Bridget of Sweden

First day, Saint Francis said, "I conjure the brother who is visited by illness to desire only what God wills, be that sickness or health, because He wishes to form those He has predestined by trials, sickness, and misfortunes." Second day, Blessed Egidia said, "Man will have to render an account even of those graces he has not had, because if he worked with the grace which had been given to him, he would have obtained others which he has not received." Third day, Saint Francis said, "It is much more dangerous to make an abuse of virtue than not to possess it." Fourth day, Saint Francis said, "I expressly desire my brethren never to judge or despise those persons they see clothed finely and delicately and who live daintily, but rather let each one judge and despise himself." Fifth day, Blessed Egidia said, "Blessed are they who have always before their eyes their own sins and the benefits of God and who bear with patience every sorrow and affliction.

They will draw therefrom much consolation." Sixth day, Saint Bridget said, "The really wise man is he who studies every day how to die well, who considers frequently the condition in which he will find himself at the hour of death and the terrible judgment which will follow when each action of his life will undergo a rigid scrutiny and no fault will pass unpunished." Seventh day, Saint Francis said, "Happy he who is not anxious to excuse himself, who receives simply blame and humiliation even for an involuntary fault." Eighth day, Blessed Angela of Foligno said, "The more a soul is afflicted, humbled, and despised, the more is she purified, elevated, and made capable of divine communications, for the degree of elevation corresponds always to the degree of humiliation." Ninth day, Saint Francis said, "We should despise our bodies because our misfortune and corruption are from ourselves." Tenth day, Saint Joseph of Cupertino said, "In general, God regulates His way of acting by ours.

If we are faithful to Him, He will be faithful to us.

If we love Him, He will love us.

Chapter Seven, Month of July.

First day, St. Francis said, "Happy he who places all his joy and happiness in the holy words and works of God, and who thus leads others to his holy love in joy, happiness, and bliss." Second day, St.

Bridget said, "There is no man, however coldly disposed towards God, who invoking the name of Mary with a firm resolution not to sin again, will not be forever delivered from the tyranny of the devil, unless he again entertain the thought of sinning mortally." Third day, St.

Francis said, Happy he who keeps in chains the enemy God has delivered up to him, namely his body, and who is wise enough to be on his guard against it.

On such a spot as that whereon we stood was washed ashore one day towards the close of the thirteenth century, the corpse of that drowned mariner whose finding and burial formed the first link in the remarkable chain of sensational incidents comprised in the legendary story of Sir Robert Shirland and his horse.

According to the version of the legend which I followed, in repeating it to my companions as we strolled towards our quarters, the drowned sailor was cast ashore at Chatham and interred in the burial ground of a little church dedicated to St. Bridget, of which, however, no trace can be found at the present day.

Its red bricks and Kentish ragstone cannot, therefore, be pointed out as mute evidences of the verity of the story, as Gaffer Hexam pointed to the jolly fellowship porters as proof of his statement that Rogue Riderhood had confessed to him that he had murdered John Harmon.

It would seem at first sight that there could have been no connection by way of cause and effect between the burial of a drowned mariner at Chatham and the death of the Knight of Shirland in the Isle of Sheppey some years afterwards.

But according to the legend, St. Bridget, resenting the interment of the corpse in the burial ground of a church dedicated to her saintship on the ground of the sailor having died without receiving priestly absolution from his sins, appeared to the clerk and commanded him to disinter it and throw it into the river.

The saintly order was obeyed, and the ghastly and unwholesome subject drifted down the river with the tide.

For several days, the horrible thing was carried backward and forward every flood and ebb between Sheerness and Gillingham Reach.

Another has it that he was buried alive.

Julian of Norwich experienced a sequence of revelations during severe illness and subsequently spent years interpreting their theological implications.

Bridget of Sweden, Angela of Foligno, Catherine of Siena, Marjorie Kemp and other medieval women exercised distinctive forms of visionary authority.

Newman demonstrates that medieval visions were shaped by theological vocabulary, devotional imagery, literary models and visual culture.

To say this is To say this is really not to accuse visionaries of fabrication.

The Hebrides name comes from the ancient Greek writer Pertelme, who referred to these western islands as the Hebudae in the 2nd century AD, a name that gradually evolved through Latin and later usage into the Hebrides we know today.

There's also a romantic suggestion that the name may be connected with the Irish Saint Brigitte, whose influence and legends travelled widely through the early Christian world of Ireland, Scotland and the Western seaways.

This podcast is actually a story intertwined with a family holiday.

Pam, Minnie and I visited the Outer Hebrides in April, that is 26, with my good friends Irina, Philip and their two gorgeous boys, Nicholas and Lucas, who are also my godson's.

It's like I left my entire faith.

deconstructed my entire faith and now here I am back in the spiritual community again it's like I try to be an atheist and then I'm like well am I an atheist though because I pray every night with my prayer beads to Saint Bridget and I have Hecate up my wall right here with my Hecate prayer beads and I have my Mother Mary beads and I light my candles and I pray and You know, I'm a very spiritual person.

I'm actually a very religious person.

But at the same time, in a sense, I'm kind of an atheist, which is crazy.