URC Daily Devotion Wednesday, 10 September 2025

Notes from Small Islands 9: Island Saints 

Hebrews 12: 1 – 3

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Reflection

Islands seem to have been places inhabited by saints.  We think of Aidan, Cuthbert on Lindisfarne, Columba on Iona, Finbar, Brendan, Moluag, and Clement in the Western Isles, Magnus and Ronalvd in Orkney, and Ninian in Shetland.  There are remains of monastic settlements on the isles too – sometimes in what seems to be out of the way places.  Yet when these saints were ministering the islands were at the centre of travel routes; the sea was a more reliable route in an age without well maintained roads.  Our modern ideas of monasticism – seeking to retreat from the world –  may not be the entire picture for the earliest forms of monastic life on our islands.  Instead, the monasteries were places for evangelism and education close to centres of political power and influence.  Educated monks could be very useful in an illiterate age.  

In our contemporary time there is renewed interest in forms of Christian living which owe much to these early monastic communities.  Having a regular discipline of shared prayer and worship, keeping a rule of life, being connected through a common discipleship are all increasingly attractive.  Sometimes these are formal, often called ‘new monasticism’ by sociologists of religion, sometimes they are informal – like using these Daily Devotions.   Newer patterns of discipleship seek to be connected with the communities around us, seeking the welfare of the city – as Jeremiah put it – and finding ways to be as useful as those early monks and nuns were.  Prayer and salvation are found in life’s busyness, where people meet, and are embedded in the messiness and complexity of our daily living.  

And, as the writer of our passage in Hebrews reminds us, the saints of old are there to cheer us on, surrounding us like a crowd of spectators as we seek not to be remote and distant, but at the centre of the needs and aspirations of the people God calls us to serve.  

Prayer

Lord Jesus,
You endured the Cross, 
scorning its shame for our sake,
Help us as we, sinners, seek to live as saints,
cheered on by Your people of old.
Amen.