Historical Setting: Jarrow, 793 C.E. I stand before the book stand that holds Bede’s ecclesiastical history, considering eschatology or thoughts of end times as a circle. History tries to be linear with a beginning and an end, a head and a tail, as a line, with only an untapped option to circle for eternity,Continue reading “#74.6 Thursday, November 13, 2025”
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#74.5 Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Historical Setting: Jarrow, 793 C.E. My thoughts stray from Bede’s commentary on the history of Church among the Anglia. He wrote in a room with narrow walls. I was expecting to find in this history of the Lindisfarne the actual beating heart and spiritual energy of the creation of that community. It was stolenContinue reading “#74.5 Wednesday, November 12, 2025”
#74.4 Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Historical Setting: Jarrow, 793 C.E. Now, as I contemplate my own motives for searching Bede’s writings, I find myself clinging to the losing side in a petty debate over haircuts and calendar calculations. I’m still arguing matters of political opinion while I claim my reasons for studying Bede are purely for learning the history.Continue reading “#74.4 Tuesday, November 11, 2025”
#74.3 Thursday, November 6, 2025
Historical Setting: Jarrow, 793 C.E. I have a personal stake in this history, because, in all my years, I’ve felt the sense of belonging in monastic communities before there was a Benedictine Rule at Tours and at Ligugé. Then my need for community for sharing faith was met with the Irish missionary, Columbanus, whoContinue reading “#74.3 Thursday, November 6, 2025”
#74.2 Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Historical Setting: Jarrow, 793 C.E. Bede lived his life in the monastery confined by walls with books as his window on the world. His doorways were the travelers to and from Rome as he always kept current with papal decree and edict. He valued the pope’s intention to bring unity to the whole wideContinue reading “#74.2 Wednesday, November 5, 2025”
#74.1 Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Historical Setting: Jarrow, 793 C.E. I came to Jarrow for this library known to have a notable collection of books including the works of Bede. Bede was a scholar who had lived here since childhood, now revered by the patrons of Lindisfarne for his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Wilbert, the now elderlyContinue reading “#74.1 Tuesday, November 4, 2025”
#73.14 Thursday, October 30, 2025
Historical Setting: Jarrow, 793 C.E. My plan to read the works of Bede has begun at the end of his earthly life, as told to me by his student Wilbert. Wilbert says, “Then at the ninth hour he gathered everyone together and gave away the earthly things he treasured — pepper, incense andContinue reading “#73.14 Thursday, October 30, 2025”
#73.13 Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Historical Setting: Jarrow, 793 C.E. By the time I can begin reading I will be so knowledgeable of Bede I might be able to read this history with his own voice. Now Wilbert says he, himself, was the scribe for the elder monk on his death bed. “I was called to his bedsideContinue reading “#73.13 Wednesday, October 29, 2025”
#73.12 Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Historical Setting: Jarrow, 793 C.E. Elderly Wilbert is telling me of the life of the Venerable Bede who wrote the book I came to read. My condition of life and life again makes me feel argumentative. I’d mention that such writings are limited by a monastic life from childhood through death with only aContinue reading “#73.12 Tuesday, October 28, 2025”
#73.11 Thursday, October 23, 2025
Historical Setting: Jarrow, 793 C.E. Wilbert, the elder serving the library, sees my interest in Bede’s books of history and has taken me aside from the large hall to tell me something of the life of this man — his own spiritual guide. “The venerable Bede was delivered to the abbot at Monkwearmouth aContinue reading “#73.11 Thursday, October 23, 2025”
Lazarus Ink 