CelticPriest

Please....I can't breathe.   I don't even have to source that quote.  Even in the middle of the pandemic, everyone knows who said that.  Just before he died. Then came the protests and the looting.  How can we blame people who have no power in society for reacting in this way? Today we prayed that the Holy Spirit will come and renew the face of the Earth.  God, how much we need our society to be renewed! While Philly burned, the Dragon spacecraft successfully launched from Pad 39 (or is it 39A) in Florida.  In our weird world I had a better view of the launch than I ever had of any of the Apollo missions or even the later spacecraft. I found myself weeping at the cognitive dissonance of the most hopeful event on the planet juxtaposed with the horror that we are still savages who kill one another. Riot, James Baldwin said many years ago, is the voice of the unheard.  Sadly, it is also the convenient excuse of the powerful to impose martial law and other oppression.   Let us all ...

So Saturday might be launch day.  I love the space program.  I have followed it faithfully since JFK days.  I still tear up over the Challenger disaster and pray for the guys who died in the Gemini capsule. There are always those who put it down, saying we should solve earthly problems first.  Except some of those folks have pacemakers.  Some of us use Teflon pans.  There are always happy side effects of science.   So teach your kids science.  Encourage math and engineering.  They can still love animals and flowers.  Watch the launch Saturday.  Have hope for the future.

The search for enlightenment seems to be in the forefront of many minds today. Thereareyyy Many have turned to non-Christian religions, finding Christianity rarely practiced except in judgmental and exclusionary forms. Many people spend much of their lives drifting from church to temple to guru seeking the truth that will set them free. The very fact that we do this kind of journeying encourages me. As an elder, it is exciting for me to find so many people ready to live with the kind of uncertainty that opens one to enlightenment. I do not, by the by, claim enlightenment for myself. I am a mere student. I have met those I consider to be enlightened, one of whom is my very own sister. She would deny it strongly, but she shines like the sun. I do recommend a constant pilgrimage along the “road of happy destiny” as AA calls it. There is always more to be learned, more that will be shown to us as we continue to follow the One Who loved us first. For me, this following includes p...

I am in a lot of pain today.  The temptation is to go back to sleep.  However, I am up, I took my meds and am ready to say mass.  Back later. I have been thinking about communication.  It is so difficult just between two human beings.  We project our opinions and our thoughts.  We have to work so hard to be a loving, open and accepting presence for others.  And yet, if we don't, what hope is there for us?  How grateful we are when someone "gets" us. Having a culture in common helps so much.  Just joking across cultures is risky.  Loving across cultures is much moreso.   Specifically I think of how to heal our own country.  It can only be done by ourselves I think.  And only if we risk giving each other the benefit of the doubt. We all at least try to love our own.  How can we make that include those we are tempted to see as wrong?  I pray for all of us.  Let us make this time of suffering one that transforms us into a strong and gentle people.  Let us not become small and...

The everyday is most wonderful.  The ordinary is so lovely.  Boredom doesn't happen to me anymore.  It may be a characteristic of life for the young.  I am so very grateful.  Lack of urgency is so soothing.  So, how to deal with the urgency of the pandemic, which is killing so many people and disrupting the entire world? We are told in AA to accept the things we cannot change, to change the things we can, and to pry for the wisdom to know the difference.  It's interesting to try to be the hero of your own life without having to be the hero of the world.  No one else can save you, but you can't save anyone else.  Nor are you responsible for saving anyone else.  Christ is the One to save us.  My only responsibility is spending as much time as possible in conscious contact with Christ.  That practice results in personal transformation over time.  Most of us do not have the Paul on the road to Damascus type conversion.  I have never seen a burning bush, I have never heard a...

Like weeping, laughter releases endorphins, which helps with physical pain.  So, during the pandemic, I am trying to watch funny things from time to time.  Different things are funny to different cultures.  Different things are funny to people who grew up loved or unloved.  I can never anticipate whether something I think is funny will trigger someone else.  I am, however, too old to care anymore.  My grandson keeps telling me I don't have to react to everything.  He's right, of course.  He is much more calm than I am.  He is probably much more mature than I am.  But he's right, so I put a two hour alarm on my Facebook usage.  Any longer, and I end up reacting to things that would normally not affect me at all. One of the things I most frequently over-react to is sexism.  Back in the 60's we did that thing.  Tired of it, I guess.  Catch up!  No really, though it's not younger males' fault that they haven't do...

That explanation is quite popular.  It apparently gets one out of having to explain the why of something.  Like a relationship.  Or a political position.  Or not liking Aunt Whomever.  Whoever?  I don't know.  Don't care.  It's complicated. Lately I have been searching out scholarly papers from respectable scholars to describe in detail why someone would hold a social democrat's political position.  I would like to be able to explain myself better than the above two words.  What it comes to in the end for me is this:  I can only bear to live in the Presence of the One I call God if I share whatever I have been given.  My time, my attention, my love, my stuff.... I can only continue in existence in this world as it presently exists if I can understand people who are afraid or angry or both.  If I can love such people with all my heart, I can talk and listen with them without judging them.  Without needing to bludge...

What so-called interesting times we live in.  In which we live?  Grammar Nazis anyone?  I have lost so much weight that I have a lap now.  Weird.  All I am doing is eating whenever the normal people here eat.  Who knew? So I took my pain meds, my heart pill and my antidepressant.  I am now officially ready for my day to commence.  At least the sun is up now.  My apologies to everyone who got an "Attachment Unavailable" notice from me today.  It should have been a picture of a Brigid's Cross.  Sigh.  I am excited about the CCC Synod Topics.  The idea of a ministry with animals/creation is very appropriate for our church.  There are no doubt those called to such a ministry who are not necessarily called to be priests or deacons.  Or, if they are, they could use the extra continuing education.  Great work, Thomas Marble.  You are a treasure to the church.  I am cold today.  Yesterday it was...

