Christ Within Me: Prayers and Meditations from the Anglo-Saxon Tradition

Publication Data: Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2008
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 101
Dimensions (l × w × h): 17.1 cm × 10.8 cm × 0.6 cm
Additional Information: black-and-white illustrations
ISBN: 978‒0‒87907‒213‒1

   
Selected, translated, and edited by Benedicta Ward SLG

“The passages in this book draw on a part of the Christian tradition of spirituality which is nearest to all who value the coming of Christianity to the British isles in the early seventh century. Certainly there were Christians in these islands before that, but the records of them are rare; the written sources used here are therefore those transmitted through literate missionaries who came from Rome through Gaul, and or from Ireland with the Gospel earlier received from Rome, to these Germanic peoples in the spring-time of their conversion to the faith in the sixth and seventh centuries. This tradition has been constantly handed on with a sense of friendship and co-operation between three peoples: Celts, Saxons and Romans. The beauty of Welsh and Irish spirituality is best understood not in isolation but alongside that of the Anglo-Saxons. To underline this I have taken my title from a hymn associated since the sixteenth century with Saint Patrick of Ireland.”
—“Preface to the Second Edition”

CONTENTS

Preface to the second edition
1. Bringing the Gospel
2. Receiving the Gospel
3. Preaching the Gospel
4. Monasteries
5. Churches
6. The Eucharist
7. Daily Bread
8. Repentance
9. Penance
10. Singing
11. A Cowherd Poet
12. Poetry and Prayer
13. The Cross, the Tree of Life
14. Faithful unto Death
15. Easter Vigil
16. Easter Morning
17. Trinity
18. God the Father
19. Christ our Light
20. Christ Within Me
21. Come, Lord Jesus
22. The Holy Spirit
23. A Spirit-Filled Life
24. Solitude
25. A Hermit and the Demons
26. Death of a Hermit
27. Death of an Author
28. An Angelic Welcome
29. English Friends Abroad
30. Friendship to Death
31. Loyalty to a Lord
32. A King at Prayer
33. A Prayer of King Alfred
34. Praying Queens
35. A Princess, a Necklace of Light
36. Mary, Mother of God
37. Jesus the Child
38. Children
39. Travellers and Exiles
40. Hermits and Birds
41. Horses and Saints
42. Whales and Deep Waters
43. Contemplation
44. Our Father
45. Our Father
46. Psalms and Life
47. The Psalms
48. Work and Prayer
49. Scripture
50. A Treasury of Books
51. Prayers for Authors
52. True Poverty
53. Morning Prayers
54. Prayers of Desire
55. Peace
56. A Rainbow
57. An Alleluia Victory
58. Heaven
59. A Celebration
60. A Prayer for the Compiler of this Book
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments