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WHITSUN

 

4th June

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Listen: Whitsun

 

Readings:

 

2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.

5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,[b] 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

King James Bible, Acts 2: 1 - 13

 

"In Medieval times the Whitsun festival was one of the most important events at the Royal court. The nobles enjoyed feasting, games and minstrelsy. While ordinary folk followed suit with their own version of Whitsun Revels. Chief among these were the Whitsun ales where, as the name implies, our forebears enjoyed a good drink – alongside dancing, games and plays.

In early times the word "ale" was used to describe the many parish festivals where ale was consumed and a good time had by all – often with proceeds going to a good cause. Our word "bridal" comes from the older "bride ale" or wedding feast. Other ales included the "clerk ale" and "church ale" where parish dues were collected – and the church made a profit on the sale of the ale. The money helped keep the church in good repair. Any excess profits were given as alms to the poor.

At sheep shearing time, there would be "lamb ales", and when manorial court sessions were held there were "leet ales". There was also the "bid ale", a kind of charity do, where everyone was expected to make a contribution to help the poor.

In those times the church was the hub of each community. Apart from its religious role it had an important social function, bringing everyone together. Essentially Medieval churches were community centres – where you could perform and watch plays, practise archery, play games and sports, sing, dance and have a drink. Churches brewed their own beer and many had separate church rooms or church houses for feasts and festivals. If there was insufficient space for separate facilities, parishioners were allowed to use the nave or aisle in the church itself – spilling outside into the churchyard for rowdier pursuits."

www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk

 

“The most racking pangs succeeded: a grinding in the bones, deadly nausea, and a horror of the spirit that cannot be exceeded at the hour of birth or death. Then these agonies began swiftly to subside, and I came to myself as if out of a great sickness. There was something strange in my sensations, something indescribably sweet. I felt younger, lighter, happier in body; within I was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running like a millrace in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but innocent freedom of the soul. I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original evil and the thought, in that moment, braced and delighted me like wine.”

― Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

 

“I take pleasure in my transformations. I look quiet and consistent, but few know how many women there are in me.”

― Anaïs Nin

 

“The time is a critical one, for it marks the beginning of the second half of life, when a metanoia, a mental transformation, not infrequently occurs.
(on being 36 yrs old)”

― C.G. Jung, Symbols of Transformation

 

“...even so did you feel yourself swept away by that inward migration about which no one had ever said a word to you…A great wind swept through and delivered from the matrix the sleeping prince you sheltered- man within you. You are the equal of the musician composing his music, of the physicist extending the frontier of knowledge…you have reached an altitude where all loves are of the same stuff.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars

 

“Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make amends in!


‘I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!’ Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. ‘The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. Oh Jacob Marley! Heaven, and the Christmas Time be praised for this.’”


“Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset.”


“And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!”

― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

 

Meditation:

As breath turns from down to up,

and again as breath curves up to down – through both these turns,

realize.

 

Contemplations:

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