Celtic Lent Day 40

Encompass me with joy, for weeping gathers all its gloom against me.
Encompass me with love, for the world’s a hating place at times.
Encompass me with summer, for there is too much ice in secularity.
Encompass me with good news, for the days overwhelm the soul with negativity.
Encompass me with foreverness, for I am too temporary to have any kind of future without you.
Amen.
Calvin Miller

This is the final day of Lent, a day spent watching, waiting, praying and not knowing what lies ahead. We don't know the resurrection will happen. We sit with our loss, our grief, and we weep.

Scripture
Was it not you who dried up the sea,
   the waters of the great deep;
who made the depths of the sea a way
   for the redeemed to cross over? 
So the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
   and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
   they shall obtain joy and gladness,
   and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 
I, I am he who comforts you;
   why then are you afraid of a mere mortal who must die,
   a human being who fades like grass?
Isaiah 51.10-12

Celtic Lent Day 39

To say Your name before I sleep does not guarantee that in the morning I shall wake in that world which held my bed. Still it matters not, for every world in Yours as I am.
Calvin Miller

Death is like the past. We can't change either of them. We have to make friends with them both.
William Brodrick

I feel like Good Friday is a day which gives us permission to think about death and sadness, anyone who's seen the wonderful Pixar film Inside Out knows sadness is as important as joy. Sadness can help us to grow and change, put our lives in context and help us re-evaluate what's important.
On Good Friday we sit with that, although we know the Easter feast is just about tangible. When we're in the middle of grief or difficult times we don't know when there'll be an end to it. We hope the intensity will become less, which eventually it does.
This day, like Ash Wednesday, also gives us a chance to consider our own mortality. We're here just for a season and because of that need to consider carefully what and who we give our one life to. Good Friday is about love. Choose to give your life to love.

Scripture
I say to God, my rock,
   ‘Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
   because the enemy oppresses me?’ 
As with a deadly wound in my body,
   my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
   ‘Where is your God?’ 
Psalm 42.9-10

Celtic Lent Day 38

The best of the best mystics and saints have always come to this conclusion: that however the pain or the cause of the pain is to be viewed, God can be found in its depths. The confession is that God uses our suffering for good. This does not mean that the suffering was a good thing, not at all, but that God has taken it, ground it up, and used it as soil in which to grow a new seedling.
Joel Mason

The line in the portion of John's gospel from the main Maundy Thursday service which always sticks with me is "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." (John 13.7)
When I went forward for ministry selection I had to answer a question on which events out of my entire life had shaped the person I'd become. It was the toughest question of the lot.
What became apparent as I tried to answer is that it's the most challenging and even difficult things we encounter that truly shape us, the times when in the midst of things we had no sense of God or what he was doing in our lives. It's when we look back that we can trace patterns, consequences or a thread through things of how the divine was at work in and around us.

Scripture
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you." For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean."

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

"Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, `Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Celtic Lent Day 37

This is quite long this evening as I'm sharing the meditation from yesterday evening's Celtic Wholeness and Healing Service.

The Cup of Joy, Henri J. M. Nouwen, Dutch Catholic priest:
The cup of life is the cup of joy as much as the cup of sorrow. It is the cup in which sorrows and joys, sadness and gladness, mourning and dancing are never separated. If joys could not be where sorrows are, the cup of life would never be drinkable. That is why we have to hold the cup in our hands and look carefully to see joys hidden in our sorrows. Can we look up to Jesus as to the man of joys? It seems impossible to see joy hanging with outstretched arms on a wooden cross. Still, the cross of Jesus is often presented as a glorious throne on which the King is seated. There the body of Jesus is portrayed not as racked by flagellation and crucifixion but as a beautiful, luminous body with sacred wounds. The cross of San Damiano that spoke to St Francis of Assisi is a good example. It shows the crucified Jesus as the victorious Jesus. The cross is surrounded by splendid gold; the body of Jesus is a perfect, immaculate human body; the horizontal beam on which he hangs is painted as the open grave from which Jesus rose; and all those gathered under the cross with Mary and John are full of joy. At the top we can see God’s hand, surrounded by angels, drawing Jesus back into heaven. This is a resurrection cross, in which we see Jesus lifted up in glory. Jesus’ words ‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all people to myself,’ (John 12:32) refer not only to his crucifixion but also to his resurrection. Being lifted up means not only being lifted up as the crucified one but also being lifted up as the risen one. It speaks not only about agony but also about ecstasy, not only about sorrow but also about joy. Joys are hidden in sorrows! I know this from my own times of depression. I know it from living with people with intellectual disabilities. I know it from looking into the eyes of patients, and from being with the poorest of the poor. We keep forgetting this truth and become overwhelmed by our own darkness. We easily lose sight of our joys and speak of our sorrows as the only reality there is. We need to remind each other that the cup of sorrow is also the cup of joy, that precisely what causes us sadness can become the fertile ground for gladness. Indeed, we need to be angels for each other, to give each other strength and consolation. Because only when we fully realize that the cup of life is not only a cup of sorrow but also a cup of joy will we be able to drink it.

