Celtic Advent 1st day

I have read in the past that the Celtic church celebrated "3 Lents:"  the usual 40 days before Easter, a 40 day period prior to Christmas--Celtic Advent, and a 40 day period after Trinity Sunday.  I am intrigued about the 40 days prior to Christmas.  This is the time in most of our lives of increasing stress, increased eating, not to mention the concerns about whether your team in the NFL will make the playoffs. The whole concept of Advent tends to be relegated to the liturgical churches (Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians and their spin offs), who do their best to observe at least a 24 day Advent prior to Christmas. It is supposed to be a time of reflections and self-examination.  Some "giving up" but not the extreme of the pre-Easter Lent.  For me, if I wait to start Advent devotionals until December 1, then I feel like I am already too immersed in the cultural chaos that goes through the rest of the month.  So...this year I am going to try something new.  I am going to focus in on Celtic Saints for those 40 days, not so much for just cognitive reasons (like when did they live), but more for what they can teach me.  What about each Saint will inform me about being true to my beliefs?  I still think the Celts have a lot to teach us in this age and am hoping to further explore Celtic Christianity by doing this exercise.  Here we go:

November 15th St. Malo.  40 days before Christmas. The Celtic and Old English Saints online gives me 3 choices for today, but, being from Northern Colorado, I have to go with St. Malo.  The Roman Catholic Retreat Center south of Estes Park was St. Malo's, and their stonework chapel was, prior to our fires and floods, a beautiful landmark to stop by and admire.  I read that the original St. Malo was from Wales but ended up as a bishop in Brittany in France, around 600 AD; and that he had a period of having to flee his diocese but was asked back and spent a long time in prayer and penitence.  Like most Saints of this time period he has "Lives" written about him, several hundred years after his death.  Many of these are not reliable at being historical, but I think that they may carry some essence of the Saint I can examine. One of the Lives about St. Malo describes him as wanting to emulate St. Paul, in that, when he was not preaching the gospel, he should keep busy with work and describes him as working in the vineyards with his fellow monastics.

That image, out of all I read about him, struck me.  As a cradle Episcopalian, Bishops were to me a symbol of pomp and circumstance, dressed in purple, and usually preceded down an aisle by someone swinging an incense burner.  They are Authority and representative of a persistant medieval hierarchy...of power at least, and in the mind of a pre-teen boy that included some measure of increased holiness.  So here is this Breton Bishop, out it the fields helping to bring in the grape harvest...wait a minute?  Shouldn't he have been out doing the 7th Century equivalent of 18 holes of golf or something? And that is what I love about most of the Celtic Saints, even those in positions of leadership.  They didn't embrace their office as a hierarchical reward, allowing them a measure of comfort and privilege. They saw themselves as the ultimate servant, which is, after all, what Christ tells us we are supposed to be.  I am reminded currently of the contrast between Pope Benedict and our current Pope Francis, the latter being much more Celtic in his approach. Outside of the liturgical churches, I think of the televangelists, like Jim and Tammy Fay Baker, who used other's trust in their spiritual skills to amass huge estates and fortunes.

What does that mean for me now with Advent.  By virtue of my education, job and degree, I am afforded by many a position of authority  (doesn't MD stand for Major Diety?).  But do I deal with that like St. Malo.  Am I too full of myself at times to get out and get dirty, to do a menial task, to help allay the work of others who are not in my position.  That I think, will be one of my Advent disciplines: to continually keep from being to full of myself, and of course, to do that, I need help.

Lord, You washed the feet of your disciples and allowed John to baptise you.  Help me to keep from getting above myself, to remember that the root word for humility is the same as for the earth beneath our feet, humus.  Help me to stay at that level, earthy if you will.  Help me to remember that all my gifts and benefits, my job and position, are gifts from you, and to be used as such.  Help me to remember this over the next 40 days.  Through the power of your Threeness, let it be so, Amen