The Celtic Monk Musings

For Lent of 2010, my discipline was to rise early in the morning and make my way through the Gospel of John. My purpose was two fold as I hoped it would be both a spiritual practice, and that what I’d commit to paper would become a devotional on the Gospel of John that others could use.

During the past year, my faithful friend Connie, took my early morning scribble notes and entered them into the computer. I went back over the material to add and edit — format and add prayers. Then it was off to ‘real’ editing. It’s been a labor of love on so many levels. But how to publish it – that became the question.

As time became short, electronic publishing seemed the best option. So below, please find the reading for today. If you’d like to get a full week of daily readings and reflections, you can go to the link for the Peace River Spirituality website: If you click on THE GOSPEL OF JOHN on the prayer page, seven daily readings in Word format will open.

So that I don’t deluge anyone with email they don’t want — each week, I’ll blog just one daily entry and give the link for the next seven days. I’ll also be posting a link on Facebook for the following weeks worth of readings. Small steps and small doses.

Perhaps that’s a good model for the season of Lent; to take small faithful steps in small doses; giving God a bit more of our time or talent day by day for His glory. If you haven’t already chosen a devotional or something to help you deepen your awareness of this time leading up to Holy Week and Easter… I invite you to participate with us in THE GOSPEL OF JOHN according to the celtic monk. Here’s the first installment.

Thursday, March 10th John 1:6-14
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

I love words. I love reading them, writing them, thinking of how to string them together, even editing them when I get it all wrong. I’m more than fascinated, perhaps mesmerized, by the concept of a Living Word. A Word that holds so much meaning, that it can’t be limited or contoured to fit; a Word that is always perfect in season and out; leading, guiding, directing—correcting the wayward, lighting the path for those in darkness. There is but One Word that will not lead astray, never coerce. There is but One Living Word simple, pure and stark and inviting. It is the Word that came into being by the will of God and whose other Name is Jesus.

Prayer: Living Word, live in me today so that others may read my life and be led to You.

May God bless each small step of your journey! PEACE AND JOY, THE CELTIC MONK

No surprise to those who know me,I’m a voracious reader. I prefer reading to most things that take up our time. I prefer reading to movies and television…to soduko and crossword puzzles…to facebook and farmville… to Hearts and Solitare. You get the picture.

Years ago I had an ongoing conversation with a friend about the kinds of things I read; much of which I consumed as fodder for the next thing I would write. It was for me one of those uncomfortable seasons of discernment about my very being. Am I more than what I do professionally? Is there room for a small percentage of reading material for “me” and not for “Rev. Dr.” I don’t think that conversation ever came to a conclusion. I didn’t start reading trashy novels to compensate for the many volumes of theology and religious history! I did begin to read more poetry.

That conversation bubbled back up to a conscious level as I looked at the book on the glass coffee table, marked by a creased page -93- I’m half way through. THE SOUND OF A WILD SNAIL EATING, by Elisabeth Tova Bailey, doesn’t at first seem like something I’d read. For library purposes you can find it under: “1.snails as pets-anecdotes. Gastropoda-Physiology. 3. Gastropods-Anatomy. 4.Bailey, Elisabet Tove-Health. 5. Chronically ill-Biography. All this for someone who never took any science class beyond required sophomore Biology in high school. [Bless you Sister Marie Frances wherever you are]

I smiled this morning when I looked down at the pencil drawing of the small friendly-looking Gastropod on the dust jacket of the book. [Don’t ask me how I know he looked friendly] But the next thoughts came quickly: “What a curious choice of reading material for me. Why did I ever pick this up off the shelf? It could become one of my favorite books, right up there with GIFT FROM THE SEA by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.” All these thoughts jettisoned me back to the observations and conversations about what I read and why from long ago. Could this single-footed creature have something to tell me?

I feel as though his crossing my path has brought resolution to the reading dilemma which has remained an open question for me. The dichotomy which I couldn’t seem to address was perhaps not able to be solved/resolved, because it was false. At the very ground of my being (occupational hazard aside) is a thirst, a quest, a passion, a quiet calling, for beauty that erases the ugliness of the world… for truth that wipes out what is false… for rightness that stands to halt injustice… or in the words of the author of Philippians: “Finally, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” My reading habits aren’t single-focused because my credentials begin with “Rev. Dr.” — I’m drawn, perhaps even compelled to read things which sit well with my soul.

