20/03/2018

Good morning.
Less than a mile from St Patrick’s last resting place,
are the gothic architectural ruins of Inch Abbey.
An English Cistercian monastery founded around 1180,
a quick online search bamboozled me with mention of the King of the North, Robb Stark’s bannermen and the Battle of the Whispering Wood.
Suffice to say,
Inch Abbey is one of the locations for fantasy TV epic Game of Thrones.

The suppression of Inch Abbey in 1541
was preceded by centuries of tribalism and turbulence.
Not only were Irish monks refused admission to its English ranks,
but an account probably worthy of Game of Thrones
describes the Inch monks “making their appearance publicly in arms”.
“(T)hey invade and slaughter the Irish people” it says,
“and yet celebrate their masses notwithstanding.”

For me, revelations like that from Church history dull the pain
of abandoned religious communities and redundant places of worship
being turned into film sets.
The Old Testament book First Samuel comes to mind,
where on hearing that the Philistines have captured the ark of the covenant
the wife of Phineas names her child “Ichabod” meaning
the glory of the Lord has departed.

Ultimately, nothing absolves Jesus’ followers in any age
of their New Testament responsibility
to propagate the Gospel, to make new disciples
and, in an even more basic way,
to co-exist as envoys of the Prince of Peace.

Lord of the Church, save us from ourselves,
that we may not make the errors of the past our own,
and live more lovingly, more forgivingly
and more closely in the presence of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen