St Hilaire, Talmont-sur-Gironde

Tags

Charente-Maritime, French churches, Gironde, Romanesque, St Hilaire, Talmont

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart

Psalm 95 v 7

Tags

Cotswold churches, pasture, Psalm 95, sheep, stained glass

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart

He Knoweth The Way That I Take

Tags

affirmation, Book of Job, confidence, Divine assistance, expectation, faith, Job 23:10, Old Testament, trials

and when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart

St Mary’s, Fairford

Tags

churchyard, Cotswolds, Fairford, Gloucestershire, St Mary's

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart

Not Here, But Risen

Tags

churchyard, Cotswolds, Easter, empty tomb, Fairford, Forsythia, gravestone, Resurrection, St Mary's Gloucestershire

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart

St Lawrence with Swans

Tags

Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, Lechlade, St Lawrence, swans, Thames

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart

The Lamb

Tags

Easter, halo, lamb, Paschal, radiance, sheep

The Lamb by Candia Dixon-Stuart

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart

St Cuthbert

Tags

anachoresis, lammermuir, Lindisfarne, marginalia, oratory, quennet, solitude, St Cuthbert

Image from Creative Commons- 12th century ms.

Lammermuir shepherd   Aidan’s translation   earthly resignation

plague visitation

lapsed pagans   Whitby Synod   spiritual reputation

Pictish voyage

eyewitness miracles   contemplative anachoresis   preferred solitude

Lindisfarne assignation

Easter marginalia

nocturnal devotions

inner demons

remote oratory

strict denial

divine worship

incorrupt corpse

contemplative shepherd   earthly solitude   Lindisfarne miracles

spiritual voyage

 

 

Templars

Tags

Charente festivals, Pons, role-play, Templar Kinghts

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart

Great Coxwell, Oxfordshire

Tags

Cistercian, Cotswolds, Great Coxwell, Joseph, monastic wealth, National Trust, Oxfordshire, Pre-Raphaelites, tithe barn, Vale of the White Horse, William Morris

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart. Poem published in October 2017 on this site.

Great Coxwell’s Barn

Off Hollow Way stands this vast, vacant barn:

huge receptacle for Cistercian tithes,

garnered from tenant farmers – a dry store,

where the granger checked accounts; did not trust

his hired servants.  Here Cotswold riches

were protected from thieves and from decay.

Christ had warned disciples about decay

and storing up of surplus in a barn.

Christians were always meant to share riches

and not to extract profit from fat tithes.

The parable’s ‘fool’ was he whose whole trust

was in possessions.  He had wrath in store.

Henry VIII would plunder a marked store

and most abbeys were subject to decay.

Monastic wealth was held in deep distrust.

Though Morris praised this cathedral-like barn,

Pre-Raphaelites would not restore tithes;

they venerated aesthetic riches.

We coveted colonial riches

and viewed the whole world as potential store,

compelling other countries to pay tithes;

forgetting moth and rust would cause decay.

What were the treasures we stored in our barn?

We’ll reap what we sowed: we abused faith, trust.

Joseph, in whom Pharoah had put his trust,

managed underground silos of riches

and, when his brothers came – not to a barn-

but to the pits where corn was kept in store,

did they recall they’d left him to decay

in such a space?  (He who asked no tithes.)

This massive hulk, once packed with peasant tithes,

now supported by The National Trust,

mouldered with neglect; died of decay,

until ‘heritage’ was seen as riches.

What are the values we would like to store?

Should we maintain the past?  Convert the barn?

Some build barns with their family riches,

but tithes benefited community,

as long as mutual trust did not decay.