I feel this mixture of joy and sorrow, of all that we are and all that life is, is contained within the Eucharist. With each communion we remember the final days of Jesus’ life and celebrate his Resurrection. 

Richard Rohr, American Franciscan Friar and Catholic priest says this of the Eucharist:

The Eucharist offers one focused moment of truth, showing that the Christ and this ordinary bit of elemental bread are one, and therefore the spiritual and the material can apparently coexist. Struggle with that, resist it, fall in love with it, eat it. You can't just think about it rationally in your mind. Spiritual things are known in a whole-body way. You know them with your body, heart, soul, and mind all operating together. In this mysterious sacrament of Eucharist, you eat the bread; it becomes one with you; you become one with all those around you who are the same Body of Christ. It's a corporeal, cellular knowing. The bread is for the sake of the people, it is food for the sick and weary, a medicine for the soul to let people know that they are what they eat!

As we move towards our Eucharist this evening, remember that in it we share Jesus’ joy and sorrow and he shares in ours. We offer all within us which needs healing and unity, both with Christ and with each other. We are one in the body of Christ, we drink from the cup of joy knowing sorrows still lie ahead, but also knowing that the sadness of Good Friday is always following by the joy of Easter Day.

Scripture
So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’
John 6:53-58

Celtic Lent Day 36

Help me to find happiness
in my acceptance of what is Your purpose for me:
in friendly eyes: in work well done!
in quietness born of trust,
and, most of all, in the awareness
of Your presence in my spirit.
Labour and rest,
work and ease,
the busy hand
and then the stilled thought.
This blending of opposites
is the secret
of the joy of living.

The thing that's caused so much joy, anguish and confusion in my life is the belief that God has two purposes for my me; to be a nurse and to be a priest. I'm always both and each informs the other, yet trying to get them to sit alongside each other is a constant fight- and that's before we even get to my roles as a mum, wife, friend and daughter. The ability to interweave these things in a way which feels like I'm serving each always feels a little out of reach.
Being able to book the whole of Holy Week off from the hospital each year feels like a treat, a special time, a time to just be a priest, but my other roles will always influence who I am a priest, I hope for the better.

Scripture
Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Riches and honour come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might; and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all. And now, our God, we give thanks to you and praise your glorious name.

 ‘But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to make this freewill-offering? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.

1 Chronicles 29.11-14

Celtic Lent Day 35

Lord, come I this day to You!
I am not a great gift to offer You.
It is my coming that is my gift.
For who among us holds within themselves any worthy offering
to the God who owns the universe?
To come to You while the entire world moves away from
You, is our only gift of worth.
And so I come this day: ignore me or use me,
Save me or spend me. Use me or set me aside,
I am Yours. Amen.
Calvin Miller

Today Holy Week began the way it always does in Manchester, with Chrism mass at the cathedral. At this service ministers, particularly priests, renew their vows and the oils for baptism, the oils for anointing the sick dying and the oils for anointing at ordinations and confirmations are blessed. Most dioceses have this service on Maundy Thursday, but Manchester, as Tony Wilson once said, does things differently.
Looking around the building I had a really good view of most of us who have come to offer ourselves to God, many of whom I know and many I don't. Clergy, like any other walk of like, can be critical of each other, none of us are or could ever be perfect, and I'd like to think I have an awareness of my own faults and flaws. 

And yet, flawed as we are, we have come. Most days we might not know what we can possibly offer, so we just offer ourselves and hope we can do some good.

