Pause for Reflection

I've been reading Matthew Chapter 8 this week and it is full of instances of healing, some greatly longed for, some almost incidental but many of them based in faith. It made me think about light and spreading it in the world and how so many of the early saints were concerned with healing and spreading light just as described in Matthew.

One of those early saints was Saint Bride or Bridget of Ireland whose feast day falls on Candlemas, 2nd February which will be celebrated this week. Candlemas was traditionally the day when all the candles which would be used in church over the next year would be brought in and blessed. It was also the day when farmers would often light candles buried in the earth on their fields 'earth-candles' to remind them that light and warmth were returning to the earth after the winter solstice and soon it would be time to plant.

St Bride is the patron saint of the printed word and the big church in London, dedicated to journalism, is called St Bride's. Now so much of the printed word appears on the internet perhaps she should become the patron saint of blogging. I hope that all printed words will follow that example of healing and light brought by St Bride all those years ago.