Category: Iona

The reappearance of Rublev's Holy Trinity icon in my life

2/6/2023

This morning I listened to Br. Curtis’ sermon ‘Andrei Rublev, Opening the Eyes of Our Hearts,’ today’s SSJE’s selection of Brother, Give us a Word.’
I have had a long personal relationship with The Trinity, written by Rublev. Here is my picture history.
Every morning during my prayer time, I am inspired by this canvas piece that my son-in-law found at a yard sale.
www.ssje.org/2019/01/29/andrei-rublev-opening-the-eyes-of-our-hearts-br-curtis-almquist/

Every morning during my prayer time, I am inspired by this canvas piece that my son-in-law found at a yard sale.

When I was on Iona last July (2022), I walked into the abby and was greeted by this icon resting against the altar. Upon closer look I was in awe to notice that the Christ was black.

The next day the icon had moved (or was moved) to the Quiet Corner. The following day to another spot in corner. I wonder where it is now!

Last Friday, while visiting the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, I came across this one.

On Saturday a friend send me this photo that she had taken in May on Iona.

And today, Br. Curtis’ message along with the icon ‘written by departed Brother Eldridge Pendleton.

Brother Curtis asks, ‘What do you know about being visited by a messenger of God?’ That is what I am praying on as I sit with this icon that spans the years from Abraham and before and from now to eternity, and keeps appearing in my life.

Jesus' healing ministry

8/1/2022

Every Tuesday evening at the Iona Abby is the Service of Healing. Although I missed it this year, healing was the center of my time on the island. I met a mom and dad and their son 12 year old son who had had intensive surgery on his legs—the first wasn’t successful, the second they are hopeful is working. For me, talking with this mom deepened my faith in prayer. Not just deepened it, but raised it to a new level of belief.
According to Morton Kelsey, one fifth of the narrative portraits in the four gospels is about healing by Jesus and his followers. What was Jesus showing us? That healing is real— not just for back in his times, but is for us now. What does this mean for me, who knows and has come to believe that I am called to pray for people? In following Jesus, how can you and I be healers? We mainline Protestant are missing the opportunity of a lifetime-no pun intended.

Disciplined grace on Iona

7/24/2022

It is easier, one would think, to pray on Iona than in my backyard or in the Angel Room at home. I believe this is so. At least here on the island the physical surroundings and the time is right. Even in the rain and mist, I know God is here in this liminal place. My time is open to pray, even when I’m eating delicious meals prepared by someone else.
But as Richard Foster writes in Celebration of Discipline, “We must always remember that the path does not produce change; it only places us where the change can occur. This is path of disciplined grace.” I can come to Iona to ‘walk around with God,’ only to find myself tapping into the news or fretting about this and that in my life. OR, I can come here and choose to walk the path of disciplined grace. It is God grace that has enabled me to come here; it is up to me to discipline myself to embrace this grace and walk around with God.

What if everyone prayed for peace?

2/13/2019

I am one of the many (at least 100, maybe 200) intercessors with the Iona Community Prayer Circle. Every two months I receive the prayer requests for Group One, the group to which I am assigned. There are twelve groups and approximately 12 requests per group.

    I am also one of thirteen intercessors (from all over the world) who have agreed to receive emergency requests that come into the head office in Glasgow and can’t wait until the next group mailing.
    Over the years we have become prayer friends, praying for needs that go beyond the Community requests, namely for our friends and families and sometimes for ourselves. It is heartwarming to receive the different words that someone from Australia or Scotland use to ask God for help or give God thanks.
    Recently an intercessor from England offered this: I am getting somewhat elderly (85) and have mobility problems so am no longer able to play an active part in church/community life, and feel that intercession is a small offering I can still make.

      As far as I am concerned, this is no small offering. It may be one of the most consequential and vital ways an older person (in fact, anyone) can contribute to peace and love in the world. What if everyone prayed for peace?

Iona, the thin space~

6/16/2016

Iona, the thin space. I felt it my first visit here twenty years ago, and I felt it today at the same spot along to road to the Machair, among the same family of sheep.
Here’s what I wrote in 1996.
I walk along, the wind gently breathing upon a hovering medley of clouds. Stopping along the gravel road, lined on either side by sheep, I startle myself by saying out loud, perhaps to those sheep or to myself, perhaps to the universe or to God, “Life is simple; all we need to do is to love each other.” For the moment I am standing in the ‘thin place’, that liminal space between heaven and earth, between time and eternity. I am in the presence of God.

