大象传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Ruth Wilde, national coordinator of the Inclusive Church

Good morning.

Today is the feast day of the Celtic Saint Enfleda of Whitby. She was Queen of Northumbria, or Deiria, as the southern part of that huge county was called back in the 7th Century. After the death of her husband, King Oswiu, she retired to Whitby Abbey and later became the Abbess there, on the death of St Hild. It was an unusual abbey, set up for both men and women. The monks and nuns lived in separate quarters but shared the church. Enfleda even did a job share after the death of St Hild - with her daughter Aelfled also becoming joint Abbess. Enfleda died in about the year 685.

What a joy it is to discover something about a new Saint you鈥檇 not previously heard of! There seem to be thousands upon thousands of them! I always enjoy reading about them. Sometimes there is very little written on them, but sometimes it鈥檚 padded out with some myths and stories. My son was named after the Irish Saint Brendan, who Catholic mythology tells us not only travelled to America well before Christopher Columbus, but also lived on a whale for a bit because he mistook it for a big rock!

Myth telling is a very important part of being human. Even when stories are not literally true, they often convey a deep and meaningful truth. Just look at some of the mythological stories in the Bible, like the creation accounts, to discover examples of this. What a delightful story Brendan and the whale is. I don鈥檛 know if it is supposed to have any deeper meaning, but I love it whether it does or not. We put whales all over our son Brendan鈥檚 walls before he was born. No doubt he鈥檒l replace them with Spiderman pictures or something instead soon!

God of all wisdom, bring us into a deeper knowledge of your ways and your truth.

Amen.