Fr Ben Garren

Dear Siblings in Christ,

Glorious Prince of Christ, venerable Carthage,
Help us in our prayer to your Holy God,
To be cleansed of all filth, washed of all guilt,
And gather at the heavenly summit eternal.

—Ancient Irish Antiphon for the Magnificat on the feast of Saint Mo Chutu (Carthage)

Dear Siblings in Christ,

Near the shores of the River Blackwater running to the Celtic Sea a monk, Mo Chutu, founded a monastery. His life, up to that point, had been caught up in the politics regarding the date of Easter: should the Irish Church maintain its own liturgical calendar or align their calendar with that of Rome?

These heated liturgical politics had him ostracized from his home city and would not be resolved until decades after his death, at the Synod of Whitby in 664. 

Perhaps because of this headache when Mo Chutu came to write a rule for his monastic order he did it in the form of a poem. Anecdotes about him said that his life was marked by a love of poetry and stories and that only his propensity for tears was a better-known aspect of his character.

My thought is that much of the tears came from living with a love of the stories and poetry of the Christian life amidst the brokenness and politics that mark the church at every age. As we come to the last week of Eastertide we should be both more deeply in love with the stories and poetry of Christendom, and also more aware of the need for the Light of Christ to be in our personal and community life.

Let us pray, as the ancient antiphon asks us, that we, and Mo Chutu, and all who walk with Christ may be cleansed of all that keeps us from love of self, love of others, and love of God and come to the promise of Easter, the heavenly summit eternal.

Pax,

—Ben