Irish Christians demonstrated an appreciation for common grace.

It’s not just because we’re stodgy and traditional.

Politics won't get us all the way to the Kingdom of God.

They take my breath away sometimes, those ugly birds.

The Law of God and Public Policy: Maintaining a Just Society (7)

The Law of God and Public Policy: Maintaining a Just Society (6)

The Law of God and Public Policy: Marriage and Sex (5)

The Law of God and Public Policy: Maintaining a Just Society (4)

The Law of God and Public Policy: Maintaining a Just Society (3)

The Law of God and Public Policy: Maintaining a Just Society (2)

The Law of God and Public Policy: Maintaining a Just Society (1)

Victorious Brigid did not love the world:/she perched in it like a bird on a cliff.

  - Broccan the Crooked, Hymn to Saint Brigid (Irish, 7th century)

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

  - Philippians 1.21

One of my favorite contemporary artists is Philip R. Jackson. His still life paintings are a study in the profound and whimsical spirituality of ordinary things. One of my favorites is his painting, "Party's Over," which pictures an origami bird about to launch from the stern of a paper boat:

Every time I see this beautiful painting, I think of Brigid. She used the world, because she was in it, but she didn't dwell there. Brigid lived in the world to come. For her to live was Christ, and to die and leave this world was a gain she was daily ready to enjoy.

She perched on this world because she understood, like Jackson's little bird, that she was made for the heavens. Another biographer of Brigid,Cogitosus, describes her at one point as "practicing the life of heaven on earth through meditation and prayer." She understood that the key to knowing the Kingdom is mastering the ability to live the "then and there," "here and now."

Perched on the world: I just love that image. We're still in it, but we must not be anchored or even oriented to it. Our eyes are on the heavens, and, like a fledgling in the nest, we're always trying our ability to gain our heavenly life, even as we have our feet set in this present world. As Susie was explaining to me recently from her meditations in Hebrews 11, we have no abiding horizon here in this life; our destination and hope is the City to Come.

Will you be perched on the edge of this world in the year to come, or bogged down in it? I've been reflecting lately on the ministry of The Fellowship of Ailbe, and I'm excited about where we've been and where we're headed in the year to come. Pray that we will perch on the world just enough to make a positive contribution while we can, but that we'll always remain focused on, aspiring to, and striving to attain that glorious City to Come.

We hope you'll perch with us during the year ahead.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.