Why my heroes are also SaintsScot Bower - 22 Mar 2010

Last year somehow I landed the opportunity to write a book. I've always wanted to write a book but somehow it's a lot easier to write a book 'one day' rather than actually write one today! A year later and after a lot of hard work and much patience on the part of my editor and the publishers my book was printed. It's called Saints.

Saints is a book about the past. It’s a book of stories from the lives of some of the men and women who changed the Church and changed their world. And it's a book which I hope causes us to look again with purpose to the challenges we face in our modern day lives.

One of the reasons I wrote Saints is that I passionately believe in the call to re-evangelise Europe. I believe Europe is the greatest missionary challenge of our age and am convinced that one of the God given keys to understand the challenge of today is to engage with the past. We have a treasury of heritage available, examples of ‘heroes of the faith’ from 2000 years of Church history from which we can take courage and inspiration. Saints sets out to introduce some of these characters to us from Desert Fathers to Celtic monks, Latin abbots and Orthodox Missionaries.  

As we look to the future we should remember and thank God for all he has done in the past.

This is an extract from a chapter of Saints which looks at the the Irish pilgrim Brendan the Navigator. We jump into the story at the end of Brendan's epic sea journey from Ireland:

‘After a final forty days the boat landed on the coast of North America. Tim Severin’s [who recreated Brendan's voyage in the 1970’s] expedition landed in New Foundland proving that such a journey was at least possible. Other historians suggest that Brendan's final route took him south and that ‘Brendan's Isle’ is a Caribbean island. Until relatively recently ‘Brendan's Isle’ was marked on maps of the Atlantic Ocean. Christopher Columbus certainly read the Navigatio and this played its small part in firing the explorers determination to sail beyond the known waters and eventually ‘discover’ the Americas nearly a thousand years after Brendan had landed.

The Navigatio doesn’t linger long on the details of the island destination, nor Brendan's return journey. But once again the author tells how the group were met by a young man who knew them by name and welcomed them to the island. The young man spoke to Brendan ‘There before you lies the land which you sought for a long time. You could not find it immediately because God wanted to show you his varied secrets of the ocean.’ And there, with that sentence, we see the very essence of Pilgrimage and of the peregrinati, the white martyrs; destination is always of secondary importance when compared to the journey. As a missionary and traveller I too have learned that often it is the journey that teaches us more than the destination, and in an ‘instant age’ we should try to value process as much as result.  Just as Brendan had to circle his islands for seven long years, retracing his steps year after year, we often find ourselves on our own journeys repeating behavior, visiting the same places time and again never sure if we are really ‘getting anywhere’. Brendan's journey, although a wonderful tale of adventure, is more about the journey of the soul. A journey where he learns, as we do, to trust and find faith. Brendan and his crew experienced danger, despair and loss as they journeyed each day into the unknown. Yet they were provided for and protected. The Anglo-Norman version of the Navigatio says:

 Now the servants of God [Brendan and his brothers] perceived that they were journeying under Gods direction; the miracles they had witnessed proved this beyond doubt. Seeing clearly that God would feed them, they never ceased praising Him and set off at once, sailing before the wind. Gods protection was about them and for a good part of the year they sailed over the sea, suffering extreme hardship.

Brendans story shows that when people endure suffering, hardship, danger, despair and loss on their own voyages into their unknown tomorrows and they feel that their lives aren't going as they had hoped, this in no way means God has removed his protection or his blessing from them. More often the opposite is true, when people let go and abandon themselves to the guiding breath of God his provision and his protection can be found.

I first came across this poem or prayer [inspired by Brendans voyage] from ‘In exploration of a vision in Celtic Daily Prayer by the Northumbria Community as my family and I prepared to leave our homeland and head off to live in Eastern Europe. It means a great deal to us and helps me to understand the Jesus that is with me in my sacrifice of home, career, will and desire; he is faithful and trustworthy and he will never let me go.’

Lord I will trust you
Help me to journey beyond the familiar
And into the unknown.
Give me the faith to leave the old ways
And break new ground with You.
Christ of the mysteries, can I trust You
To be stronger than each storm in me?
I will trust in the darkness and know
that my times are still in your hand.
I will believe you for my future
Chapter by chapter until the story is written.
Strengthen me with Your blessing
And appoint me to the task.
Teach me to live with eternity in view.
Tune my spirit to the music in heaven.
Feed me,
And, somehow,
Make my obedience count for You.

Amen                                                                                                            

Extract taken from Saints by Scot Bower Copyright(c) 2009 by Scot Bower, title image by Linda Baker Smith. Used by permission of Lion Hudson, Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Rd, Oxford OX2 8DR.

Read a longer extract or purchase the book on the Lion Hudson website. Saints is also available on Amazon.co.uk and through most book stores.