to the worship of Greek gods or because its theology appealed to the movers and shakers of the ancient world, but because it made such a profound difference in the lives of the people who believed it.
The peaceful host sings a melody with the loudest of sounds
clearly about the holy high seat of God,
blissfully bless the best of rulers,
the blessed with the angels sounding in unison thus:
In the meantime, the king, during the frequent wars and other trammels of this present life, the invasions of the pagans, and his own daily infirmities of body, continued to carry on the government, and to exercise hunting in all its branches;