Becky and I returned to Key West this morning having prayed all over the Borders region of Scotland and in the city of Edinburgh. We even prayed across the border in England. Were we praying the Daily Office? Yes, sometimes. I'm referring primarily, however, to the frequency of other types of prayer.
We did pray Morning Prayer with other attendees of the Clan Elliot(t) quadrennial gathering and the regular congregation of St Andrew's at Kirkandrews on Esk on Sunday. We prayed at meals and received a blessing from a retired Church of England bishop at our gathering last Friday. We visited multiple parishes of the Scottish Episcopal Church, such as the exquisite Rosslyn Chapel, and lit candles and offered prayers in those lovely places, including prayers for you and for our community. We could scarcely help but pray in the gorgeous ruins of the abbeys of Lindisfarne, Jedburgh, and Dryburgh.
Most of our prayers, however, were in a visual rather than a verbal mode. We were engaging in a mode of visio divina, that is, "sacred seeing" or "divine seeing."
We Anglicans are literate people of prayer drawing on two primary books, the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. We speak prayers, and we sing and chant prayers. And, in addition, we are heirs of other types of Christian prayer such as lectio divina, or "sacred reading" or "divine reading" and visio divine.
Perhaps because much of my work relies upon the use of words I am drawn to forms of that rely upon something other than words.
What we see depends on our position, to be sure. It also depends on how we look. In the Scottish countryside in the Borders region, with time to slow down and gaze, I found refreshment by resting in the beauty of God's creation and agrarian human expressions within it. Pastures full of sheep, cows, and horses. Hillsides purple with heather. Hayfields freshly mown and wheat fields ready for harvest. Well maintained forests and ancient dry stone walls. Gorgeous slowly flowing rivers and rapidly running burns and streams. Every grateful view of such beauty was offered to the Holy One as a prayer of thanksgiving, appreciation, and wonder.
We are glad to be safely home and very grateful indeed to at last make the trip twice postponed since 2020. We look forward to being with you in person or virtually on Sunday, September 3.
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