The single chalice used by the Celtic Christians in the eucharistic Mass was a good-sized cup, like a large quaich with handles.

Those which have been found from the period of time that the Stowe Missal comes, such as that found in the Derrynaflan Hoard, are large enough to hold (without filling it too close to the brim) around one and a half modern bottles of wine.

 The Stowe Missal also describes dunking the entire loaf of bread into the chalice: 'The submerging of the two halves [of the bread] in the chalice represents the submersion of Christ's body in his blood after his wounding on the cross.

 This was enough wine for each person in a group of around 60-70 to have a good-sized mouthful, and it seems that they weren't shy in taking it either - no gentle sips as we are perhaps used to today. Within the Rule of Columbanus, for example, we find written a sanction for 'him who has bitten the cup of salvation with his teeth'!

 This perhaps goes back to the final aspect that we looked at yesterday in the taking of the bread, about ensuring you get a good sense of flavour and taste as part of the holistic sacred experience. No tiny individual glasses or gentle lip-wetting for the Celtic Christians when it comes to drinking the wine in the Eucharist.

The Stowe Missal describes the pouring of water into the chalice first before the wine to represent the people in the church, then wine is added later. The wine therefore represents Christ's divinity mixed with his humanity and his coming to be one with the people of earth through the incarnation.

We also find in the Stowe Missal that, when the chalice had been taken by each person and handed back to the priest, the priest would then circle the head of each person with the chalice in a Caim prayer before moving on to the next person.

A Caim prayer is a prayer of encircling protection that was used by the Celtic Christians: the asking of either divine or angelic protection to surround the person, or whatever it was that was being encircled. Ninian of Whithorn in the fourth century famously encircled a herd of cows in a famer's field with a Caim prayer, protecting them from marauders and rustlers. Within the Eucharist, this, in my understanding, is a prayer for each person to be covered in the protective blood of Christ. The power which is in the blood of Christ was seen and expressed in Celtic Christianity.

This act with the bread and wine in the Eucharist was more than just a remembering for the Celtic Christians, as we might see it and present it today; it was a reimmersing of one's self in the blood of Christ as part of the holistic understanding they had of life, and a 'chance to re-enter and be absorbed more completely into this whole Christ [experience]'.

Celtic Lent
David Cole

Gorze, March 2025

Approaching the Carmelite spiritual experience in the footsteps of Saint Teresa of Avila...

Dear friends,

Why Saint Teresa of Avila?

In our chapel, on the west wall, we have an icon of Saint Teresa painted by Rachel Goettmann, who, along with Father Alphonse, was one of the founding pillars of the Bethany Center.

We also have a statue of the saint, brought back from Avila, staff in hand, to the mission of founding monasteries in Spain, foundations requested of her by "His Majesty", as she calls Christ... So, for many years now, we have been under her protection in Bethany...

Carmel began in Palestine at the time of the Crusades, with a few hermit brothers around a sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady.

The rule of Carmel is that of Saint Albert and dates from 1209. Rome imposed on them the status of a mendicant order like the Franciscans and Dominicans. Initially contemplative, their life would also become apostolic.

The order takes the prophet Elijah as its model: "He lives," says the prophet, "the God before whom I stand. Standing before the living God is the fundamental meditative attitude of the Carmelite, and later of the Carmelite nun.

Doesn't the rule of Saint Albert prescribe to "meditate day and night on the law of the Lord"? Food" or liturgical prayer and "breathing" or silent prayer are the two pillars of life in Christ.

St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, in the 16th century, enriched and renewed the Carmelite monastery from their own uncommonly intense Christian experience.

They surrendered themselves to the divine will, living the full inner journey of metanoia. Their writings shed light on what goes on inside human beings. Thérèse recounts "what happened to her".

The experience she shares stirs and awakens souls, and she does so with finesse of analysis and great elegance of expression. Our two doctors are an indispensable reference for those on the road who have chosen Christ.

The third pinnacle of the Carmelite tradition, the third Doctor of the Church of Rome, appears with Thérèse de Lisieux.
She is the saint of the spirituality of the most banal everyday life... We could apply to her this Zen aphorism: "Drawing water, chopping wood: what a marvel!" Thérèse opens up the space for a spirituality embodied in the details of everyday life.
 

She proclaimed a message of hope in God who is mercy. This commitment to the Carmelite tradition reminds us of our human vocation: "To give thanks at all times and in all places", and "To pray without ceasing." Presence to self, presence to God!
 

The little meditation bench used by Saint Teresa of Avila reminds us of the bodily attitude that promotes vigilance. It's the expression of "holding on", for "the God before whom I stand is alive.
It is this dignity, which is a way of praying with the body, that roots us in our incarnation and opens the way to deification.
 

The human being commits body, soul and spirit, and this commitment must be renewed at every moment.
Thérèse prescribed two hours of daily prayer for her sons and daughters, and designed her monasteries' way of life around silent prayer.

"Prayer," she writes, "is nothing other than a friendship in which we converse frequently and intimately with the One we know we love. This shared love is nourished by the "noble Silence" of His presence.

The thought of the loved one and the impulse of love towards him or her then return to the whole of existence, to the mundane and everyday. Yes, the Lord is also in the midst of "cooking pots", as she liked to say!

So, let's head for our kitchens... in the midst of our daily work, because that's where the Lord is waiting for us, and nowhere else... As Saint Paul reminds us: "NOW is the acceptable time, NOW is the day of salvation". (2 co 6, 2)

With all my affection in Christ!

Father Francis