Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Francia This horse and I are strangers to one another yet, so my traveling chatter is set loose on Creation itself. Dear God, thank you for the eternal flow of goodness – the river running down, always – the winds coming new across the grain fields – the stars andContinue reading “#70.13, Tuesday, July 29, 2025”
Category Archives: Medieval
#70.9, Thursday, July 17, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery Brother Ealdwin speaks his gratitude to God for each of the monks who escaped the slaughter and here they have come back today. But things can never be as they were before the raid. The monks are grieving. We are seeing the devastation and the grief. We areContinue reading “#70.9, Thursday, July 17, 2025”
#70.8, Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery I came looking for the Gospel of John to read again John Chapter 15 because I wanted to remember Jesus dancing the vine dance or sitting at the table with us, all of us, the world of us, and saying, once again what he says so often, “We areContinue reading “#70.8, Wednesday, July 16, 2025”
#70.3, Thursday, July 3, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery Brother Ealdwin and I take the donkey cart to the shore to collect the bodies there for burial. The one accidental kindness left by the attackers was to trade the slave who I was, for a brother, who I am now, to be with this man throughContinue reading “#70.3, Thursday, July 3, 2025”
#70.2, Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery Brother Ealdwin finds me digging graves in this field. He has with him some garments for wrapping the bodies. And he tells me he walked the width of the island from one shore to the other shore and found two more bodies by the water. One is BrotherContinue reading “#70.2, Wednesday, July 2, 2025”
#70.1, Tuesday, July 1, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery The Viking raid on Lindisfarne was swift and brutal. I was a slave waiting with the ships and saw nothing of it but their return to the beach with the loot. Brother Ealdwin, watched from a slit in the tower door and saw it happen. The VikingContinue reading “#70.1, Tuesday, July 1, 2025”
#69.12, Thursday, June 26, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery This one monk who saw the desecration has survived as he escaped into the tower to ring the warning. But it all happened so quickly there was no warning. Now, I see it will be our task to bury the dead. I tell him, “I was aContinue reading “#69.12, Thursday, June 26, 2025”
#69.11, Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery The monk with an unlit lantern was shorn just this morning as any monk would prepare for a normal day. I think I had a glimpse of him, looking down from the tower when I was outside. But when I turned around now, he was startled by the sightContinue reading “#69.11, Wednesday, June 25, 2025”
#69.10, Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery The raiders were in this holy place at Lindisfarne an hour ago when I was still their slave. They came here to find an unguarded stash of wealth, knowing nothing of the Christian nature of a place for worship. Unable to find the “Jewels and the gold” insideContinue reading “#69.10, Tuesday, June 24, 2025”
#69.9, Thursday, June 19, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery I’m reaching the priory of the Lindisfarne Monastery, the gathering room used as a sanctuary and probably also the scriptorium. I find the marauders stopped here outside the walls. The stains on the earth mark their feet and axes soaked in the blood of innocent monks. Here theyContinue reading “#69.9, Thursday, June 19, 2025”
Lazarus Ink 