Christ Within Me: Prayers and Meditations from the Anglo-Saxon Tradition

by Benedicta Ward (Compiler)

From the rich tradition of the Anglo-Saxon Church of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, Benedicta Ward has selected prayers and passages for meditation from both Latin and Anglo-Saxon sources. The mixture of Latin and Celtic Christian cultures, distilled and appropriated by the Germanic Anglo-Saxons, produced a distinctive English spiritual tradition which embraced kings and princesses, abbesses and monks, cowherds and poets, soldiers and beggars, and birds and animals. `It is possible through these passages to walk with these men and women as friends and see how their lives became filled with the life of Christ, in pain and desolation as well as in wonder, love, and praise.’

Genres: Religion, Devotional

104 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1999

About the author

sister of love of God

Reviews

[Kaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Christ Within Me' is a fantastic collexion of texts surrounding the ancient Christian Churches of Britain. The selected quotations hearken to an æra of Christian unity: the prayers find uniqueness in their metaphors, and vitæ in people and locations. Their understanding of Christ and His Church, and devotion to Them could as easily be from a text on the Desert Fathers. Although Sr Benedicta's protestantism is apparent in her labelling of chapters and introduction, the words speak for themselves, calling the readers to a life more attune with Holy Tradition.

[Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Relying heavily upon the Bede the Venerable and Alcuin of York, this short book is orders single page prayers and meditations by theme. An appendix at the back of the text acknowledges the sources for each page, but these may have been more significantly placed after each quotation.