Cycles of Newness

To transport ourselves in mind, whenever we suffer tribulation, into universal dimensions makes us like unto Christ. ~ Saint Sophrony of Essex, On Prayer

Last week I spent some time praying at the tomb of Saint Mungo in Glasgow, Scotland while on pilgrimage with the monastic community of All Celtic Saints. Saint Mungo’s mother, Saint Thaney is a saint of innocence and abuse. She was raped as a young girl by a nobleman who in her innocence convinced her that such behavior was normal. When her family found out that she was pregnant, her father King Lleuddun rejected her and had her thrown from a cliff to kill her. By God’s grace she survived and climbed into a nearby boat that took her down the Firth of Fourth to a monastery at Culross lead by Saint Serf, who took her in and delivered her son, Saint Kentigern. Saint Serf was fond of the boy and gave him the name “Mungo,” beloved one.

As a boy Saint Mungo was as innocent as his mother. Saint Serf had a pet named ‘Robin’ and one time the other boys of the community killed Robin to put the blame on Mungo. Saint Mungo took it in his hands and commanded it back to life. Another time Mungo was tasked with watching the Holy Fire in the altar but the boys blew it out. Saint Mungo found some frozen oak sticks and holding them together they spontaneously ignited so Mungo could relight the Holy Fire. Innocence navigates through trial and rejection in a way that calls to repentance while avoiding toxic shame. Saint Mungo later went on to found the city of Glasgow as ‘Clas-gu’ (“dear family”). His innocence continues to bring his family together in Glasgow today.

Saint Mungo and Saint Thaney are a truly present symbol of the heart we try to bury in our suffering and shame. Everyone is born with a childish heart given by God and filled with wonder for Him. Traumatic episodes in life can cause the heart to retreat inward and cover itself up in order to protect itself from more trauma like Saint Thaney’s father attempting to bury her and his shame with a push off the cliff. Something I can attest to in my own life, burying the heart. But the heart we try to bury is the heart of an immortal, made in the Image of God and it carries the Holy Fire. Like Saint Thaney, the heart will journey downstream to life even as we try to distance ourselves from it and continue our “planned” life. God will continue to call to our heart, He is eternal and never tires. Ancient Christianity never knew of a time God stopped calling, the Saints continued to pray for the departed and gave God no end date for hope, only the Father knows the day or the hour of Judgement.

Out of the deep heart is birthed the innocent miracle of Saint Mungo, the beloved one. If we continue on through tribulation and follow Christ down the river with Saint Thaney we will see Christ as He is and one other as we are. Today I was working with Laura on our teaching session on suffering for Crossroads and I came across this quote by Saint Sophrony about seeing Christ in our suffering, which sparked writing this article:

To transport ourselves in mind, whenever we suffer tribulation, into universal dimensions makes us like unto Christ. If we do this, everything that happens to us individually will be a revelation of what happens in the wide world. Streams of cosmic life will flow through us, and we shall be able, through personal experience, to discern both man in his temporal existence and even the Son of man in his two natures. It is precisely thus, through suffering, that we grow to cosmic and meta-cosmic self-consciousness. By going through the trial of self-emptying in following Christ, crucifying ourselves with him, we become receptive to the infinitely great Divine Being. In wearying penitential prayer for the whole world, we merge ourselves spiritually with all mankind: we become universal in the image of the universality of Christ himself, who bears in himself all that exists. Dying with him and in him, we here and now anticipate resurrection. – On Prayer

The heart, the place of buried innocence and wonder in suffering, is the place of resurrection. It is the seat of the nous, the eye of the soul, the part of us that sees God. It is the place of prayer where we unite ourselves with Christ. The heart will give birth to miracles as Saint Thaney did through trial, shame, tribulation and pain. On Sunday a missionary, Andrew, who works with human trafficking and abuse victims visited my parents church here in Sheridan, Montana. I got to pass on the icon of Saint Thaney and the prayer rope I had at Saint Mungo’s shrine to Andrew. God knew he needed their prayers. There is no suffering without hope.

Be at peace with your own soul then heaven and earth will be at peace with you. Enter eagerly into the treasure house that is within you, and you will see the things that are in heaven, for there is but one single entry to them both. The ladder that leads to the Kingdom is hidden within your soul. .. Dive into yourself and in your soul and you will discover the stairs by which to ascend. – Saint Isaac the Syrian

In another work Saint Sophrony notes that “The way of shame is the way of the Lord.” It is also the way of Saint Thaney, her boat to a new community and giving birth to new life. May our hearts be unburied that we would find the way to Christ as Saint Thaney did. Saint Thaney and Saint Mungo, pray to God for us.