Scripture
What shall I return to the Lord
   for all his bounty to me? 
I will lift up the cup of salvation
   and call on the name of the Lord
Psalm 116.12-13

Celtic Lent Day 34

"O God!" I cried and that was all. But what are the prayers of the whole universe more than expansion of that one cry? It is not what God can give us, but God that we want.
George MacDonald

Dear Holy Christ,
who can see into every heart and read every mind,
take hold of my thoughts.
Bring my thoughts back to me,
and clasp me to Yourself.
An 8th century monk

Sometimes my relationship with God isn't about gentle words and making connections, sometimes it's about crying out, lamenting, raging or even accusing. Luckily God can take it.
I'm a big fan of the psalms, they're a reminder that no matter what anger or frustrations we aim at God, it's nothing God hasn't already heard.

Scripture
O Lord, God of my salvation,
   when, at night, I cry out in your presence,
let my prayer come before you;
   incline your ear to my cry. 
For my soul is full of troubles,
   and my life draws near to Sheol.
Psalm 88.1-3

Celtic Lent Day 33

Theophany

The unknown God,
in whom we live and breathe
And have our being,
has promised to be found
by all who seek
with heart that yearns
to know and to be known.
Mystery of eager joy,
already but not yet touched,
closer than breath itself:
the God who comes!
drawing from us
in stillness and in trust
our wonder!
and our need.
In dusky darkness
before the glowing dawn,
embedded in simple dust,
behold
in us
a shining seed

Andy Raine

For us it's always a choice, a life of faith. God is waiting in all things and every moment for us to be ready.

Scripture
Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart
Jeremiah 29.12-13

Celtic Lent Day 31 and 32

I knew all these nights shifts would catch up with me! Two days in one today:

Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home to itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves, utterly and completely, is our true beginning.
Thomas Kelly

If love could say God's name
We'd hear a trillion sounds
Choirs from the balconies
And grass grow through the ground
The sound would ring so true
As every fist uncurled
One human family

All across the world

The prayers of an atheist
Sent from the emptiness
Even they find the way back home

If love could say God's name
And we would just be still
Silence would start to sing
And nature reveal God's will

If love could say God's name
How could we not behold
One light, one peace, one grace
Shining in every soul
Beth Nielsen Chapman

Today marks the day when the readings move from the contemplation and awareness of the divine in all things, in every moment, to meditations reflecting Celtic thought and theology, which again is an affirmation of the presence of divinity in each and every thing in the created order.
An openness or receptiveness to the presence and availability of God opens us up to what is possible when we teach ourselves to find God in every moment- the light, peace and grace which surrounds us. This is what I hope for through the spiritual practices I engage with.

Scripture
One thing I asked of the Lord,
   that will I seek after:
to live in the house of the Lord
   all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord,
   and to inquire in his temple. 
Psalm 27.4

So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
1 John 4.16

Celtic Lent Day 30

Yield yourself to Him who is a far better teacher than any outward words, and you will have found the Instructor Himself, of whom all words are a faint and broken echo. Any depth in our prayers is not our achievement but has a life of its own. At times prayer may pour forth in volumes and originality such as we cannot create. It rolls through us like a mighty tide, for then our prayers are mingled with a vaster Word.
Thomas Kelly.

Scripture
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.
James 3.17

Celtic Lent day 29

Sometimes we have a powerful communion with God. We know to whom we belong and are ready to run and not be weary and to walk and not faint. But the will weakens, the humdrum returns, the memory of God's touch recedes. Can we stop this fading? No, nor should we try. Continuously renewed immediacy, not receding memory of the Divine Touch, is the secret of a more subterranean sanctuary ofthe soul, where the Light within never fades, but burns, a perpetual Flame, where the wells of living water of divine revelation rise up continuously, day by day and hour by hour, steady and transfiguring.
Thomas Kelly.

Those transcendent moments or encounters are rare, but once you've experienced it you know nothing will or can ever be the same again. It was such an experience which drew me back to a faith community and set me on the course I now continue on. My becoming a priest has been the most unexpected thing I've experienced in my life and yet it's enriched my life beyond anything I could have imagined.

Scripture
Pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3.18-19

Celtic Lent Day 28

Practicing inward orientation, inward worship and listening, is no mere counsel for special religious groups, for small religious orders, for special 'interior souls',  for monks retired in cloisters.  It is the secret of the inner life of the Master of Galilee. He expected this secret to be freshly discovered in everyone who would be his follower. It roots history in eternity, creates colonies of heaven.
Thomas Kelly.

Scripture
You desire truth in the inward being;
   therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Psalm 51.6

Celtic Lent Day 27

There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we may be thinking,  discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs. But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship and a gentle receptiveness of divine breathings.
Thomas Kelly

Our entire life is a prayer offering- an unending discourse with the divine. If God is in all things there can be no other way of living.

