Category: Visionaries

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday

Following Shrove Tuesday yesterday, today is Ash Wednesday, the official first day of Lent during the Christian year and the prelude to Easter.

Lent represents the 40 days that Jesus Christ spent in the wilderness, fasting and contemplating his mission on earth.

Today is known as the ‘Day of Ashes’ because of the practice of having ash rubbed &  drawn on the forehead in the shape of a cross (representing Christ’s crucifixion), by a priest at the dedicated Ash Wednesday church service.

The priest and participants from the church congregation intone the phrase either the words:-

“Repent, and believe in the Gospel” or  the dictum “Remember that you are dust, and to dust, you shall return.”       

Anglican, Catholic, and most Protestant and Christians hold Ash Wednesday services around the world. Following the service, participants observe some sort of fasting, abstinence and spiritual contemplation for 40 Days, ending on Maundy Thursday in 2018.

The practice of using ash comes from the 11th Century and is taken from the Biblical Book of Daniel, where ashes are regarded as a sign of Penance & fasting.

The ashes are normally made by the burning of palm crosses. These palm crosses were handed out to church congregations during the previous year’s Palm Sunday service (commemorating Christ’s entry into Jerusalem to crowds waving palm leaves in celebration) and given back to the priest shortly before Ash Wednesday.

The priest will then burn the crosses and mix the ash normally with Holy Oil to sanctify and make a ‘paste’ with which to rub on the participant’s forehead.


The Roman Catholic 5-Points of Ash Wednesday.

Father Rix, a young Filipino Catholic priest had very succinctly put that putting ashes on your forehead without knowing or practice the five embodiment of Ash Wednesday was just like putting dirt on your forehead and nothing relevant about it.

What are the 5 Points?

  1. Repentance; we have to accept our sins, change and not do it again then move forward.
  2. Quaresma is the 40 days of repentance before Easter, where you give up something you enjoy as a reminder that you are in repentance.
  3. Fasting and Abstinence.
  4. Prayers and Alms-giving
  5. Ash reminds us of our mortality that we came from dust and in dust, we shall return.

Saint David’s Day

Saint David’s Day

1st March.


 

St David

 

Today, March 1st  is Saint David’s Day. The patron saint of Wales.

The first day of March was chosen in remembrance of the death of Saint David as traditionally it is believed that he might have died on that day in 569, 588 or even 589; the date is uncertain.

St David (Dewi Sant) was a Celtic monk, abbot and bishop, who lived in the sixth century.  He spread the word of Christianity across Wales.

A  famous story about Saint David tells how he was preaching to a huge crowd and the ground is said to have risen up, so that he was standing on a hill and everyone had a better chance of hearing and seeing him.

He was born towards the end of the 5th century. He was of the royal house of Ceredigion and founded a Celtic monastic community at Glyn Rhosyn (The Vale of Roses) on the western headland of Pembrokeshire (Sir Benfro) where St David’s Cathedral stands today. David was famous for being a teacher.

His monastery at Glyn Rhosin became an important Christian shrine and an important centre in Wales.

Before his death, Saint David is said to have uttered these words: “Brothers be ye constant. The yoke which with single mind ye have taken, bear ye to the end; and whatsoever ye have seen with me and heard, keep and fulfill.”

Daffodil the national flower of Wales, Photo by PH Morton

 

Welsh ex-pats around the world celebrate St David’s Day. The daffodil  & the leek are the national emblems of Wales and badges of which are worn with pride.

 

 

Why a leek as an emblem?  

One theory is that St David advised the Welsh, on the eve of battle with the Saxons, to wear leeks in their caps to distinguish friends from the enemy. Shakespeare mentions in Henry V, that the Welsh archers (fearsome for the power and accuracy of their legendary long bows,)

Leeks the national emblem of Wales

wore leeks at the battle with the French at Agincourt in 1415.

The traditional meal on St David’s Day is cawl. This is a soup that is made of leek and other locally grown produce.

 


Another symbol of Wales is  the iconic Welsh Dragon  in Welsh- Y Ddraig Goch (“the

red dragon”)

It appears on the national flag of Wales. The flag is also called Y Ddraig Goch.

The Historia Brittonum (History of Britons written around 828)  records the first use of the dragon to  symbolise Wales.

One Welsh dragon legend is that a 5th century war leader & King of the Britons named Vortigern was looking for a site to build a castle in Wales. He eventually found a spot he liked on the hillside of Dinas Emrys.

A young boy  some believe to be Merlin the magician or Ambrosius Aurelianus, a candidate for the legendary King Arthur), warned Vortigern that the site he had found was directly above an underground lake, where two dragons lay sleeping.

On digging up the ground to begin the castle’s construction, Vortigern’s men found two dragons – one red, one white – fighting fiercely. After a real scuffle, the red dragon won.

The Welsh Flag flown over churches etc.

The Dragon was popularly supposed to have been the battle standard of the legendary King Arthur other ancient Celtic leaders.

Archaeological literature and documentary history suggests that it evolved from an earlier Romano-British national symbol.  During the reigns of the  Tudor monarchs, the red dragon was used as a symbol of support in the English Crown’s coat of arms (one of two supporters, along with the traditional English lion).  The red dragon is often seen as symbolising all things Welsh, and flags are flown by many public and private institutions in Wales and some in London too.

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Thought and Quote for the Day – Nelson Mandela

Chris one of the station supervisors at the Underground (Tube)  train station at Golders Green entertains us travellers/commuters by posting quotes. thoughts & sayings on  one of the station noticeboards.  Today he posted this as one as a remebrance  on the day after the great man passed.

IMG_0309

Photo by PH Morton

Land of the Giants

If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.
— Isaac Newton
Thought of the Day
30 October 2013

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What a lovely quote from the genius of all geniuses. He was saying that he owed and was inspired by the intellectuals before him for his own achievements. What an unassuming fellow Newton was. 😉 What a guy!

newton5

Probably Newton was musing about this, thinking about Aristotle, Pythagoras, Galileo, Kepler, etc while sitting under an apple tree when he was boink by apple because of gravity. hmmmmmmmm

Thomas Paine, Political Activist

517px-Thomas_Paine_by_Laurent_Dabos-crop

Thomas Paine, Political Activist

Though Thomas Paine was born and raised in Great Britain, he served as a conduit for the Americans to take up arms and demand independence from the Brits. Thomas Paine was on of the founding fathers of the United States.

Character is much easier kept than recovered.
– Thomas Paine

 

It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.
~Thomas Paine