Fr Ben Garren

Dear Siblings in Christ,

Somewhere in the North Sea along the coast of Denmark and the Netherlands is an island. Perhaps most remarkable to the fisherman and sailors is that it had a spring of fresh water and a well guarded bay. The islet was known as Fositesland and maintained a small fishing village deeply invested in the worship of an old Norse deity of Justice and Reconciliation. Legends around the spring included Fosite creating it to save a group of sailors who he then instructed in the ways of reconciliatory justice.

It happened one day that into this Islet came a missionary sailing across from Scotland and Northumbria, carrying a Gospel Book illuminated by the renown monks of Ireland. What then began was a series of conversations about the nature of law, justice, reconciliation, and the nature of the divine. The result of this encounter is referenced as a cleansing of the well… as the followers of Fosite sought to be baptized into this deeper understanding of justice and reconciliation.

The missionary was Willibrord, who would later become the bishop of the area. The exact location of this islet is lost to time and it may just be a story about the nature of Christian Evangelization. What we are called to do is find the wells of justice and reconciliation already present in the world around us and deepen them with the Gospel. Only by seeking where God’s grace is already manifesting in the world and being part of it can we truly walk the way of love.

Pax,

—Ben