Yesterday I went outside the front door of Peace River Spirituality center and picked up one of the many snails that live there. I made a new home for him in a large container filled with damp soil, clean water, rotting leaves, and fresh egg shells. [Take my word for it, snails like all these things] Today, I’ll shop for some nice mushrooms for his dinner.

Whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, whatever is noble, lovely… meditate on these things. Perhaps I have a voracious appetite for such as these, so that I can share from this well with others. I know that I’ve personally been healed by what has come to me from the pages of a Book. What kinds of things do you meditate on?
PEACE AND JOY TO YOU, THE CELTIC MONK

I was tidying up my blog today, attempting to tie up some loose ends, starting the New Year fresh. And this is the embarassing part… on December 30th of 2009 I began a blog called INTENTIONS which never got any farther than a title and date — a year old draft about intentions. The irony of it all. An intended blog that never saw the light of day. An intention, postponed.

Surely I don’t remember now what I wanted to say a year ago. I don’t know if I had a good intention for 2010 to share — or whether it occured to me that something(else) I intended to do in 2009 never came to fruition.

I suppose that’s the thing about intentions… they’re never about now. Their about an imagined future whether it’s 5 minutes, 5 weeks, or 5 months in the future. I intend to… How do you fill in the blank? Do you have intentions for 2011?

One of my dad’s favorite quotes was: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It was right up there with: never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. I probably heard those words of wisdom before I could speak.

I’d like to be a person who followed through on what I intended to do. I’m not. I intend to call, to send a note, to run an errand… and before I know it POOF the intention slips from my radar and when it once more appears — I’m filled with remorse. Do postponed intentions always produce guilt?

This year, I’m not going to postpose intentions-because I’m not going to entertain them. I’m going to follow the wisdom of letting my yes, be yes and my no, be no-without a squishy intention getting in the way. I’m finally going to heed my dad’s well worn philosophy; it was always good advice. I’m going to live in the present moment with all it offers me — and in return, give all of myself to it without regret or delay.

I think it will take some work to leave those little promises to myself behind. They were so comfortable for a while. They soothed my conscience right up until they turned around to bite me! Maybe your experience is similar. Do postponed intentions litter your life?

We live at a time and in a culture where no one much expects you to keep your word –not even your word to yourself. But as it was for me, your Father does.

Let’s agree together to not ‘intend’ to do something tomorrow that is within our power to do today. Let’s agree together to not pacify the good we know to do, with an intention. Let’s be people of our word, let’s live in present, let’s celebrate living in the moment that God has given us; that is unless you intend something else. BLESSINGS AND JOY, THE CELTIC MONK
P.S. And right now I am going to delete the draft of that other blog on intentions.

“When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then peace will guide the planet, and love will steer the stars.” If you know the next line, you’re officially old.

I found those lyrics running around in my head this evening. I probably haven’t heard the song for 30 years–could it be 40 years? I can picture the house I was living in, the rooms in the house where I listened to it, the friends who listened, sang and danced along with me. Music carves itself not only into our mind but also into our emotional memory. When The Age of Aquarius was in its zenith, I was young, daring, happy, hopeful and quite naive. What was that time like for you?

It wasn’t the opening line noted above that came to me first, however. The line that broke through into my consciousness as I was doing other things, was “harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding…” It sounds more necessary to me today than it did then. In fact, it sounds very much like the Gospel – it sounds like the very reason Christ came to us and what He hoped for us, what Christ tried to teach to us… and what His Spirit is about still – harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding.

If pushed, I’d say these thoughts came in response to the sense of expectancy which comes over me each year at this time. My conviction being that if it’s Christ who we seek, it’s Christ who comes as God’s gift to us again and anew. Our awareness of this gift waxes and wanes of course. But at this time in my own seeking, these are the particular gifts and manifestations of God’s Presence I need most. Harmony, to overcome the dissonance I feel. Understanding, to come to terms with what is. Sympathy, to minister and comfort the woundedness within and all around. And Trust abounding, total trust in God’s nearness and goodness. The sense of expectancy is almost palpable. Perhaps because my need is great, God’s nearness is undeniable. What will come is yet unknown.