Scripture
Happy are those
   who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
   or sit in the seat of scoffers; 
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
   and on his law they meditate day and night. 
They are like trees
   planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
   and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper. 
Psalm 1.1-3

Celtic Lent Day 26

How, then, shall we live the life of prayer without ceasing? By quiet, persistent practice in turning all our being, day and night, in prayer and inward worship and surrender, toward him who calls in the deeps of our souls. An inner, secret turning to God can be made fairly steady, after weeks and months and years of habitual practice and lapses and failures and returns. Begin now, as you ponder these words, as you sit in your chair, to offer your whole self to him, utterly and in joyful abandon, in quiet, glad surrender...this is not a discipline of absentmindedness. Walk and talk and work and laugh with your friends! But behind the scenes, keep up the life of simple prayer and inward worship. Keep it up throughout the day. And in time you will find, as did Brother Lawrence, that 'those who have the gale of the Holy Spirit go forward even in sleep'.
Thomas Kelly

Habitual practice and lapses and failures and returns is the perfect description of my prayer life and spiritual practice. Working shifts makes it hard to form a routine but after years of struggling and experimenting I sort of have something that works with the daily prayers of the Northumbria Community. It's a reminder that with our spiritual lives there is no one way of doing things, and why we often refer to what we do as practicing prayer; it takes time and perseverance and repetition.

Scripture
 ‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
John 14.25-27

Celtic Lent Day 25

Lord Jesus Christ, son of God: have mercy on me, a sinner.
In the anonymously authored 'The Way of the Pilgrim', we find these words:
My whole desire was fixed upon one thing only - to say the Prayer of Jesus, and as soon as I went on with it I was filled with joy and relief. It was as though my lips and tongue pronounced the words entirely of themselves without any urging from me. I spent the whole day in a state of the greatest contentment. I lived as though in another world.
Lord Jesus Christ, son of God: have mercy on me, a sinner.

Being honest about my shortcomings with God is my way of being truly authentic and truthful. There's nothing that can be hidden from God so why try?

Scripture
Incline your ear and hear my words, Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise and apply your mind to my teaching; 
for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips. 
So that your trust may be in the Lord, I have made them known to you today—yes, to you.
Proverbs 22.17-19

Celtic Lent Day 24

It is enough to pray one's questions and rest quietly in the possibilities. My life is too small for all the answers, and my life...has been plagued with the need for too much certainty.
Macrina Wiedekehr

There's been more upheaval, change and uncertainty in my life during the last four years than during any other part of my life, all whilst training for ministry and then since ordination. It's taught me a valuable lesson in coping with impermanence and accepting that most things in our lives are just for a season- the good and the bad. It's also taught me there are no easy answers and sometimes we have to be content in our not knowing.

Scripture
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 
Philippians 4.4-7

Celtic Lent Day 23

Life is simple. We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through it all the time. This is not just a fable or a nice story. It is true. If we abandon ourselves to God and forget ourselves, we see it sometimes, and we see it maybe frequently. God shows himself everywhere, in everything - in people and in things and in nature and in events. It becomes very obvious that God is everywhere and in everything and we cannot be without him. It's impossible. The only thing is that we don't see it.
Thomas Merton

I'd love the ability to see God in all things and all people- it's a daily prayer for me. I guess the most important thing is that I try, and keep trying.

Scripture
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Romans 8.19-21

Celtic Lent Day 22

Pax

All that matters is to be one with the living God
to be a creature in the house of the God of Life.

Like a cat asleep on a chair
at peace, in peace
and at one with the master of the house, with the mistress,
at home, at home in the house of the living,
sleeping on the hearth, and yawning before the fire.

Sleeping on the hearth of the living world
yawning at home before the fire of life
feeling the presence of the living God
like a great reassurance
a deep calm in the heart
a presence
as of the master sitting at the board
in his own and greater being,
in the house of life.

D.H. Lawrence

Shared without comment today.

