This week we turn our attention to sacred spaces - whether digital, such as our own website, New Pilgrim Path and our featured website, Sacred Space - or physical. Our Music of the Week and  Poem of the Week reflect the latter, specifically one of the world's oldest and most important monastic sites. The UNESCO World Heritage site of Skellig Michael lies 12 km off Ireland's south-west coast. It has been described as one of the most remarkable testaments to human faith on earth and inspired the creation of New Pilgrim Path. Click here to learn more. 

We have added two new retreats to our Online Retreats page! The first, 'In the Company of the Angels', is a half day free retreat on Saturday next, 2nd October, the Feast of the Guardian Angels. Register early as these retreats book up quickly.

In 1923, on a geological expedition deep in the Ordos Desert of Mongolia, the newly ordained Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, pondered his obligation to offer a daily celebration of the Mass – but how to do so in the middle of the desert, with neither bread nor wine available to him? His solution: the whole earth would become his altar, with the human toil and sufferings of the day to be offered up as his bread and wine. The result of this profound reflection is his The Mass on the World, a mystical expression of the presence and activity of God in all creation.  Listen to a reflective reading of selected excerpts from Georgetown University.  Click on the image above to watch and participate.

You can read the full text of Teilhard's great prose poem here. 

Detail from the Ghent Altarpiece.

COME, MY SWEET, COME, MY FLOWER
Mediaeval English poem for the feast of the Assumption

Middle English​

​Crist sayde to hur:
   "Com, my swete, com, my flour,
   Com, my culver, myn owne boure,
   Com, my modyr, now wyth me:
   For hevyn qwene I make thee."
 
Then the body sat up, and lowted to Crist, and sayde:
   "My swete sonne, with al my love
   I com wyth thee to thyn above;
   Wher thou art now, let me be,
   For al my love ys layde on thee."

​​Modern English

​Christ said to her:
​“Come, my sweet, come, my flower,
Come, my dove, my own bower,
Come, my mother, now with me,
For heaven’s Queen I make thee.”
 
Then the body sat up, and bowed to Christ, and said:
“My sweet son, with all my love
I come with you to thine above:
Where you are now, let me be
For all my love is laid on thee.”

Commentary on John 12: 44-50 ('I, the Light, have come into the world')
​
Olafur Eliasson made this artwork for the Tate Modern Turbine Hall in 2003. He employed a ceiling of mirrors and artificial mist to create the illusion of a giant sun being inside the space. The main theme the artist wanted to address was climate change. To accompany the installation, Eliasson published a catalogue where he simply addressed questions around our climate: ‘Has a weather phenomenon ever changed the course of your life dramatically?’ ‘Do you think tolerance to other individuals is proportional to the weather?’ ‘To what extent are you aware of the weather outside your workplace?’  
He brought sunlight into a dark space. Especially living in a city, we take nature and the sun for granted. By bringing the sun into an exhibition space, Eliasson showed that the sun was there to be appreciated and meditated about. His work thus drew attention to the fundamental act of perceiving the world around us. That is what Jesus is asking us in today’s reading. He wants us to see Him in everything and everyone round us. He is the Light. Light reveals truth. Light reveals flaws in the darkness. Light helps to guide us. But above all, light helps things in nature to grow. As plants need sunlight to grow, so we need Christ in order to grow. Only in Him can we truly blossom. 

Matthew 5:13-16

Bread of Life
For five weeks this summer (weeks 17-21 in Ordinary Time), Catholic and many Protestant Sunday liturgical readings feature the great 'Bread of Life' discourse from Chapter Six of the Gospel of John. Our Poem of the Week and our Music of the Week are chosen with this theme in mind.