“Everything we see has a story”
I have a simple stone statue of St Anthony of Padua in my garden which is surrounded by roses in June. I like the gentle image of the saint holding a child tenderly but realised I didn’t know much about him. He was a humble quiet man who had a gift of preaching from his heart. I discovered that there is a tradition of charitable distribution of St Anthony’s bread from people who are grateful for the saint’s intercessions in their prayers, a mother’s gratitude for her son being restored to life after drowning near the Basilica of St Anthony, a female shopkeeper in Toulon, France, who could not open her shop door so she called a locksmith who could not open it. Before he broke the door down she asked the locksmith to try his keys one more time after she prayed and promised to give bread to the poor in honour of St. Anthony if the door would open without force. The door then opened.
I really like these stories of barriers being overcome through faith, humility and trust so that a gift is unlocked which is then shared out for others. That seems to be the essence of Corpus Christi, communal living ,giving, receiving, and then grateful sharing of the gift of Christ which is so central to everything we do and everything we are. St Augustine of Hippo summed this up so neatly and profoundly“ Be what you see; receive what you are.”
I recently joined the UK oblate retreat at Ampleforth which was a lovely experience with an emphasis on welcome and being part of the community. There were beautiful views out to the surrounding hills from the retreat house and it was good to be able to step out of the pressures of life and reset into a better place. We walked up through a wood with a carpet of bluebells and primroses and abundant wild garlic where the stations of the Cross are simply set on trees in the wood, some alive and growing tall, some fallen trees, some sculptural dead trees framing the Cross. The path led up to a plateau which opened out beyond the stations to give the promise of a distant view which was rather beautiful and spoke of hope, suffering converted and transcended to hope and a vision of glory which gave a very different perspective to how the path is walked. This lightens the Via Dolorosa to something transformative, a path of charity and beauty.
We passed rocky areas of an old quarry covered with nature’s green, and a graveyard lit by the sun so we were completely surrounded by beauty. At the final station a small fine shower of small leaves or tiny seeds from the trees rained down gently like confetti “If things created are so full of loveliness how resplendent with beauty must be the One who made them! The wisdom of the Worker is apparent in his handiwork.” St Anthony
It has been helpful to find out more about St Anthony of Padua and to have heard some of his inspiring words: “The spirit of humility is sweeter than honey and whoever is fed by this sweetness produces fruit” and “Charity is the soul of faith, it gives it life, without love faith dies”. We need charity, to recognise, acknowledge and celebrate Christ in each of us and all of us collectively, which reminds me of a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins:“ Each mortal thing does one thing and the same…… Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is —Christ — for Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his, To the Father through the features of men’s faces.”
Thinking about the feast of Corpus Christi in June, I would like to share this quote from Richard Rolle :“I have found that to love Christ above all else will involve three things: warmth and song and sweetness. And these three, as I know from personal experience cannot exist for long without there being great quiet……………”
Sarah Richards
Oblate of Prinknash Abbey
