Collect for 3 Sundays before Lent
Father, by the leadership of your blessed servant Brigid you strengthened the Church in this land: As we give you thanks for her life of devoted service, inspire us with new life and light, and give us perseverance to serve you all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 2: 1-9
Matthew 5: 13 – 20
This week offers a new Bank Holiday in Ireland. Always welcome – and this one in particular has been too long coming. Patrick has long had his – Brigid, of at least equal significance in Irish history – deserves the same.
But who exactly was she? Well, it depends who you ask.
Some would refer to her as the Pagan Goddess Brid (meaning ‘the High One). She was known as the Goddess of poetry and wisdom, who first introduced the tradition of ‘Keening’ on the death of her son. She was a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the mythical supernatural race that inhabited Ireland at the dawn of time, and was among other things, a protector of domesticated animals. The pagan festival of Imbolc on February 1 is regarded as the first day of Spring.
A different Folklore tradition says her father was a Chieftain, her mother a slave. The pregnant woman, who had been baptised by St. Patrick, was sold on to a Druid, who in turn became himself a Christian. Brigid grew up as farm worker, churning butter and shepherding the sheep. She subsequently was consecrated and eventually became an Abbess, founding a Monastery in Kildare and consecrating men and women across Ireland as well as performing many miracles – including turning water into beer. She is the Patroness of Ireland and of healers, poets, blacksmiths, livestock and dairy workers, among others.
And perhaps it is her example of living the Christian life – being salt and light, living the Gospel in the language of the ordinary men and women of her culture that we rightly celebrate as the example in our own lives..
A St Brigid prayer
May the mantle of God’s peace
cover those who are troubled and anxious,
and may peace be firmly rooted in our hearts and in our world.
Inspire us to act justly and to reverence all God has made.
Just as Brigid was a voice for the wounded and the weary,
Strengthen what is weak within us.
Calm us into a quietness that heals and listens.
Amen.
And here’s how to make a Brigid cross:
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