One of my favorite parts of our Ireland trip was the day we visited Timoleague Abbey. it's a ruined abbey originally inhabited by monks in the 1100's. The setting is really beautiful: on the edge of a long narrow arm of the sea in a quaint little town. All that's left is the stone walls and a variety of grave markers of varying ages. It appears that the grounds and interior of the abbey are still used as cemetery space, and have been for quite some time. Many of the rooms were marked with stone plaques to indicate how they fit into monkly life.
I was profoundly struck by the historical place of the church and our connection to that history. Sometime, almost a thousand years ago, a few monks and probably many local villagers, who were scraping a pretty hard living out of the land and sea, made a considerable investment in time and materials to build a church and associated buildings, which survive (mostly) today. They were people very much like us (though with much less stuff), who put aside their daily struggles for sustenance, security, and comfort to gather and praise, worship, and pray to the same God we know today.
I know Mike Hsu is big on our connection to the historical church, but somehow it became more real to me to put my hands on stones laid by ancient monks, look out the windows they did, and worship their God in that place. I've never had much desire to visit Israel but after my experience in Ireland, I think I may be reconsidering.
Oh... and of course we took many pictures. Here are a few.
2 comments:
Scott. You've made the cut. I'm adding a link to your blog on my blog if that's okay. I'll wait for the go-ahead. But I like your style.
Keep it fresh, not French.
M
I'm not sure if I should be pumped about finally making it or disappointed that I hadn't made it before. I'll go with pumped. Thanks.
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