Fourteenth Sunday after Whitsun

Custódi, Dómine, quǽsumus, Ecclésiam tuam propitiatióne perpétua: et quia sine te lábitur humána mortálitas; tuis semper auxíliis et abstrahátur a nóxiis et ad salutária dirigátur. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. R. Amen.

Keep, we beſeech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy; and becauſe the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable for our ſalvation; through Jeſus Chriſt our Lord. Amen.

Keynote: Divine Guidance

Unless God keeps the city, the watchman wakes in vain. Like water, human consciousness forever seeks its own level. It  can never transcend its limitations or rise above its imperfections. It is only the pressure of divine life which can bring human life to higher levels.

We will infallibly be self-deluded unless we have an external standard of rightness. We will unconsciously justify that which we desire and condone that into which we have lapsed. Our judgement of ourselves soon becomes vitiated if we have no example by which to measure ourselves.

Man can no more rise higher than himself than water can rise higher than its source. It is only when we make contact with the Divine that we are lifted above the endless circle of the humans. God's love, manifested to us by His Son and His saints, shows us the way out of this vicious circle; in humility we open our hearts to that ever-flowing love, and it pours into us with newness of life and we rise up out of our finite human concepts to the heights when love comes.

God's love is an active, not a passive thing. It is the great reconciler. Jesus Christ was the expression of that love, and ever it goes forth, like a shepherd seeking that which is lost. It presses into human consciousness wherever the door stands ajar. None who hunger and thirst after righteousness need go empty away. If we allow the human qualities of kindliness and gentleness to find expression through us, they will open the door to divine love, and our Lord will come in and sup with us.

[Dion Fortune, Mystical Meditations on the Christian Collects]

The Fairies' Lost Command

Actually, this follows on quite nicely from last week's post.

Thirteenth Sunday after Whitsun

Omnípotens sempitérne Deus, da nobis fídei, spei et caritátis augméntum: et, ut mereámur asséqui quod promíttis, fac nos amáre quod prǽcipis. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. ℟. Amen.

Almighty and everlaſting God, give unto us the increaſe of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou do ſt promiſe, make us to love that which thou doſt command, through Jeſus Chriſt our Lord. Amen.

Keynote: The Love of God's Law

It is not enough that we should obey God's law from fear of the consequences of disobedience. Unless we realise the beauty of its harmony we do not obey it with the inward man. Only when we realise that God's law is the music of the spheres, that it sweetly rules and governs all things, bringing forth the Mazzaroth in his season and guiding Arcturus with his sons — only when we realise that harmony is its basis and perfection its design can we joyfully give ourselves up with perfect security to its governing. Then do we know why the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.

It is our finite separateness and selfishness which keeps us from this realisation. Because we wish to keep back part of the price, to retain something for our private use, we fear to leap into the ocean of the cosmic life where we can swim freely and where there is an abundant sufficiency for all our needs.

It is only as we develop the vision of the higher self — the faith which perceives the substance of things unseen, the hope which in confidence awaits the manifestation of the hidden laws, and the love which fails not is kind to all things, which seeks not its own, and therefore possesses all things — that we can rise into realisation of the oneness of all existence and love God's law because it maintains infinite unity in eternal harmony.

[Dion Fortune, Mystical Meditations on the Christian Collects]

Bury St Edmunds

Where the rude buttress totters to its fall,
And ivy mantles o'er the crumbling wall;
Where e'en the skilful eve can scarcely trace
The once high altar's lowly resting place -
Let patriotic fancy muse awhile
Amid the ruins of this ancient pile.
Six weary centuries have past away;
Palace and abbey moulder in decay -
Cold death enshrouds the learned and the brave -
Langton - Fitz Walter - slumber in the grave.
But still we read in deathless records how
The high-soul'd priest confirm'd the barons vow;
And Freedom, unforgetful still recites
This second birth-place of our native rights.

Twelfth Sunday after Whitsun

Omnípotens et miséricors Deus, de cuius múnere venit, ut tibi a fidélibus tuis digne et laudabíliter serviátur: tríbue, quǽsumus, nobis; ut ad promissiónes tuas sine offensióne currámus. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. ℟. Amen.