I know because I woke up today.  Yay God!  You too! My back hurts a lot today.  Sky is overcast.  Maybe the sun will come out later.  If not, I will just be laughing anyway, because Laughter is the best revenge, as is living well.  Revenge against, you ask?  Against my self-centeredness.  Against my own shortcomings.  I cannot take revenge on my fellow sufferers.  I will not. I know you will not.  Because you are beloved of God.  Because you know you only get to keep what you give away.  Because you are joyous, happy and free just like me.  And if you don't believe me, keep taking the actions you would take if you did believe me.  Fake it til you make it, right? I have been sober for over 42 years now.   Not my doing.  Christ saved me.  From myself.  The Lord is my light and my salvation.  Whom shall I fear?  Only the body can be murdered.  The spirit who is Holy wi...

A quote from a letter to Raven's Bread by an anonymous hermit: On this level of consciousness, we experience God intuitively and directly (contemplatively beyond our thoughts and words "about Him".) I apologize if use of the words God or Him trigger people.  I am 71 and those words don't bother me anymore.  I have other hills on which to die.   This pandemic has gifted us with time in which we can be alone with our Higher Power.  In that Silence we come into conscious contact with God. Such is Union with God.  We can each of us experience this, sometimes in a moment, sometimes for days at a time.   Hanging out with God is what our love relationship is all about. When I began to pray and meditate, I had to set an egg timer for three minutes because my internal chaos was so loud that I could not manage longer than three minutes.  After 42-plus years, it is something essential for me.  Something I do almost without thinking. ...

Strange name for a series of books?  Maybe.  If you don't like first-person narratives, you won't like the series.  If you don't like hard science fiction (as well as/instead of) fantasy, you won't like the series.  If you do like both of those things, you will want the series.  I love it!  I read it over and over, as well as listening to the books I have of it which are audiobooks - the Kindle versions are much cheaper, and the "voice" you imagine may not match the audiobooks' narrator's voice...I happen to enjoy it, and believe the performer is a fine actor.  It is difficult for me to imagine doing the audio as an actor, and I have lots of years of theatre arts behind me.  The different books are like episodes of a TV series, so don't be surprised when one adventure ends with the foreshadowing or downright jump into the next adventure.  Fortunately, there are four or five books now to be enjoyed, and even I can afford the Kindle p...

I just watched our Gin of Prince of Peace praying in PopClergy.  What a joy she is.  Thanks, Virginia for all  you do for us.  I also saw a ten year old boy rocking out to Johnny Be Good.  It made me weep with joy for the future.  These brilliant children deserve a safe and beautiful world we have not created for them.  God, however, is capable of writing with enough crooked lines to make the outcome a beautiful world.  I pray today for such an outcome.  I pray for all who are struggling to make this outcome be more equitable and conscious and generous than the prevailing spirit of self-centered fear of change or whatever is holding us back from being whole and holy.  I pray we can learn to share anything and everything we have with those who deserve to live as much as anyone.  I pray God will remove all of our fear.  I recall my AA sponsor teaching me that fear is False Evidence Appearing Real.  I try to remember that....

I awoke with gratitude for waking yet again.  It means my mission isn't over yet.  So, "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it."  And so I am glad.  I do rejoice.  I give thanks for all my fellow Christians who are working so very hard at survival with integrity, with honor.  That word seems to inspire contempt these days.  Honor to me means not adherence to a rigid set of black and white rules even if it costs me my life.  To me, honor as the beloved of God means seeking to meet everyone with an open heart and an open mind.  Seeking to put the last first.  Seeking to be peaceful within and without, so that those God may send me feel peaceful and safe. Love, as they say, is a verb.  Don't tell me that you love your God.  Show me.  Do godly things.  Love unconditionally.  Love inclusively.  Love the unlovely, especially if they get on your nerves and make you want to shake them ...

I am living with a considerable amount of pain.  It doesn't help that the power keeps going out.  It gets warm and hateful!  Food spoils.  No cash until tomorrow.  Assuming TPTB actually pay me.  See?  I am slipping into negativity.   But I have over 40 years of experience with stinking thinking.  Not gonna go there. My true being exists.in our Creator, who wants to give us shalom  or peace.  This doesn't mean lack of violence or struggle, but rather comfortable enough and safe enough and happy enough.  And good enough.  Perhaps I will cry.  Endorphins.  Perhaps the next dose of pain meds will be soon.  All will indeed be well, because I am loved by my Beloved.

Today I was happy to see our dear Ginger, Pastor of Prince of Peace praying with our wider community.  I love it when she sings, throws her entire body into prayer.  It makes me smile and remember how much God loves us all.  Thanks for being you, Ginger! I also watched Father James Martin, S.J. do a faith sharing live about the days scriptures from Acts and the Gospel of John.  Again, here is someone of whom we can say, Look how he loves.  Look  how he shares his knowledge and his hope and joy.  There are so many of  us out here, to all appearances on our own, and yet we are still sharing, still loving, still being present with one another.  I am especially grateful today for the manner in which my family is taking such good care of me.  It isn't easy for people who are also constrained by the pandemic to care for and cater to an old lady who sometimes cannot make it to the dinner table.  I am so often in such pain but their lov...

I more or less abandoned my Celtic Nun Blog.  Since I have been released from my OMC vows as of last month, that is no doubt a good idea.  However, I am still a CCC Priest, and hope to continue in that work during whatever time I have left. I am quite weary today, although I have been able to do several hours of writing without too much pain, for which I am grateful.  Just now, I Plan to read for a while about the essential theology of Julian of Norwich.  I am very fond of the idea of God as mother and of a god in whom there is no wrath.  I hope to post more frequently.