Christ, Healer at the holy feast

1
Christ, Healer at the holy feast
where love is poured as wine,
let Barnabas, Your steadfast friend,
shape hopeful hearts like Thine.

2
Where valerian in summer winds
breathes calm along the moor,
so may the peace You give in bread
lift up the faint and poor.

3
Where meadowsweet and self‑heal bloom
beside the stony track,
Your Body, shared, restores the weak
and calls the lost one back.

4
Where yarrow, willow, elder stand
as guardians through the night,
make us, like Barnabas, to speak
strong comfort into light.

Hymn information 

First line: Christ, Healer at the holy feast 
Text: Michael McFarland Campbell
Metre: CM
Tune: Kilmarnock, St Columba

The Son of Consolation: St Barnabas and the NeuroDivine

In the rush and roar of a world built for the typical, the nervous system often longs for two things: a quiet place to land, and a friend who demands no performance. In the tradition of the Church, both sanctuaries meet on the feast of St Barnabas.

I. The Botanical Sanctuary: Solace for the Senses

The first half of our hymn grounds us not in a crowded temple, but in the hedgerows and moors of midsummer. For many neurodivergent souls, nature is the original low-sensory sanctuary. It is an honest world.

The plants that stand as “guardians through the night” are traditional restorers of balance: valerian to calm the racing, overstimulated mind; meadowsweet to soothe physical tension; and self-heal blooming quietly beside the “stony track.” When the social world feels like a harsh and rocky path, the natural world offers a quiet, undemanding grace.

In the breaking of the bread, Christ meets us with that same gentle simplicity, restoring the weak without asking them to mask their weariness.

II. The Radical Ally: A Space to Belong

If the plants provide the sensory sanctuary, St Barnabas provides the relational one. His name means “Son of Encouragement” or “Son of Consolation.”

In the New Testament, Barnabas is the ultimate ally. When Saul of Tarsus experienced his radical, blinding change on the Damascus road, the community rejected him out of fear and suspicion. They could not yet trust the transformation before them. But Barnabas stepped forward, took Saul by the hand, and vouched for him.

Speaking Strong Comfort

To look to Barnabas is to look for a love that does not merely tolerate difference, but actively protects it. Like the yarrow, willow, and elder guarding the threshold of the night, we are called to be guardians for one another: speaking a strong comfort that quiets fear and allows every unique mind to step safely into the light.

Copyright

© Michael McFarland Campbell. 2026. 
Permission granted for local church or parish use with attribution. Not for commercial reproduction.

Written recently and shared here as part of the NeuroDivine hymn collection.