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 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 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 2

Earth's crammed with heaven,
and every common bush afire with God;
but only he who sees takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I think the thing is to not only see God in every common bush and wonder in it but see God in those blackberries too. I believe there is no sacred/secular divide, all things belong to God as God is in all things, making our entire lives sacred and miraculous.

Scripture

When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’
Exodus 3:4-5

Celtic Lent Day 1

After last year's mystical Lent, this year I'm having a Celtic Lent, using the Northumbria Communities Daily Prayer Book Two. I'll be working from the Eata series, using the readings and reflections for May (Contemplative Awareness) and July (Reflecting Celtic Thought).
Alongside this I'm using the Lent prayers from the Lindisfarne Scriptorium.
Today's meditation reflects upon what we can learn from a monastic way of life:

Pray constantly, in order to have a pure heart, in order to see God everywhere, in order to pray constantly...may we have eyes to see and hearts to respond to Christ's presence in the here and now
Christopher Jamison

Today being Valentine's Day as well as Ash Wednesday feels rather odd but both ultimately celebrate love. It's out of love that we have this day set aside where we're reminded that our days are limited as an encouragement to use the time we've been given wisely. In the words of Gandalf the Grey, all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. Becoming more present to the here and now helps us the discern how to do this. Where are we being called to? What work have we been given to do? Who has been sent to us to love?

Scripture
Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.
Philippians 4.5

Day 34

Holy Creator,
thank you for artists:
visual, verbal,
musical, kinesthetic,
spiritual.

Holy Creator,
thank you for artists
who express our impressions,
our feelings, and our hopes.

Your gospel is found
not only in scripture,
but in the stroke of a brush
or of a pen,
in melody and harmony and dissonance,
within dance and movement,
within prayer.

Bless the prophecy of artists
who charm and chide,
critique and cajole,
who prompt tears, laughter,
peace, and passion.

Within their creative process
may we recognize
the divine in all creation
and be moved to awe
and wonder and worship.

Receive all art, O Divine Creator,
as acts of prayer,
a reflection and response
of creation.
And, as the disciples requested,
continue to "teach us to pray".
Amen.

(from Coming Out to God by Chris Glaser)

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

Take paper and crayons or paint or pencils and create an image of what you think God looks like.  It can be a form of some kind, or simply colors; whatever strikes you as representing the Holy.  Use this "hands-on" practice as a form of prayer as you welcome and honor the presence of God.
Pastor Patty Fox 40 Days with 40 Christian Mystics

I haven't been able to create my own picture of God, and in all honesty I wouldn't even know where to begin. All I can think of is Matisse's painting of an embrace.

Day 33

Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, 
a holy place, a Divine Center, 
a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return.  
Eternity is at our hearts, 
pressing upon our time-torn lives, 
warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, 
calling us home unto Itself.  
Yielding to these persuasions, 
gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, 
utterly and completely, to the Light Within, 
is the beginning of true life.

(from A Testament of Devotion by Thomas R. Kelly (1893-1941) a Quaker missionary, educator, speaker, writer, and scholar)

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

Thomas Kelly was the first mystic I ever read.  I was introduced to him by the first female clergy I had ever met, the Rev. Pansie Evers.  The combination of these two things - an introduction to Christian mysticism and an introduction to the possibility that I too could serve God as a pastor - were life changing.  I think this is always true of the Christ Light Within; it changes us.  Whether we are awakened to it through the writings of others or through the life witness of people we are blessed to know, or through the beauty of the world around us; the Christ Light is in us waiting to warm and guide us.

How does the Light of God present Itself to you?

Where might you find it shining today?
Pastor Patty Fox 40 Days with 40 Christian Mystics

The light of God presents itself to me in my work; through people, interactions, experiences. It shines through acts of love, acts of inclusion and every time someone is invited to join in rather than being given the reasons they don't belong. The light of God shines from within us each time we remember we are loved and recognise that God calls us just as we are; unique, flawed, quirky and wonderful.