ALMIGHTY, and merciful God, of whoſe only gift it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable ſervice: Grant, we beſeech thee, that we may ſo faithfully ſerve thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain thy heavenly promiſes, through the merits of Jeſus Chriſt our Lord. Amen.

Keynote: Fidelity and Understanding

Two things are needed for God's service: one is an unfaltering fidelity, and the other is a right understanding of what is required of us.

If we look back through history, we see many examples of an unfaltering fidelity to God's service which to us seem to go hand in hand with a misunderstanding of God's requirements of us. We cannot now believe that God would require us to massacre the little children of those who believed wrongly, yet men have been found, not once but many times, to do this in a spirit of unfaltering fidelity.

How are we to avoid making like errors? How are we to judge righteous judgement? We cannot do it by the light of human reason and expediency; we must be able to stand outside our mundane problems if we are to see in them their spiritual significance and judge them accordingly.

It is only by God's grace that we can hope to do this. And what is that grace? It is the uplifting of heart that comes when we lift up our eyes to the highest ideal we can conceive - the life of Jesus of Nazareth. He is the friend of the heart Whose influence changes our outlook. When we have been alone with Him for a little while, we find that we are judging very differently to the way we judged when we were in the midst of our problems. Guided by the divine counsellor, we shall know how to do God true and laudable service, and shall not be misled by our human errors, fears, and prejudices.

[Dion Fortune, Mystical Meditations on the Christian Collects]

The Odda Stone

Eleventh Sunday after Whitsun

Omnípotens sempitérne Deus, qui, abundántia pietátis tuæ, et mérita súpplicum excédis et vota: effúnde super nos misericórdiam tuam; ut dimíttas quæ consciéntia métuit, et adícias quod orátio non præsúmit. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. ℟. Amen.

ALMIGHTY and everlaſting God, who art always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and art wont to give more than either we deſire, or deſerve; Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us thoſe things whereof our conſcience is afraid, and giving us thoſe good things which we are not worthy to aſk, but through the merits and mediation of Jeſus Chriſt thy Son, our Lord. Amen.

Keynote: Beyond Our Grasp

If our aspirations were limited by our apprehensions we should be "of all men the most miserable", but our hearts reach out beyond our minds, and God hears the unspoken desire and answers it.

Our lower selves, clinging desperately to their material security and their personal desires, are not able to formulate the bold and noble prayers that call down the power of God. It is our higher selves, silent and hidden in the deepest recesses of our nature, which pray for spiritual things and are answered, often to the confusion and distress of the lower self.

And all the time the life and the love and the might and the wisdom of the Logos consciousness are around us like the air we breathe, pressing for admission to our self-limited natures, and we are afraid to open ourselves to them lest our small securities be swept away in the great tides of cosmic life.

Then it is the higher self rises up and prays, "Give us more than we dare to ask." We open ourselves freely to the great tides of spirit, come what may. And God "who is ever more ready to hear than we are to pray", pours down upon us "more than we can ask or think", and the problems, which appeared insuperable to our darkened eyes, are swept away in the great rushing tides of life and love, and the memory of then is not kept in mind.

Let us, therefore, dare to trust ourselves into God's hands, for He is indeed the creator and sustainer of life, and will not suffer us to be lost, and bring us, by His mercy, into the fullness of life.

[Dion Fortune, Mystical Meditations on the Christian Collects]

Tenth Sunday after Whitsun

Deus, qui omnipoténtiam tuam parcéndo máxime et miserándo maniféstas: multíplica super nos misericórdiam tuam; ut, ad tua promíssa curréntes, cœléstium bonórum fácias esse consórtes. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. ℟. Amen.

O God, who declareſt thy almighty power moſt chiefly in ſhewing mercy and pity; Mercifully grant unto us ſuch a meaſure of thy grace, that we, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy gracious promiſes, and be made partakers of thy heavenly treaſure; through Jeſus Chriſt our Lord. Amen.

Keynote: Attainment through Obedience

God's commandments are not the arbitrary orders of a despot, any more than natural laws are the arbitrary commands of scientists. Men who understood nature have told us the result of innumerable observations and experiments expressed in a few words as formulas, and these formulas are called natural laws. But it is not these laws which determine the workings of nature; nature worked long before there were scientists to observe her. It is nature which determines the laws, not the laws which determine nature.

