Tag Archives: lent

Taste the Bread

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Today’s thought taught us more about the Eucharist of the Celtic Christians where symbolism and struggle are integral to the act of worship.

From the Stowe Missal we learn that the priest would use a whole large loaf of bread. The effort to break this bread in half (if you’ve ever tried) represents the insults and the beatings that Christ encountered. Once the bread was broken the priest would then break up the bread into smaller pieces and would arrange the pieces on a plate in the shape of a cross. Ongoing we then see the holistic theology of God being in everything put into practice in a practical way. Once the bread was received by the person they are instructed, from the missal, to take the time to savour the bread and to allow themselves to taste the mysteries of God.

No dualism for these Celtic Christians means we can experience God in taste as well as through our other senses.

That’s quite a thought and a challenge.
If God is everywhere are we able to experience God through all our senses?
What does ‘tasting the glory of God’ look like for you?
What reactions do you have to this inclusive theology?
Does this have an impact on you today on your Lenten journey.

what’s in a number?

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Numbers were symbolic and important to the Celtic Christians. Cole shows us that the number 3 appears as a sacred number. Celtic triads from around the time of the Stowe Missal, such as ‘three candles that illumine every darkness: truth, nature and knowledge, were key to living out life as a Christian and journeying with Christ.

The Missal also talks of the priests actions in the liturgy. The priest bows three times for his sins, and for the people he walks 3 steps forwards and 3 steps backwards. These are all to symbolise that we sin in a triad – in thought, word and deed.

I wonder whether adopting some physical exercise, like that above, during confession would help my spiritual practice. I wonder if it would help embed my worship in a challenging and meaningful way? Rather than saying words alone, my body would also be entering into the tri-symbolism. It would help me to understand, or rather remember, that my whole person sins and needs restoration rather than just the cerebal and speaking part of me. After all we all know that ‘actions speak louder than words!

just words or opportunity

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This week in Celtic Lent we are looking at the Stowe Missal, which is about 60 leaves of illuminated writing explaining the order of the Eucharist service of the monastic centre, along with some prayers and hymns.

Over many years I have had good discussions with friends about liturgy. Many of my friends have the opinion that is is boring and stifling to the spirit when we use the same set of words week by week. I have always argued that reciting similar words actually has the opposite effect and allows the spirit to truly meet with us in a meaningful way.

The Celtic Christians did not see liturgy as just a collection of words. They believed liturgy had a mystical depth to it. It was seen as something greater than them , and something to be entered and absorbed within. Each liturgy was an opportunity to be absorbed more completely into the Christ experience.

The Stowe Missal was written to to help the people engage more deeply and be absorbed more completely int the divine presence. So, Eucharist, for the Celtic Christians isn’t just a service that they had to do, its was instead a sacred mystical act that drew them closer to God.

So …. at the start of this new day, this thought is causing me to ask, how do I view liturgy? Is it just a set of (familiar) words or is it more of that opportunity to be drawn into, and absorbed by, God? And if that is so, what am I going to do about this? How am I going to view and treat liturgy moving forward? I’m not sure …. but I definitely want to lear how to embrace and be part of the mystical experience.

How do you view liturgy? Words or opportunity?

Fifth Sunday

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I am wonderful!

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Today’s thought has brought tears to my eyes.
I wish to simply take some quotes and leave them with you today to ponder as you journey on

1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from far away.
3 You search out my path and my lying down,
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
    O Lord, you know it completely.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is so high that I cannot attain it.

7 Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning
    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me fast.
11 If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light around me become night’,
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is as bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

13 For it was you who formed my inward parts;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
    Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
15     My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
    all the days that were formed for me,
    when none of them as yet existed.
17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18 I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
    I come to the end[a]—I am still with you.
Psalm 139

‘God creates us. God with loving hands knits us together and moulds our being. God does not make mistakes. God does not make faulty goods. ….. God’s loving formation of our being creates the perfect human being – you – in the divine image.’ (page 106, Cole, D ‘Celtic Lent.

Dave Cole ends with this prayer today:
Almighty Creator, Intimate friend, loving Father, restorer of all that I am, I pledge to work with you to restore the beautiful being which you created, beginning with the declaration that I am wonderful! I say this not because of ego, but because the scripture says that you made me, I am one of your works, and that your works are wonderful. Thank you. May my restoration begin with my belief in myself. Amen

restoration v recovery

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Following on from yesterday’s thought from Celtic Lent on original sin or original blessing, today we jump on a few hundred years to the ninth century Celtic saint, John Scotus Eriugena.

Eriugena and the Celtic Christians did not believe salvation was about changing human beings to be acceptable to God but rather that salvation was about restoring us to be the person that God created us to be in the first place.

Eriugena writes:

‘Just as the skin of the human body is afflicted of the contagion and deformity of leprosy, so human nature was infected and corrupted … and made deformed and unlike its creator. When it is freed from this leprosy by the medicine of divine grace, it will be restored to its original fairness of form.’

As we travel towards Easter this challenges the traditional ideas that still remain from my upbringing in the western/latin/roman based church. ‘I am good, and embodied in the image of God’ is something I need to be reminding myself of daily. Maybe I need to develop some sort of chant or tun to help me with that. Good Friday, and Easter, is about us being restored to the person we were initially meant to be.

