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 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

The 15th

Be open to the night…

Pray with open hand, not with clenched fist…

Shapes loom out of the darkness, uncertain and unclear: but the hooded stranger on horseback emerging from the mist need not be assumed to be the bearer of ill…

The night is large and full of wonders…

Lord Dunsany

This is one of my favourite Northumbria Community meditations. The night is large and full of wonders- who knows what amazing thing is out there, unseen by us, waiting to be revealed If only we would be more open to it. It's in our nature to be afraid of the unseen and unknown, but this reminds us that not all those unseen things are bad.
We like our traditions when it comes to Christmas, we like the comfort of the familiar. Who knows what we might experience if we're more open to different experiences, traditions and cultures this year?

Today I found joy in wrapping Christmas presents, I was thankful for offers of oranges to make Christingles and I felt helpless about the relationship between some Christian groups and far right politics.

Scripture

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?

Psalm 8:3-4

Easter Day

God of little buds just now wearing green sleeves,
God of lilac limbs all full with signs of flowering,
God of fields plowed and black with turned-over earth,
God of screeching baby bird mouths widely awaiting food,

God of openness, of life and of resurrection,
Come into this Easter season and bless me.
Look around the tight, dead spaces of my heart
That still refuse to give you an entrance.

Bring your gentle but firm love.
Begin to lift the layers of resistance
That hang on tightly deep inside of me.

Open, one by one, those places in my life
Where I refuse to be overcome by surprise.
Open, one by one, those parts of my heart
Where I fight the entrance of real growth.
Open, one by one, those aspects of my spirit
Where my security struggles with the truth.

Keep me open to the different and the strange;
Help me to accept the unusual and also the ordinary;
Never allow me to tread on others' dreams
By shutting them out, closing them up,
By turning them off or pushing them away.

God of the Resurrection, God of the living,
Untomb and uncover all that needs to live in me.
Take me to people, events, and situations
And stretch me into much greater openness.

Open me.  Open me.  Open me.
For it is only then that i will grow and change.
For it is only then that I will be transformed.
For it is only then that i will know how it is
To be in the moment of rising from the dead.

(taken from may i have this dance; An Invitation to Faithful Prayer Throughout the Year by Joyce Rupp)

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

REJOICE, for Christ is RISEN!!!

Pastor Patty Fox 40 Days with 40 Christian Mystics

I hope that something within me has grown and changed and been transformed during these 40 days. My hope was to work on my spirituality and develop my prayer life. It's certainly given me a desire to delve deeper into mysticism, which I find resonates deeply with me.
I hope those of you who have read my posts have found some value in them and I thank Pastor Patty for originally taking this journey and blogging it so I could retread her path. 
As the prayers and meditations of the Northumbria Community have also been incredibly important over the last 6 weeks I leave you with their Morning Prayer blessing:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,
wherever He may send you.
May He guide you through the wilderness,
protect you through the storm.
May He bring you home rejoicing
at the wonders He has shown you.
May He bring you home rejoicing
once again into our doors.

Day 40

One of my favourite meditations from the Northumbria Community came around again today:

Be open to the night…

Pray with open hand, not with clenched fist…

Shapes loom out of the darkness, uncertain and unclear: but the hooded stranger on horseback emerging from the mist need not be assumed to be the bearer of ill…

The night is large and full of wonders…

(Lord Dunsany)

Holy Saturday may be a day of darkness, of unknowing, but there are wonders - treasures - to be found in darkness. Pray with an open hand, not with a clenched fist. We're nearly there.

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 20

Pastor Patty does day 20 & 21 together, so I'll save that for tomorrow. As we're now halfway through our Lenten journey I'll share Thomas Merton's reflection from today's Northumbria community daily prayer:

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think that I am following Your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please You
does in fact please You.
And I hope that I have that desire
in all that I am doing.

And I know that if I do this,
You will lead me by the right road
although I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust You always,
though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death,
I will not fear, for You are ever with me,
and will never leave me
to face my perils alone.

(Thomas Merton)

A Mystical Lenten Journey

It's Ash Wednesday so that means the beginning of 40 days of blogging. After several years of task-based Lent activities I decided it was time for a change. It's been a bit of a crazy year with being ordained and taking on a new role in preparation for priesthood in June, so I felt that something to supercharge my spiritual life was in order.
Initially I was going to follow the Society of St John the Evangelists (SSJE) 5 Marks of Love, but some events over the past 24 hours means I've changed track to something much more simple.
I've recently been revisiting my interest in celtic spirituality and Christian mysticism. A quick Google led me to Revd. Patty Fox's Lent journey from 2014: 40 Christian mystics in 40 days.
I'll also be folliwing the Northumbria Communities pattern of daily prayer. I'm intrigued and excited about what lies ahead.