As we pass from the season of gifts given and received to the season of making promises for the year that stretches before us, what is it you most desire from God’s gracious hand of mercy? What qualities, virtues strengths do you need for God’s Spirit to mend to your heart as we come to the dawning of 2011?

Harmony & understanding, sympathy and trust abounding… are my desires. May the God you seek grant you everything you need to be your best self in the New Year. BLESSINGS AND JOY, THE CELTIC MONK

What a wondrous gift, on that still night,
So long ago and far out of sight
Did come to a couple, so young and so poor
a little boy child — who’d be called the Savior.

May our voices now rise, our thanks-givings ring,
For we know the truth of the Baby, who was King.
And let us rejoice; bring glad tidings each one
For the Child who came to us, is uniquely God’s Son!

The quality of waiting crossed my mind this week as I sat in the dentist chair with both of his hands and an instrument or two from the hygentist shoved in my mouth. I was anxiously waiting for them to be finished with their work so I could get up from that most uncomfortable chair in which they lower my head below my heart… and that has no support for my lower back. I was done waiting before they were ready to deem me so.

I also waited recently for a plane to land so that folks could file off, and I could be among the new board-ers. I was at O’Hare International with the temperature 35 degrees farenheit and dropping. There was a steady rain pelting the windows just trying to turn the rain into sleet and snow — making the tarmack crew seek plastic slickers and shelter. Again, I was done waiting before Spirit Airlines was ready to deem me so.

In contrast I’ve recently waited for a movie begin, waited in the drive-through lane at Steak n Shake for my chocolate shake, waited to be seated at a new favorite restaurant for coconut shrimp and waited for Sam to get home. The quality of these times of waiting were different. My waiting was not anxious or foreboding. It wasn’t impatient but thoughtful. The anticipation in these experiences out-weighed the delay. I never reached the point of feeling that I was done waiting.

Does what we are waiting for determine the quality of our waiting or is our waiting quality determined by something else? Are there people whose patience is simply more well-formed and who are more able to wait in serenity? What determines the quality of waiting? Or more to the point: how are you at waiting? What did you have to wait for… or who did you have to wait for this week? How was that? Was the quality of your waiting determined by what or who you were waiting for? Could people who watched you easily discern the quality of your waiting?

As the Advent Candles are lit each Sunday, we’re given the opportunity for a moment of reflection to consider that we are in a season of waiting. We are waiting to once more celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Christ — waiting for Christ to be born anew in us — waiting for the time when Christ will come again as He promised. What’s the quality of your spiritual waiting as we approach Christmas? Are you waiting for the celebration… the transformation… or the culmination? Can people who see you easily discern the quality of the spiritual waiting that is a part of your life? Is that important?

Meditation is a discipline of patience which has an enormous impact on the quality of all our waiting. Laurence Freeman, OSB writes that: “violence is the failure of imagination, patience and courage.” In those times when we sit quietly and allow the Spirit of God to pray in and through us our life and awareness begin to be transformed. Meditation works in us keeping us from the edge of a violent response to our circumstances–perhaps especially to our waiting.

What are you waiting for right now? Is there a relationship that needs untangling, a physical problem for which there’s no clear cure, an enduring sadness or loneliness? Does the thought of waiting cause a knot to form deep inside–or are you able to experience waiting with a confident peace?

Especially in this season that lends itself to more doing than being, let me encourage you to push the pause button on your life. Take time to consider what it is you are waiting for as Christmas draws near, and to notice the quality of your waiting. Regardless of what we are waiting for, God’s Spirit abounds to redeem us. The One for whom we are waiting, can help us wait in perfect peace. BLESSINGS AND JOY, THE CELTIC MONK.

Let me begin by saying that I am truly thankful for each of you who faithfully read what I can’t help but writing and how you’ve encouraged me along the way with your comments. You are a blessing in my life and this Thanksgiving Day, I am thankful to you and for you.

And while I can be cynical about how impersonal “social networking” and other technologies are; last night I was thankful for Skype. Lauren (alomst 5 years old) who knows the story of “Beauty and the Beast” [but had never seen the Disney movie] and I could watch together while 1100 miles apart. It was delightful watching her face as she saw the animated images for the first time. So thankful.

This past year I’ve been especially thankful for the opportunity to walk with folks through the ministry of spiritual direction and how God always shows up. Such a ministry was only a dream for years. Then, in what Scripture would call ‘the fullness of time’ – at a kairos moment – the pieces fell together. So thankful.