So it is which spiritual laws, sometimes, according to the personalizing habit of thought of the ancients, spoken of as God's commands. Men who knew the nature of God have told us things concerning His nature, and have formulated the divine principles as God's laws.

It is God's nature which determines the nature of His universe. As God is in spirit, so is His manifestation in form. As above, so below; the divine nature is expressed in all that He created and sustains.

It was Christ Jesus who "showed us the Father". If "that mind is in you which was also in Christ Jesus", you will obey the commandments of God spontaneously because it was your nature to; and just as you will be healthy if you live according to the "the laws of nature", so will you be harmonious if you live according to "God's commandments" and will be "made partakers of the heavenly treasure".

[Dion Fortune, Mystical Meditations on the Christian Collects]

Ninth Sunday after Whitsun

Páteant aures misericórdiæ tuæ, Dómine, précibus supplicántium: et, ut peténtibus desideráta concédas; fac eos quæ tibi sunt plácita, postuláre. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. ℟. Amen.

Let thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble ſervants; and, that they may obtain their petitions make them to aſk ſuch things as ſhall pleaſe thee, through Jeſus Chriſt our Lord. Amen. 

Keynote: Right Praying

Prayer is a very great power, and it is but very little understood. God does not give us things because we ask for them, and withhold them because we do not ask for them. The divine life forever flows forth as from an unfailing spring, and we live and move and have our being within it as fish swim in the waters of the ocean. It is not God's giving which fails, but our receiving.

What do we seek in prayer? The gratification of our desires? We ask our Divine Father for that which we want, just as unthinkingly as children ask for a penny. But we have been given minds with which to think and will with which to act; we are no longer children and must put away childish things when we approach our Divine Father with petitions.

If the child, grown to manhood, goes to the father and asks for pounds instead of pennies to spend on idle pleasures, will he get them? No. But if he asks for the means to an honourable career, will not his father strain every effort to give it to him?

So it is when we approach God with our prayers. Do we ask things worthy of spiritual adults? Do we ask to be relieved from suffering, to be spared the fulfilment of our fears, to be saved from the consequences of our errors? If so, we ask amiss. We are children asking for pennies. But do we ask for courage and understanding, love and patience, and God's light to illumine our darkness, God's love to comfort our sorrow? Then we ask as souls grown to spiritual manhood, and we shall not be denied.

[Dion Fortune, Mystical Meditations on the Christian Collects]

The Dancers of Stanton Drew

William Stukeley (1687–1765), an English antiquarian, physician, and pioneering archaeologist (best known for his studies of Stonehenge and Avebury), is connected to Stanton Drew through his visit to the site's famous prehistoric stone circles in 1723.

Stanton Drew, in Somerset, England, features one of Britain's largest stone circle complexes (including the Great Circle—the second-largest after Avebury—plus smaller circles, avenues, and a cove). Stukeley visited on July 23, 1723, during a tour that took him from London through sites like Newbury and Marlborough, then to Stanton Drew, before continuing to Bath, Exeter, and elsewhere.

During this brief visit, he:

• Produced the first detailed plan/map and accurate drawings/sketches of the stone circles and the cove (a three-stone arrangement possibly from a chambered tomb).
• Described the site, sometimes referring to the stones as "The Weddings" (a local folk name) and interpreting them in his characteristic Druidic/Celtic temple framework.
• His illustrations appeared in works like Itinerarium Curiosum (published posthumously in parts), and they remain valuable records because the site's layout has changed little since his time.

His work built on earlier mentions (e.g., by John Aubrey in 1664) but provided the most comprehensive early documentation. In 2023, the village of Stanton Drew held events (including the "Stukeley 300" festival and guided tours) to mark the exact 300th anniversary of his visit on July 23.

This makes Stukeley one of the key early antiquarians to document and popularize the Stanton Drew stone circles, contributing to their recognition as a major Neolithic monument.

Eighth Sunday after Whitsun

Largíre nobis, quǽsumus, Dómine, semper spíritum cogitándi quæ recta sunt, propítius et agéndi: ut, qui sine te esse non póssumus, secúndum te vívere valeámus. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. ℟. Amen.

Grant to us, Lord, we beſeech thee, the Spirit to think and do always ſuch things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will, through Jeſus Chriſt our Lord. Amen.