Scripture
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them,
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.
Numbers 6.22-27

Celtic Lent Day 21

Never Mock
Never mock what others say.
Perhaps their words are full of nonsense.
Perhaps they are trying to puff themselves up.
Perhaps they like hearing the sound of their voices.
Perhaps they are trying to deceive their hearers.
Perhaps they are foolish and dim.
Perhaps they are more clever than wise.
Yet amidst the useless clay
You may find jewels beyond price.
The word of God is in every heart,
And can speak through every voice.
Robert Van De Weyer

I think the easiest words to mock are our own, to think we're the foolish one whose words are full of nonsense. I constantly doubt myself, replaying conversations I've had, things I wish I had or hadn't said. Today is no exception.
Today's scripture reading offers us the example of Peter, Peter the bumbler who always gets things wrong, and yet he's the one who sees who Jesus really is. We have to trust, as I do, that God is using us despite the stuff we get wrong.

Scripture
He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.
Matthew 16.15-17

Celtic Lent Day 20

The miracles of Jesus were an ordinary thing for his father, but small enough for us to see, and actioned swiftly enough for us to notice.
George MacDonald

I'm often so fixed upon what Jesus said in the gospel accounts that I don't pay attention to what he did. Does one matter more than the other? They both form our idea of who he was.
Do what I say and what I do match each other? What do my works say about who I am? Am I living out what I preach in my sermons?

Scripture
Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
John 14.8-13

Celtic Lent Day 19

Go and find Jesus when your patience and strength give out and you feel alone and helpless. He is waiting for you. Say to him "Jesus, you know exactly what is going on. You are all I have, and you know all. Come to my help." And then go and don't worry about how you are going to manage. That you have told God about it us enough. He has a good memory.
Jeanne Jugan

Sometimes, too often, I have no words for prayer; when I read about an horrific event, when I encounter difficult things at work, when I'm too sad, anxious or weary to articulate what I'm trying to hand over to God. It's ok. God knows already.

Scripture
Ho, everyone who thirsts,
   come to the waters;
and you that have no money,
   come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
   without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
   and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
   and delight yourselves in rich food.
Isaiah 55.1-2

Celtic Lent Day 18

God is the friend of silence. We need to find God, but we cannot find Him in noise or in excitement. See how nature, the trees, the flowers, the grass grow in deep silence. See how the stars, the moon, and the sun all move in silence.
The best way to show gratitude to God is to accept everything with joy. A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love.
Teresa of Calcutta

The Moor
It was like a church to me.
I entered it on soft foot,
breath held like a cap in the hand.
It was quiet.
What God there was made himself felt,
not listened to, in clean colours
that brought a moistening of the eye,
in a movement of the wind over grass.
There were no prayers said. But stillness
of the heart’s passions — that was praise enough; and the mind’s cession
of its kingdom. I walked on,
simple and poor, while the air crumbled
and broke on me generously as bread.
R. S. Thomas

Sometimes we're trying so hard to find God that we forget to just stop, to pause, to remember that God is all things, waiting for us to realise it.
I'm really bad at stopping, of letting the silence wash over me, but I never regret it when I do.

Scripture
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
   like a weaned child with its mother;
   my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
Psalm 131.2

Celtic Lent Day 17

Be Still
You do not have to look for anything,
Just look.
You do not have to listen for
Specific sounds
Just listen.
You do not have to accomplish anything,
Just be.
And in the looking
And the listening
And the being,
Find
Me.
Ann Lewin

I didn't start today in the best frame of mind; I was weary, not in the mood. I was anxious, preoccupied with household matters and feeling like I wasn't bringing a decent enough version of myself to work. As I walked through the doors I prayed, hoping my mood would improve, hoping I would see God reflected in those around me and, if it were in any way possible, I could reflect something back.
I expected nothing from today but what unfolded was a day filled with joy, laughter and a reminder of why I love my job. Sometimes we come without expectation and God surprises us.

Scripture
‘Be still, and know that I am God!
   I am exalted among the nations,
   I am exalted in the earth.’
Psalm 46.10

Disturbing the peace

Short homily based upon John 2.13-22

In the gospel reading we see Jesus the Prince of Peace as Jesus the disturber of the peace; he’s the radical, the subversive, the disrupter. 

The deal between the temple and these small businesses started out of necessity; pilgrims came from all over to visit the temple and wished to offer a sacrifice when they got there, so the animal sellers were providing a useful service. Only temple coins could be used to buy the animals, so the money-changers were needed.

The problem came when they got greedy- escalating the prices for their own gain, within God’s House. Jesus’ disruption brings attention, which he must have known would happen.

I’m sure we can all think of other examples from history where those seeing or suffering injustice have become disrupters to get their cause noticed and effect change; anti-slavery campaigners, Suffragettes, The Civil Rights movement, The Stonewall Riots. The pattern of Jesus’ behaviour is a familiar one.