The list can go on with those people and situations that have come into my life and have added depth and meaning in ways I could not have imagined. Added to that are people and situations that filled my life with joy and were pure gift.

My learning as I allow this thankful reflection to bloom, is that the process of becoming aware of those things for which we are thankful, is a lot like pouring water into a beautiful crystal pitcher. Sooner or later, and sometimes even before we know it, we are so full that it can’t help but spill over. Sooner or later as we allow our gratitude to be named it becomes something we must pass on – must share – and so it goes on, multiplying expressions of gratitude beyond our what our vessel can hold.

This Thanksgiving Day, my prayer for you is one of such over-flowing thank-filledness… that will spill over from your life to the lives of those around you. And in all of our recollections, may God receive glory. Thanks be to God. PEACE AND JOY AND THANKSGIVINGS, THE CELTIC MONK

It’s a sign of the times. I mean the times since the financial market went south and everyone became afraid. It’s a sign of the times. I mean the last few years when a lot of otherwise sane people became paranoid of a lot of things that before this time they didn’t have the time to be afraid of. It’s a sign of the times. When otherwise good and decent people act less than goodly and decently believing they are somehow entitled or even ‘called’ to act that way.

It’s worth the effort to stop every once in a while to examine who we are and the choices we make. Not so much to look at what we are doing but why; and to test the ‘why’ with reality and not merely wild imaginings. For instance, is what we’re doing and what we’re choosing, based on facts, on reality, on truth so well worn that it’s become durable yet soft like tumbled leather… or is what we’re choosing and what we’re doing based on fear, on ‘what if’s’ and a sense that the sky is really falling?

Don’t get me wrong, there are real things of which prudent people ought to be afraid. But when our life is made up of looking for conspiracies behind every corner… when our life is such that not a day goes by when we don’t become suspect of some one or something that we’re sure is ‘out to get us’ — there is something wrong. And it’s not likely that what is wrong is outside of us.

Take a look over the past few days or the past few weeks in your life. Do an honest, searching examination. How many times have your thoughts or actions been based on fear? What have you done or thought about doing to protect yourself from a perceived threat or unknown? Was their any basis in fact for your having done so?
Have you passed along a message of fear or suspicion to someone else? Have you become part of the fear producing sign of the times?

The political culture at the moment and surely the financial climate are being moved and sustained by calculated messages to make people afraid. It’s easy to get caught up in it all. Just five minutes on any newscast can scare you to death. Otherwise bright people check their brains at the door of fear… and do and say foolish things. Larger and larger parts of our society and culture spring fearfully out of control. Even the Church is not immune.

Today I was embarassed to be a Presbyterian as at our quarterly meeting minsters and elders alike stood to concoct conspiracy tales. The matter before us was consideration of an addition to our Book of Confessions. Written in South Africa to address issues of unity in the face of racism and segregation, the document called The Belhar Confession, reminds us as Jesus did in His high priestly prayer, to remember that we are one, as He and the Father are one. And yet today, the concept of such unity was trampled underfoot by those who fear those different from them.

As I listened in disbelief and disgusted amazement to folks who sounded as though they all read from the same playbook… I was saddened. Ought it not be true of the Church that we lead society and culture FROM fear… rather than getting ourselves entangled in it. How can such a fearful lot of folks as I sat with today lead the world to the reconciliation, unity, freedom and peace Christ intended? No wonder so many see the Church as irrelevant.

And while disturbed by what I saw and heard today, I am not afraid. The Church of Jesus Christ has come through darker times than the fear that has permeated the church in North America in these days. Leaders in times past have led the church farther astray than this. Enemies from outside and within have tried in more calculating ways to destroy the message of the Good News of God’s love for all people.

I do not dismay, because I know the end of the story. Fear loses. God wins.
Those who prevailed in fear today will pass away like the grasses in a field. God will raise up women and men of vision to carry the mantle of His message forward. “Fear not for I am with you and do not be dismayed — for I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.”

I refuse to be among those who fear. I choose to seek hope and light. The Church has need of those who can read the signs of the times and lead people by another path. May hope and light lead you today and always. BLESSINGS AND JOY TO YOU. THE CELTIC MONK