March 30, 2003

Those outside the UK may

Those outside the UK may not know that today is Mother’s Day on this side of the Atlantic. It is observed here on the Third Sunday of (Western) Lent. It is Mrs Holford’s second Mother’s Day. Aidie doesn’t realise it, but he gave his mother a pot of three hyacinths. She chose them in town yesterday. She got a pot for her mother and decided she’d like one as well.

Hyacinths remind me of my second visit to St Ninian’s Cave in southern Scotland, in mid-May 1992. The walk from the car park to the cave is about ¾ of a mile on a path along a small stream. The hyacinth was in full bloom and the scent was almost overwhelming. To this day, that particular floral fragrance brings me into remembrance of our father among the saints Ninian, apostle to the southern Picts. He was one of the first saints I came to love and venerate, even as a solidly Reformed Protestant.

I would think that normally in relationship to a saint, veneration comes before pilgrimage, as the latter is an expression of the former. In my relationship with St Ninian, the opposite was the case. In 1992, I didn’t understand or appreciate the full significance of the Church in heaven. I had an interest in Church history, but that was about the extent of it. Having been there before, I thought I knew what to expect. (In 1990, when I first visited Ninian’s Cave, it was purely as a tourist. It seemed like a quirky, off-the-beaten-path sort of place to say I had been.) For some reason, I really wanted to go back.

As I stood in what is barely a cleft in the rock and looked out upon waters of the Solway Firth, I caught a glimpse of St Ninian. No not an apparition. Rather a realisation of a place sanctified by the Holy Spirit through the hours of prayer offered to the Father by a man dedicated to bringing a heathen people to the saving knowledge of the Son. It didn’t all fit with my Reformed theology at the time, but I tucked it away in my heart until the fullness of time had come. Now I can appreciate holy people in alive in heaven and the holy places they left behind here on earth.

Perhaps it is good that Mother’s Day falls during Lent. I’m not particularly good at Lent and I need the ascetical encouragement from St Ninian of Whithorn to help me bring my mind and body into subjection to Christ.

Posted by david at March 30, 2003 09:58 PM
Comments