Saint Brigid - 1 February

SAINT BRIGID OF IRELAND

One of the most popular of Irish poems speaks of the coming of spring, the lengthening of the days, and the poet running up his sails after the feast of Brigid, taking to the road once again after the darkness, the quiet hibernation, of wintertime. The time has come for moving out again, for living, for enjoying the new life and the brighter light that springtime brings.

The link between Brigid's feast and the beginning of spring (at least its official beginning: wintry weather often continues in Ireland for some time yet!) has always been there. There are even suggestions that it was a Christianisation of an earlier pagan springtime festival, perhaps even replacing a Celtic goddess of spring with a Christian saint. Whatever the origins, we celebrate it now in honour of one of Ireland's principal patrons, Brigid of Kildare, abbess and monastic founder, leader and guide for many, a woman who exercised a unique authority and influence in the early Irish church.

Coming at springtime, Brigid encourages us to focus on the gifts of the created world, the annual miracle of life coming from what seems to be dead, and of light asserting itself to turn back the deepening darkness. As a witness to life and light in this way, she is more needed than ever in her homeland. The Church in Ireland seems to be moving inexorably towards death, at least in the form it had, and as the darkness seems to grow ever deeper, we might well wonder what will come, where will the soul now find the life and light it seeks and needs?

The poem which speaks of raising the sails after Saint Brigid's day is about travelling home. For the poet that means going to Mayo which he paints as a kind of earthly paradise, heavy with fruit, laden with a generous harvest, flowing with moonshine (perhaps the song should be Moonshine in Mayo rather than Moonlight in Mayo?!)

As a heavenly intercessor, a patron of her people, Brigid invites us to follow her along the road walked before her by Jesus. She tells us to run up our sails and set off with her for our true homeland which is the kingdom of Christ. Travelling into that kingdom is not without toil just as reaping a harvest in Mayo is not without toil. But it is a kingdom of plenty, where the fruits of the Spirit are generously given - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

We enter into ever fuller possession of those gifts by beginning to share them with others. This is what Brigid teaches us: be persons of love and hospitality, care for the needy, live by the new commandment of love. Then the light of Christ's springtime is already illuminating your path and you are already living the first fruits of the kingdom that is coming and which we are seeking.