Medieval Monastics and Modern Women

Today is the feast day of St. Brigid.  I've written about her many times before.  This blog post will give you a more traditional approach to her and her feast day.

Just this week, an editor at Gather magazine wrote to ask if I'd be interested in writing an article about what these medieval monastic women can teach us moderns about prayer.  Of course I would!  After I wrote back with my idea for a possible approach, I thought about how strange it is that these medieval women still speak so clearly to me. 

I won't say much about the approach I plan to take.  I need to write the article first.

I'm also thinking about Mepkin Abbey.  A few years ago, we moved our annual meeting there to February instead of the fall.  It was wonderful to drive to the Abbey on the feast day of St. Brigid and then to be there to celebrate Candlemas with the monastic community.

I loved leaving my tropical landscape and heading to a more wintry one.  But even in the winter dreariness, I'd see the occasional daffodil popping out of the dirt.

I've now been at Mepkin Abbey in every season, and they each have their charm and appeal.  I love being at a monastery during the feast days that celebrate a monastic of the past, although the Mepkin monks don't do much to commemorate St. Brigid, based on the times that I've been there.

I think about the Mepkin monks and the history of monastics who have kept their traditions alive.  I think of Brigid who founded several monastic orders, did her own creative work, and left abundance in her wake.

Today is a good day to consider our own lives.  If centuries from now, a person read about your life as you’re living it, would she be inspired?

Across a space of centuries, Brigid inspires me.  I'd like to be a similar inspiration.