Day 32

When I look at the blood
all I see is love, love, love.
When I stop at the cross
I can see the love of God.

But I can’t see competition.
I can’t see hierarchy.
I can’t see pride or prejudice
or the abuse of authority.
I can’t see lust for power.
I can’t see manipulation.
I can’t see rage or anger
or selfish ambition.

I can’t see unforgiveness.
I can’t see hate or envy.
I can’t see stupid fighting
or bitterness, or jealousy.
I can’t see empire building.
I can’t see self-importance.
I can’t see back-stabbing
or vanity or arrogance.

I see surrender, sacrifice, salvation,
humility, righteousness, faithfulness, grace, forgiveness,
love! Love … love…

When I stop! … at the cross
I can see the love of God.

(Godfrey Birtill)

Pastor Patty combined days 32 and 33 so today I'm meditating upon the Northumbria Communities meditation for the day. The meditation speaks of things that can destroy us as individuals but also things that can eat away at communities and churches. None of those things are contained within God's love but they are within creation. We must acknowledge that. It's only by facing up to something  that we can learn to overcome it.

Day 31

A Consideration of Biblical Views of Atonement

For the last five years during Lent I have led a discussion at RCHP on Biblical Views of Atonement. There is nothing more mystical than the death and resurrection of Jesus.  My suggestion for your prayer and meditation today is simply to consider what Atonement means to you. 
Pastor Patty Fox 40 Days with 40 Christian Mystics (pastor Patty's slide show from her discussion in here)

Ok...I can't really give atonement It's full consideration in a 2 minute blog reflection, and I don't think it's necessarily the sort of thing the people who read my blog would want to read! I wrote one of my longest assignments (during theological training) on atonement and my one conclusion was no one theory gives an adequate explanation - but then do any theologies or doctrines? One thing I love about mystical Christianity is the full acceptance of holy mystery without needing to explain or understand everything. I know no absolutes in my belief other than God's eternal and unfailing love.

Day 30

This beautiful piece titled "Contemplation: Dog Art Painting" was created by Sharon Cummings and can be purchased at http://fineartamerica.com/ as well as redbubble.com

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

Find a tree. Sit and stay.
Pastor Patty Fox 40 Days with 40 Christian Mystics

I've tried to add a photo of the tree I spend a lot of my time staring at but the blogger app does not approve of photos at the moment.
I have a bit of a tree obsession. They make me feel calm and yet in awe. They're beautiful. Pretty much the most relatable thing I've read is the Pete Seeger quote:
"Every time I'm in the woods, i feel like I'm in church". Amen.

Day 29

Meditation is not merely the intellectual effort to master certain ideas about God, or even to impress upon our minds the mysteries of the Christian faith.  Conceptual knowledge of religious truth has an important place in our lives.  The spiritual life needs strong intellectual foundations, and reading theology helps us understand faith experience.  But meditation itself is neither study nor intellectual activity as such.  Its purpose is not to acquire or to deepen our speculative knowledge of God or of revelation.  Rather than seeking to know about God, we are seeking to know God directly, beyond all the objects which God has made.  We are seeking to experience God's presence with the awareness of loving faith.

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

Seek out a quiet place.  Find a comfortable, upright position in which you are relaxed but alert, with your eyes lightly closed.  Remain as still as possible.

Silently, begin to say interiorly a single word or phrase selected from the context of Christian faith.  Listen to it as you say it gently but continuously with faith and love.  Do not think or imagine anything, spiritual or otherwise.  If thoughts and images come and your attention strays, as soon as you become aware of this, return to saying your word.

(all of the above is taken from Prayer of Heart and Body by Father Thomas Ryan)
Pastor Patty Fox 40 Days with 40 Christian Mystics

I worry that the way we live our lives means we're turning away from contemplative practices. I'm guilty myself of attempting to fill every minute of every day, not taking time to pause, to be quiet; to just be.
Sometimes we just need to stop, which can be really scary as we don't know what we might find in the space when we do, but it could be something transformative.