Keynote: Right Understanding

Life seldom presents to us a clear-cut issue, and it is not always easy to know what is the right thing to do. We may earnestly desire to do the right thing, and yet, by an error of judgement, do untold harm. Again, out own subconscious desires may mislead us until we "rationalize" our actions so that our judgement concerning right and wrong fits in with our desires.

How are we to know what is "God's will" - the spiritual principle which governs the situation? Only by putting aside all personal feelings in the matter, and attuning ourselves to the Spirit of God.

In order to do this, let us first read awhile in the inspired writings of those who themselves were in tune with God. Their outlook will guide us and their spirit will influence us. By their companionship and counsel out hearts will insensibly be brought into that spirit which is in tune with God and we shall "judge righteous judgement".

Then, laying on the altar all our personal desires and prejudices in order that at whatever cost we shall do the right thing, we may pray to God to "Grant us the spirit to think and to do always such things as are rightful, and that you will enable us, who cannot do anything that is good without you, to live according to your will." Then, if we have "kept back no part of the price," we shall find the wisdom of God speaking in the still small voice of the higher self and our path will become clear and our souls will be at peace.

[Dion Fortune, Mystical Meditations on the Christian Collects]

The Alfred Jewel

Seventh Sunday after Whitsun

Deus, cuius providéntia in sui dispositióne non fállitur: te súpplices exorámus; ut nóxia cuncta submóveas, et ómnia nobis profutúra concédas. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. ℟. Amen.

O God, whoſe never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth; We humbly beſeech thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us tho ſe things which be profitable for us, through Jeſus Chriſt our Lord. Amen.

Keynote: The Choice of the Soul

Desire is prayer. When we desire a thing, we are invoking it as far as lies in our power, and a great deal more lies in our power than we realise, though its manifestations are not always seen in the immediate future.

How many souls would dare to pray, "Put away from us all hurtful things and give us those things which be profitable for us," is they thought that their prayer was going to have an immediate answer! Is not our prayer all too often, "O Lord, save us from the consequences of our actions and make the things we like profitable for us"? How many souls are prepared to found their house of life on the rock of truth? How many try to drive piles into the shifting sands of fantasy and evasion in order to secure a firm foundation? Such a pile-driving is an expensive process, and a house erected on insecure foundations is an insecure dwelling at the best of times, and in constant need of repair.

We shall never know security, or freedom, or happiness, or health until we determine that our lives shall be founded upon truth in their every aspect, and that we will fearlessly and without counting the cost, "turn and overturn, till He whose right it is shall reign," for whatever the cost may be, it is less than the price of keeping a house built upon sand in a state of repair.

If we could only dare to pray that great prayer in sincerity how different our lives would be, and how much more we should have to show for them at the final accounting. If we are willing to part with whatever is hurtful to us, however sweet it may be, and to welcome whatever is profitable to us, however hard it is, our house of life will be of sound workmanship, founded on the rock, and will stand fast in the day of tempest, sheltering us and our loved ones in security when "the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall."

The higher life can only be lived in proportion to our courage, honesty, and staying-power. Even though there may be vision, the people will perish without this holy but humble trinity, for they are the hidden foundations of the higher life.

[Dion Fortune, Mystical Meditations on the Christian Collects]

Edward Burne-Jones, The Merciful Knight (1863)

Sixth Sunday after Whitsun

Deus virtútum, cuius est totum quod est óptimum: ínsere pectóribus nostris amórem tui nóminis, et præsta in nobis religiónis augméntum; ut, quæ sunt bona, nútrias, ac pietátis stúdio, quæ sunt nutríta, custódias. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum.
℟. Amen.

Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things; Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name, increaſe in us true religion, nouriſh us with all goodneſs, and of thy great mercy keep us in the ſame, through Jeſus Chri ſt our Lord. Amen. 

Keynote: The Power of God

There are many different aspects under which God can be worshipped, aspects corresponding to the different forms of the divine essence in manifestation, for we know God only in His functions. We may adore God as love, or worship His as wisdom, but there is another aspect that is sometimes forgotten in these days of a refined culture which abhors pain - the aspect of God as power.

It is because this is so often forgotten that religion is apt to be "feeble, mawkish, and unmanly". It is only when the power aspect reinforces the wisdom and the love that the great chord of God is struck, the chord that can overthrow the walls of all the fortified cities of materialism.

