Today’s saint, in church annals, has been alternately called Columba, Colme, and Columkille. He lived during the 6th century and was Irish. He has been styled through the ages as the “Apostle of the Picts.”

What makes this saint so worth the time it takes to write this blog is the simple precept that he is reputed to have lived by:

[T]here is nothing great, nothing worth our esteem or pursuit which does not advance the divine love in our souls . . . .

And this, Butler writes, is something that Columba learned from childhood and adhered to all his days.

Wow. Just wow. Nothing…no project, no job, no undertaking, no position, no stance, no protest, no effort… nothing whatsoever is worth our energy, is worth perseverating about (perseverating is a great word–it means something akin to working a thing over and over and over and over in our minds as if we were fiddling with a scab or a loose tooth, obsessing and revisiting it incessantly in our thoughts), is worth spending our time on and our heartaches over unless it makes us more loving as human beings and toward all of creation.

Even now, I find myself ready to point out how many ostensibly religious people fall short of this…only to find myself immediately humbled with the question: “Will doing so advance divine love in my heart?” And it will not.

This maxim of the Apostle of the Picts, if taken seriously and if soaked thoroughly into the bed of my soul, will change everything.

Wow. Just wow.