Day 28

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, 

so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. 

To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. 

To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over 

the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

(Henry David Thoreau)

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

I walk a pathway;

Of rocks, roots,

Leaves and mud.

Traveling alone at times,

But more often with trusted companions.

We are cutting a trail of holy thoughts.
Pastor Patty Fox 40 Days with 40 Christian Mystics

The 40 days of Lent are a really useful period of time to create new habits or new ways of thinking. Repeating thoughts, actions, patterns of prayer. What did we want to dominate our lives when we began 28 Days ago? I hope this mystical Lenten journey is re-forming me, developing my spirituality and deepening my relationship with the divine so that in turn I may be a better companion and pastor to others.

Day 27

In the face of the struggle for freedom,
Give us strength.
In the face of decision about freedom,
Give us wisdom.
In the practice of freedom,
Give us guidance.
From the dangers of freedom,
Give us protection.
In the life of freedom,
Give us joy.
In the way in which we use our freedom,
Give us a clear vision

(South American Council of Churches
"A Litany for Human Rights," All Year Round
British Council of Churches, 1988)

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

In what way do you act on your own freedom?
In what ways are you enslaved?
Pastor Patty Fox 40 Days with 40 Christian Mystics

Really difficult questions today. I think we're (I am) enslaved, or at risk of enslavement, to the standards of our society which don't match with the teaching of Jesus. It takes a lot of courage to step away from that and give yourself over to radical love, radical hospitality and radical inclusion. Our lives are so complex but we're enslaved to that complexity. I wish for a life of radical simplicity; loving, serving and sharing. Having the ability to make that choice, to decide what shape my life will take, is the ultimate freedom.

Day 26

Home is a movement,
a quality of relationship,
a state where people seek to be "their own",
and increasingly responsible for the world.

(from The Journey is Home by Nelle Morton; theologian and Christian Educator)

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

Take a moment to sit quietly.
Consider when you have felt most "at home".
Imagine that place or time or experience.
Recall the sounds, smells, the texture of it.
Breath in a blessing and exhale a blessing
for the home that allows you to be "your own".
Pastor Patty Fox 40 Days with 40 Christian Mystics

For me home is being with those people who make me feel the most comfortable, the most loved; the most like myself. Our relationship with God should feel like home.

Day 25

Life is
A blue sky framed by firs.
Guilt, joy, frustration, contentment;
So many moments
That make up a day.
In all of this
Gratitude spills out
Like sap running freely from the tree.
God is good
We fail
We harm
We forget
but God is always good.
And this God
Lives in me.

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

How would you describe your day? 
Where do you see God in the moments of your day?
Pastor Patty Fox 40 days with 40 Christian mystics

Today was good. Today was joyful. Today was really busy! I spent time with my husband (we're often on opposite shifts), did some paperwork, spoke with friends, baked brownies, went to a mini-concert at my son's school (huge privilege for a working mum), I had the final session with a girl I'm preparing to receive her first communion and her sister who's getting confirmed, I cooked for my family and we all ate together, I made bath bombs with my daughter, coloured her hair, attended an event at church and had a drink with my church family after that!
I'm home now, a dog on either side and I look back at a busy day absolutely jam-packed with love, laughter and seeing the face if God reflected back at me everywhere I looked. Not all days are like that, but today was a good day.

Day 24

“We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”

(From Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle)

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

Read each line of the verse below slowly and in rhythm with your breath.

The true light,
which enlightens everyone,
was coming into the world

John 1:9
Pastor Patty Fox 40 days with 40 Christian mystics

My heart breaks for those whose religion (especially Christianity) is a serious of "dos" and "do nots". Faith is not a set of divinely ordered rules to restrict us, it's something which sets us free, causes us to shine and reveals God's love in the world through us.