We must train ourselves to reverence the great sweeping power aspect of God, but not to fear it. We have no need to fear it so long as we keep God's law. If we dare to trust ourselves to its tremendous current, we open a channel whereby it can flow through us into the world. But that channel, once opened, cannot be closed by our hands. There must be no faltering or turning back if we push out from the shore and give ourselves to be borne along by the rushing river of the power of God. That way lies destruction, for the great forces we have invoked, though pure as fire, will shatter the frail bark of our wilfulness if we turn it against the stream of their force. We can only touch the great things of life if we dare to invoke the power of God to come upon us.

But the wisdom and the love come equally with the power, and so we have no need to fear anything save our own weaknesses and impurity. If the power of God came alone, it would overwhelm us, but if by our lives, we have brought into manifestation first the love and then the wisdom of God, we may safely invoke the power, though not otherwise. Power, following upon love and wisdom, renders them potent. Without that power, they are negative, inert. Love may will and wisdom may design, but it is the power of God which it "the author and giver of all good things".

[Dion Fortune, Mystical Meditations on the Christian Collects]

St Mary's Church, Lastingham

Fifth Sunday after Whitsun

Deus, qui diligéntibus te bona invisibília præparásti: infúnde córdibus nostris tui amóris afféctum; ut te in ómnibus et super ómnia diligéntes, promissiónes tuas, quæ omne desidérium súperant, consequámur. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum.
℟. Amen.

God, who haſt prepared for them that love thee, ſuch good things as paſs man’s under ſtanding; Pour into our hearts ſuch love toward thee, that we loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promiſes, which exceed all that we can deſire, through Jeſus Chriſt our Lord. Amen. 

Keynote: The Love of God

The outer Church teaches the power of the love of God towards us, but the hidden Church teaches the power of our love of God.

Little do we realize the tremendous potency of the yearning of the soul for the divine reality. When the whole soul goes forth seeking God out of an instinctive longing for the bread of life, it contacts the things of the Spirit at a far higher level than when it cries out for God's love to comfort it or His power to save it from its enemies.

When we seek to know God by the power of the understanding, we can rise no higher than a knowledge of the manner in which the Divine Light shines through the prism of forms. The understanding is of value to us after we have known God as He is, but not before; such studies will not take us to God; in fact, if we have no realization of the true nature of that which we seek, they may darken our vision by holding the mind fast to the bondage of form.

The knowledge of God begins when the operations of the mind end. It is by a form of consciousness which transcends thought that we apprehend spiritual realities. There is but one thing which will draw the soul across the great gulf which is fixed between matter and spirit, and that is an outgoing of strong love towards That which is on the farther side of the gulf.

Then, as we so love, in silence and in stillness, asking nothing of the love of God save that when we may love more and more, the whisper from the silence comes across the great gulf, for consciousness has "tuned in" to the keynote of God.

[Dion Fortune, Mystical Meditations on the Christian Collects]

Of all the trees that grow so fair,

   Old England to adorn,

Greater are none beneath the Sun,

   Than Oak, and Ash, and Thorn.

Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good sirs,

   (All of a Midsummer morn!)

Surely we sing no little thing,

   In Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Oak of the Clay lived many a day,

   Or ever AEneas began.

Ash of the Loam was a lady at home,

   When Brut was an outlaw man.

Thorn of the Down saw New Troy Town

   (From which was London born);

Witness hereby the ancientry

    Of Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Yew that is old in churchyard-mould,

   He breedeth a mighty bow.

Alder for shoes do wise men choose,

   And beech for cups also.

But when ye have killed, and your bowl is spilled,

   And your shoes are clean outworn,

Back ye must speed for all that ye need,

   To Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Ellum she hateth mankind, and waiteth

   Till every gust be laid,

To drop a limb on the head of him

   That anyway trusts her shade:

But whether a lad be sober or sad,

   Or mellow with ale from the horn,

He will take no wrong when he lieth along

   'Neath Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,

   Or he would call it a sin;

But - we have been out in the woods all night,

   A-conjuring Summer in!

And we bring you news by word of mouth-

   Good news for cattle and corn-

Now is the Sun come up from the South,

   With Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good sirs

   (All of a Midsummer morn!)

England shall bide till Judgment Tide,

   By Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

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