I knew I had come again to that liminal space, that thin space between heaven and earth. I knew by the silence that was God, who was and is and always will be beyond words. I couldn’t think of a thing; I knew there was nothing worth saying other than to love everyone. God was in my heart where love is, where all is simple.

This year's first visit to Iona Abbey~

6/15/2016

Very grateful to be on Iona. I spent an hour in the quiet corner of the abbey this afternoon. At five o’clock the tourists are on their way to the ferry and those preparing for the evening service have not yet appeared. Very grateful for this time.

Iona intention~

6/11/2016

Next Wednesday I will take the little ferry from Mull to Iona for a week’s pilgrimage on the island. I will close the door to the many of the details of my everyday life so I can open myself to being in God’s presence. But like the woman in the painting, the door won’t be shut tight. Through prayer I will be present to family and friends.

I Have Seen the Lord

12/20/2015

A poem sent to me by dear friends in England. Friends I first met on Iona.

I Have Seen the Lord
Where the mist rises from the sea
Where the waves creep upon the shore
Where the wrack lifts upon the strand,
            I have seen the Lord.

Where the sun awakens the day
Where the road winds on its way
Where the fields are sweet with hay
           I have seen the Lord.

Where the stars shine in the sky
Where the streets so peaceful lie
Where the darkness is so nigh
          I have seen the Lord.

The Lord is here
The Lord is there
The Lord is everywhere
The lord is high
The lord is low
The Lord is on the path I go.

Celebrating "Very Grateful"~

6/18/2015

In the past week two Scottish friends have asked me the same question, using the same words: “How are you going to celebrate the publication of your book about your mother?”

     “Oh, I’m not going to,” has been my quick response. Then, “Hum, maybe I should.”

     Why this resistance? The easy answer is that celebrating implies celebrating myself and my accomplishment, whereas the book is about celebrating Mom, and that is celebration enough.

     There’s another celebration, however, going on inside of me that perhaps I don’t want to publicize. I sense that with the book’s publication, my grieving will be over. That’s important to me, but how widely do I want to expose this personal truth? More to the point, do I want to admit to myself that my job of making Mom happy is complete? If so, and I know that it is, what is my next job? I'm hearing that I am being called to pray for people and be with God—to wander with God-- and THAT is where the fear lies. Is that what a doer like me is supposed to be doing now? Is my next job just to BE?

     You may wonder why I am blurting this out. I believe human beings need to confess their truths out loud to other human beings and this feel like a safe place for me to do so. With the exception of a few of you, I have no idea who reads this blog. I do know, however, that you are safe.

Iona Prayer Circle~

8/29/2014

I’ve blogged about the Iona Prayer Circle before. I suppose I could look back and read what I had written, and thus be certain that I was saying something new this time. But blogging doesn’t work that way. We write at the moment and for the moment, which makes new whatever we say.

    I’ve been a member of the Iona Prayer Circle for years, at least ten. Every two months I receive an email list of people to pray for. The list gives updates and additions. We intercessors are asked to pray once a week, preferably on Tuesday, to coincide with the Service of Healing conducted at the Iona Abbey on the day. My habit has been to ‘pray the list’ every morning. In doing so, I feel I begin to know the people. Not the details of their lives, but we make some connection, soul to soul. Mysterious and inexplicable.

    By the time I have lifted up each of the fifteen names, I have prayed for most of the conditions that people face in the world. I’ve prayed for people who are bio-polar, depressed, grieving the loss of loved ones, and facing all kinds of medical conditions. I’ve prayed for single moms, alcoholics, and for those who are lonely and feeling purposeless. I’ve prayed for the myriad losses that the elderly face.

     I’ve painted a rather bleak picture, you might say. Well, yes. The human condition is like that. Just ask Jesus. That’s why the list exist. But the list is also full of hope. The sponsors write of the gratitude and uplifting that their personal friends feel knowing that their nameless friends around the world are praying for them. Jesus offered that, too.