Beating the Bounds - Reflection by Canon Myles

It is almost nine years since I moved to my present home in the Cathedral Close. My mother was still well enough to visit, and she enjoyed those times very much. Mothers always manage to spot where there might be room for improvement! What caught her eye was the raised border opposite the front door which runs the length of the houses along the front of the Close. The best way to describe the border is that it was under-developed!

After biding her time for a while, my mother ordered shrubs and plants, and the ground was duly cleared, in front of this house at least, in preparation for planting.  Almost without a word being spoken, this had a salutary effect along the length of the Close. Within a few months all of the houses had plants and shrubs, along with spring bulbs planted. If my mother could see it now, I know how pleased she would be.

The week leading to Ascension Day this Thursday is called Rogation-tide. It was the ancient custom to have a procession during these days, known as ‘beating the bounds,’ when clergy and people would walk along the parish boundary, singing litanies and prayers, to ask the blessing of God upon all the crops. This was part of an annual cycle of prayer centring around agriculture, starting with Plough Sunday in the winter depths of early January going through to Lammas Day on 1st August, when the first fruits of Harvest were at hand. Common Worship rightly provides for all of these occasions, as we become more acutely aware how much we depend upon the created order, and of our responsibilities in caring for it justly and with mercy.

Our cathedral does not have a parish, so technically there are no bounds to beat! But clergy colleagues show in their daily blogs on how we are surrounded by sights and smells and sounds which all proclaim the glory and beauty of God’s world.

These Rogation days are a good time for us to pause, to be thankful, and to dedicate ourselves once more to the renewal of this fragile world, our island home.

Blessed be God, by whose grace creation is renewed,
by whose love heaven is opened,
by whose mercy we offer our sacrifice of praise.
 
Canon Myles
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