Lindisfarne

I wanted to be somewhere special at Easter. For me, Holy Island (also known as Lindisfarne) was a place that was just right combining contemplation with inspiration.

This tidal island is forever associated with Cuthbert, one of the more remarkable Celtic Christian leaders of the first millennium. He was for a while, Abbot of the monastery though his preference was to be alone with God. At one time he lived on a tiny island offshore from Lindisfarne, but although he preferred the company of God to that of people he was prevailed upon to be Bishop at Durham because the people so loved him.

It is hard not to be moved by the depth of spirituality in such a man, the like of which is embarrassingly rare in Western Christianity today. Bede wrote of him,

He often spent whole nights in prayer, and sometimes, to resist sleep, worked or walked about the island whilst he prayed. If he heard others complain that they had been disturbed in their sleep, he used to say that he should think himself obliged to anyone that awaked him out of his sleep, that he might sing the praises of his Creator, and labour for his honour. His very countenance excited those who saw him to a love of virtue. He was so ...inflamed with heavenly desires, that he could never say mass without tears. He often moved penitents, who confessed to him their sins, to abundant tears by the torrents of his own, which he shed for them.

It is one thing to point out someone's sins. It is quite another to weep toward God over them.