What does this mean to me and you today?

Original sin or blessing?

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Since becoming a Christian at 17 I have always struggled with the concept of original sin which, I now know, came from Augustine and was adopted by the Roman/Latin church. I remember having long discussions with leaders of my church in Weymouth. In the confirmation group I asked awkward questions which people didn’t seem to have answers for. I could not understand how a new born baby could be ‘born in sin’ and be born containing ‘original sin’. To me then, and even more so now, the concept simply does not fit with the concept of a loving God who created us all in God’s image.

If we are created in God’s image, stated this arrogant loud teenager, then how on earth could we be born with Original Sin?
I remember tagging on the patience of my teachers as I proudly stated that, if anything, we must all be born in ‘original blessing’ as this is the only thing that makes any sense f we are created in God’s image.

In today’s thought from Celtic Lent we hear that this very concept was a distinguishing difference of theology between the Latin church and Celtic Christians. The catholics believed the core of us, our soul, was eveil and fallen and required transformation from Christ. The Celtic Christians believed our core was a divine image but tainted which needed fixing by Christ.
In the words of Genesis 1:31; ‘God saw everything that they had made, and behold, it was very good’

This makes a massive difference to how we view other people and creation itself. If we consider ourselves and others as being inhabited by that divine image then that surely significantly impacts upon our behaviour towards each other. Surely it means we see each other differently and we would want to cherish, uphold and applaud each other in our daily journeys. Surely this would mean Christian ‘spaces’ would be open, welcoming and loving to absolutely everyone!

Original sin, or original blessing ….. you decide?

making a stand

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One of the great stories of Saint Patrick was the focus for this morning’s Celtic Lent thought.

It was Easter Eve in 433 and the tradition was that all fires in homes and on hillsides were extinguished. The king had banned anyone from re-lighting those fires until he had lit his for all to see first. Patrick defied this law, climbed the hill of Slane and lit his Easter fire. The king was totally pissed off and commanded Patrick be put to death. That’s very brief and the full story can be read here.

The courage of Patrick is striking and that’s what I have been pondering on my travels today. Despite knowing this would annoy the kind and that he would be condemned to death, Patrick trusted in the power of God. Because he trusted that power he didn’t fear what the king might or might not do. In fact, Patrick’s stance of faith eventually resulted in the king, albeit reluctantly, becoming a Christian himself.

I’ve wondered today how I understand that power of Christ.
I’ve wondered how that power manifests in my life.
I’ve wondered is there stuff I do that stops that power flowing through me.
I hope, that like Patrick, I can make a stand for the gospel.

change your tune

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Today’s Celtic Lent thought was focussing on music.

It seems that as the Celtic monks travelled from place to place it is thought that they sung or chanted the psalms. Cole writes: ‘It was, perhaps, a natural extension for the Celtic monks from this external practice that their inner journey, another life journey, would also have been filled with the sound of psalms and spiritual songs. Or perhaps it was the other way around – perhaps the external expression was the natural result of the internal process of filling their inner life journey with spiritual songs of praise.The journey itself was filled with praise: the external journey as well as the internal one’.

We live in an age where many of us are plugged into music continually. I notice throughout the dat that I often have a tune reverberating around my head. I often wonder where that tune has come from and whether it is an indication of the soundtrack for my personal journey.

Today’s thought has left me with many questions such as ….
Is there a theme tune for my life?
If so, where has that come from?
If there isn’t why not?
Does the tune in my head reflect what’s in my heart?
Is my tune an indication of where I am with my Creator?
When I catch myself in the moment, what is singing from my soul?
Does the tune from outside of my life have an influence on me?
Where is God in the music?

It’s been really great stuff to think on today.

the divine is absolutely everywhere!

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Today in Celtic Lent we expand on the non dualistic approach of the Celtic Christians.
These Christians saw the divine in every aspect of life.
As they went on journeys they were aware that the divine presence of God was within them, was also with them journeying alongside, and was in every person they encountered and every experience they came across.
They simply saw the divine creator flowing through absolutely everything.

This mightily challenges me today.
As I approach every person at work today I am going to look for the divine presence.
As I chat with workmates I will be looking for signs of the divine presence.
As I journey through my day today, I will be on the look out fort for those divine appointments which I have regularly experienced in my life.
I’d like to share one divine appointment of my own.
On a previous visit to my home town of Weymouth I was sat in the Boot Inn. While sat at the bar a guy started talking to me. After a little while this man started to share deep stuff about the relationship between himself and his parents. He also shared that he was a Falklands veteran and wanted to talk about some of the horrors he’d experienced.
This divine appointment was a real privilege to be part of.

As we left the pub, I remember Sarah remarking that that always seemed to happen to me and asking why. I don’t have an answer other than I’m open and ready to hear.

So … as you journey through today, remember you walk on holy ground. Remember you carry the divine within you. Remember the divine walks alongside you. Remember the divine is in every situation you encounter. Remember the divine is within every person that you meet.

Maybe be on the lookout and consider how this knowledge impacts on your journey today.
I’d love to hear your stories