It’s a reminder that we have a God who was fully human in every way, not just the serene peacenik we sometimes paint him as. And it’s a reminder that we’re still called to disrupt the peace when we see injustice. 

In recent years we’ve seen huge marches, peaceful but in their own way disruptive, to focus attention on the future of the NHS, for women’s rights, to demand we don’t ignore the Syrian crisis. We’ve seen protest within our own diocese against the spikes placed outside city centre buildings to prevent the homeless sheltering, an action which led to the spikes being removed. 

Now I’m not trying to incite the congregation to riot, but we have a pattern of Christian living set for us by Jesus and that includes challenging injustice, and where necessary a little disruption.

Injustice and marginalisation of certain groups are still part of our society, and as long as they remain so it’s our duty as Jesus-followers to shine a spotlight on it. If injustice makes you angry how can that anger be challenged and used for good?

I get angry when I see people unable to work though illness or disability forced to fight for the basics to live upon, I get angry when the bible is used to oppress and control people, I get angry when gender or sexuality still cause people to be treated as less. 

We each need to ask ourselves what injustice makes us angry? Could it be that God is stirring something within us? How can we channel and use that sense of injustice? 

Our religion may bring us comfort but it’s not a comfortable religion. Jesus was a man who challenged systems. He overturned cultural norms, challenged the authorities, undermined the establishment, and generally shook everything up. This is all part of our inheritance. Christianity never has been, and never will be, about maintaining the status quo.

Celtic Lent Day 16

There is not in the world a way of life more sweet, nor more delightful than continual converse with God...If I were a preacher, I should preach nothing else but the practice of the presence of God
Brother Lawrence

Anyone younger than me might have no clue who Thora Hird is, so for the uninitiated she was a northern comic actress very much present on UK TV screens during my childhood. She was also one of our most recognisable Christians, presenting Songs of Praise spin off Praise Be.
I remember watching an interview with Thora towards the end of her life, whilst she still lived independently. Her daily routine was a constant conversation with God, whether in formal prayer or searching for the sugar. I can't remember if I was attending church at this point, but I remember thinking that continual conversation was the sort of relationship I wanted with God.

Scripture
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
Ecclesiastes 3.1,6

Celtic Lent Day 15

We must not grow weary in doing little things for the love of God, who looks not to the greatness of the deed, but to the love. Some failure at the start should not dismay us. Habit comes finally, and that produces the action without our thinking about it, and with wondrous joy.
Brother Lawrence.

We've just got back from seeing the latest Marvel film, Black Panther. Without wanting to give spoilers away there's a point where a character choses love of their country over their lover. It does make you think about the nature of love, in all its guises, and whether one sort is greater than another. I'm not sure if I have an answer to that, only that we are beings made for love. This can actually make us selfish, as we think of the world in terms of how things effect the people or things we love most, caught up in our own happiness; but it can also make us generous-hearted, hospitable and open-minded as love as an action, not a feeling, radiates out from us and effects the world around us.

Scripture
Sow for yourselves righteousness;
   reap steadfast love;
   break up your fallow ground;
for it is time to seek the Lord,
   that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. 
Hosea 10.12

Celtic Lent Day 14

It is enormous self-deception to believe that the time of prayer must be different from any other. We are equally bound to be one with God by what we do in times of action as by the time of prayer at its special hour...
It is only necessary to realise that God is intimately present within us, to turn at every moment to him and ask for his help, recognise his will in all things doubtful, and to do well all that which we clearly see he requires of us...In this unbroken communion one is continually preoccupied with praising, worshipping and loving God for his infinite acts of loving-kindness and perfection.
Brother Lawrence

As a Minister in Secular Employment, someone who feels a priestly call to the place and people where I work outside of the Church, it's central to my theology that I believe in whole-life worship; all that we do and all that we are forms part of this continual worship and communion.
All that we do praises God.
This doesn't mean I live a holy and blameless life but it does mean that every good decision and every bad, every cup of coffee on the fly and shared cake in the office, every short word, wrong decision, celebration and bereavement: each and every part of life, both in and out of work, is offered to God.

Scripture
Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Luke 24.35

Celtic Lent Day 13

Duntulm Bay, Phil Baggaley
(Click to listen to today's reflection)

In the simple joy of time spent with my friends, eating, drinking and laughing, I think I do get a glimpse of the life God intends for us.

Scripture
He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.
Ecclesiastes 3.11-13