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| Photo created by Google AI Image Creator. |
"How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts." -
Psalm 84:1
The Good
Harbor
The
Abbey of Bonport, Bon Port, the Good Harbor, stands in the Seine Valley in
Normandy, France. Its founding in 1190 is bound up with a dramatic royal story.
King Richard I of England, Richard the Lionheart, was nearly drowned in the
Seine River at this very location. As he struggled in the water, he cried out
to Our Lady, vowing to build a monastery in her honor if she would save his
life.
He survived, and he kept his vow. The Cistercian abbey of Bonport was founded
and dedicated to Our Lady, the Good Harbor who had rescued the king from the
river's grip. The name says everything: Mary is the safe harbor. The Good Port.
The place where souls find shelter from the storms that life and the world send
against them.
Bonport Abbey flourished for centuries as a center of Cistercian prayer in
Normandy. The Cistercians, who placed all their abbeys under Our Lady's
patronage, brought their characteristic combination of austerity and Marian
tenderness to this riverside location. The abbey was suppressed during the
French Revolution, but its ruins still stand in the Seine Valley, a monument to
a king's gratitude and a mother's rescue.
Richard the Lionheart fought battles across the known world. He lost and won
and lost again. But the vow he made in the river he kept. He knew who had
pulled him out.
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| The Abbey of Bonport, Bon Port, the Good Harbor. |
Today's Gospel - John 16:29-33
Jesus
told His disciples: "In the world you will have tribulation. But take
courage; I have conquered the world."
He did not promise calm water. He promised a harbor. He promised that however
fierce the storm, something greater than the storm existed, and He had already
defeated it.
Our Lady of the Good Harbor is the living sign of that promise. When the
currents pulled Richard under, she held him. When the storms of tribulation
rise, and they will certainly rise, have courage.
For there is a Good Harbor, and your Mother is at the shore.
A Prayer
Our
Lady of the Good Harbor, you who pulled a king from the river and received his
vow with grace, be our harbor too.
When the currents of life pull us under, when we are in over our heads and
crying out in whatever darkness has found us, hear us. Bring us safely to
shore.
And may we, like that grateful king, build something beautiful for you out of
our deliverance. May our gratitude take shape in our lives. May our rescue
become an offering.
Our Lady of Bonport, Our Lady of the Good Harbor, pray for us. Amen.
Reflection
Richard
the Lionheart made a vow in the river and kept it when he was safe. Gratitude
is easy to feel in the moment of rescue, harder to remember once you are on dry
shore.
Is there a sin of the past, that does not simply stay out of your thoughts. It
lingers constantly. It has followed you onto dry land, whispering long after
the danger has gone, it is the shame that surfaces without warning, a weight
that returns in quiet moments years later, as though the water never fully left
you.
And yet it was there, in that very depth, that you were not alone.
Has there been a moment in your life when Our Lord, or Our Lady, reached into
the water and pulled you out? You likely know the moment. Perhaps you made a
promise there, raw, desperate, utterly sincere in the way that only drowning
makes us feel.
Have you kept it? Have you made the offering, returned the gift, built the
thing you swore you would build, back when the current had you? Have you given
your life in return to our Lord and our Lady as a gift for your life being
saved?
Gratitude felt in the river is one thing. Gratitude lived on the dry shore is something
completely different. That is the harder, holier work of a life serving our
Lord.
Spend some time before our Lord and our Lady in gratitude.
Rosary Man Jim 🌹
Freely given. Freely shared.
