Morning Meditation
June 9, 2025
Reading: Psalm 65: 71-14
You still the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves,
and the clamor of the peoples.
Those who dwell at the ends of the earth will tremble at your marvelous signs;
you make the dawn and the dusk to sing for joy.
You visit the earth and water it abundantly; you make it very plenteous;
the river of God is full of water.
You prepare the grain,
for so you provide for the earth.
You drench the furrows and smooth out the ridges;
with heavy rain you soften the ground and bless its increase.
You crown the year with your goodness,
and your paths overflow with plenty.
May the fields of the wilderness be rich for grazing,
and the hills be clothed with joy.
May the meadows cover themselves with flocks, and the valleys cloak themselves with grain;
let them shout for joy and sing.
Meditation-Rebecca Northington
Today we commemorate the Abbot Columba who brought Christianity to the outer Hebrides of Scotland's rugged northwestern coast from Ireland. Born in 521 AD, Columba lived to the ripe old age of 76. He arrived on Iona in 563 AD, building the monastery there which became “the center of operations
for the conversion of the Scots and Picts, and became the most famous religious house in Scotland. There Columba baptized Brude, King of the Picts, and later a King of the Scots came to this Abbot of the ‘Holy Isle’ for baptism.”
To get to Iona today by car, you must take a ferry from Oban to Mull, the isle of my paternal lineage, where Duart Castle remains the seat of the MacLean clan. My family and I were lucky enough to make our way there summer of 2022. The roads on these isles remain one lane regardless of the heavy tourist traffic each summer. Highland cows and sheep casually stroll across them, nibbling grass at their leisure while massive tour buses are forced to stop and wait. The landscape is pristine and breathtaking, especially when the sun is out, and you can forget for a moment what decade or even century you abide in. Taking the ferry from the far end of Mull to Iona requires a ninety-minute circuitous drive across Mull. You can easily see Iona as you approach the ferry dock and it only takes a handful of minutes to cross. Iona is windswept in comparison to Mull. White buildings dot the harbor with bright green swaths of grass and the Abbey nestled up on a bluff to the right. The remains of the original buildings and the graveyard are a powerful reminder of how young our tradition is here in America.
Each time I have been to Iona, and to the Abbey, I have felt a powerful connection to the land and to the story. As they tell it there, Columba got into a boat on the coast of Ireland, lay down and said: “I will spread the Gospel where God takes me.” He found himself on Iona’s shores. As the Lectionary introduces Columba it reminds the reader that these monasteries and nunneries were more than just houses of worship and learning. They were inns, orphanages, places of refuge and even defense. They helped these western Europeans survive the dark ages to some extent, and certainly kept the light of learning lit.
In 2019 RYG went to the Episcopal Church St. Columba in Marathon, Florida to do hurricane cleanup. When we got there we found out that the minister had taken her congregation to Iona that same week that the hurricane hit the keys. The Church itself had been mildly damaged, but had housed repeated groups as they came to Florida to help that fall and winter. It had served as an inn, a command center of sorts determining who needed what help and how to disseminate resources and manpower, and a house of worship where people could collect themselves as they surveyed the devastation.
This summer as we head to Asheville to do what work we can, I think of Columba, lying down in the boat. I pray that God will send us where we are needed and where we can help people to feel seen, supported, and loved. And where we can learn and have our own hearts and minds opened to the mystery of God’s presence in all of our lives. As the psalm for today reminds us, God reaches us at every corner of the earth; on the outer isles of Scotland and in the highest mountains of the Southern United States. Making the “dawn and the dusk to sing for joy.”
Prayer
O God, who by the preaching of your servant Columba caused the light of the Gospel to shine in Scotland: Grant, we pray, that, remembering his life and labors, we may follow the example of his zeal and patience; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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