I would like to share an old prayer from the Irish tradition with you. This prayer is called Fiery Creator of Fire and it was used at the lighting of the paschal candle. As this is the first Sunday of Advent, I thought there might be a number of you lighting candles over the next month or so.
This prayer is found in the Antiphony of Bangor, one of the oldest surviving liturgical texts from Ireland. This short manuscript was written in Bangor, a monastic community founded by Comgall. It was taken from Bangor to Bobbio, a monastery in what is now Italy, where it was preserved in their library.
There is an old connection between Bangor and Bobbio because of one famous monk named Columbanus. Columbanus was a student of Comgall who became a wandering monk. He left his home in Ireland and travelled around the continent in Europe, particularly in the area of France and Italy. Part of his wandering included the practice of establishing monasteries. Bobbio was one such monastery.
The prayer draws upon some beautiful symbolic imagery. The story of the Exodus is a main theme. Traditionally the Exodus story has been interpreted as an allegorical account of the spiritual journey. There is a deep and rich tradition around this idea, which we do not have the space here to get into, however, you can click HERE to learn more.
The short version is that Egypt is a symbol of slavery to sin, wandering in the desert is the path of healing, which culminates in Moses’ encounter with God on the mountain. The prayer is using this kind of interpretation when it says, “You give two gifts to those of us who are wandering from Egypt. First you reveal the cloudy veil then the light which shines in the night.” (trans by O’Loughlin)
The primary symbol I want to explore, however, is about bees. At the end of the prayer it switches from talking about the Exodus to the beeswax of the candle. The human heart was often referred to as a honeycomb in many Christian texts. It is a place where sweet things are stored away. Not everything which gets put away in the honeycomb is sweet, however. All sorts of things can find their way into our hearts.
John Cassian was a monk who travelled throughout the Egyptian wilderness learning from the desert mothers and fathers. He wrote down what he learned during his time there into two books which shaped the future of Western monasticism in general, and Celtic monasticism in particular. In his book Institutes, he spoke about the honeycomb of the heart in the following way.
“The monk who, like a most prudent bee, is desirous of storing up spiritual honey must suck the flower of a particular virtue from those who possess it more intimately, and he must lay it up carefully in the vessel of his heart. He must not begrudge a person for what he has less of, but he must contemplate and eagerly gather up only the virtuousness that he possesses. For if we want to obtain all of them from a single individual, either examples will be hard to find or, indeed, there will be none that would be suitable for us to imitate.” (trans by Ramsey)
The vices and virtues we gather from the people around us are stored up in the honeycomb of our hearts. The prayer associates this metaphor with the beeswax of the candle. By lighting the candle, we are inviting the Holy Spirit to cleanse the honeycomb of our heart. When the candle is lit, we set our hearts on fire along with it.
If the candle itself is a symbol of our hearts, then the flame is a symbol of God. The ancients understood fire as the element of spirit. The fire of Pentecost is perhaps the best example of this in the scriptures themselves. Fire, in the form of heat and light, is everywhere and in everything. Symbolically, it is the presence of the Holy Spirit within and around us.
The scriptures teach we are to be baptised by fire and the Spirit. The baptism by fire happens in the innermost recesses of our hearts, as fire is the innermost of all elements. It is the fire which does not consume what it illuminates but burns away all impurity. Eriugena described the relationship between fire and spirit like this:
“The spirit of fire, marvellous and closest to the rareness of spirit, simple, pure, and removed from every corporeal sense, not only fills and encompasses all the spaces of the world, but even passes through the very thinnest of air because of its exceeding subtlety and likeness to incorporeal natures, for it is the innermost of all elements.” (trans by Sheldon Williams and O’Meara)
To sum it all up again – The candle is a symbol of the honeycomb of the heart, which is filled with things we have packed away deep inside our souls. The flame which burns the candle is a symbol of God, who purifies our hearts.
I have arranged this prayer into quatrains, rewriting it into meter and verse, so that it can be sung or chanted. You can sing it to the tune of “Morning Has Broken” or use simple plain chant. Instructions for this kind of chant, including a large collection of Celtic poetry arranged for chant, can be found in my book Psalter of the Birds.
Fiery Creator of Fire
O God of fire who made fire
O God of light who gives us light
O God of our living, author of life
God of salvation, saviour of all
In case our lamps grow dim this evening
Losing the joys of this sweet night
Illumine our hearts, keep us from dying
Your desire is eternal life
You give two gifts to those who wander
Out of Egypt, into the sand
First you reveal a cloudy veil
Then the light shining bright over the land
Using a pillar of cloud in the daytime
Shading the wandering people of God
Using a pillar of fire in the evening
Driving out darkness, the shadows of loss.
You speak to your servant from within the fire
Not rejecting the thornbush moses saw blaze
Though you are fire, all consuming flame
You burn not the one you Illuminate
The cloudy bees’ wax which was once their food
Must now be consumed by fire instead
The wax of the candle will start to glow
In radiant Spirit and be made pure
The divine honey is stored away
Hidden within the folds of the comb
Cleanse O God the cells of my heart
Fill me completely with your sweet word
The next generation of bees in the swarm
Who have been chosen by your Spirit
Leave behind their burdens, winning heaven
Now that their wings are free from care
I often chant this prayer, and others like it, as part of my ongoing contemplative formation group called Teachings With Justin. If you would like to learn more click HERE. If you are already signed up for The Virtual Chapel on Mighty and are ready to jump right in, click HERE instead.