Radical

It’s really quite a profound thing when we use the phrase ‘radical Christian’.

Surely if Jesus was a radical (and I don’t think you can argue that he wasn’t, whether you agree with him or not), and if Christian means a follower of Jesus, then isn’t radical part of the definition of a Christian.

So isn’t using the words a ‘radical Christian’, the same as saying a ‘Christian Christian’?

So if we say ‘radical Christian’ meaning others are not so radical, do we really mean that others are, perhaps, not Christian at all?

In view of what Jesus himself says in Mathew 7:21-22, delivered as part of the Sermon on the Mount, his most radical manifesto of all, perhaps we are!?!

 

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”

 

#itsallintheredstuff!

 

#ForeverLoved

Something a little bit different from me today!

If we submit our creativity and imagination to God, we too can be part of the vast creative energy pouring from our Creator Father God.

So when an old friend from missionary days announced she had written a book about the Father’s love for Eve, had found revelation and understanding via the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, of the depth of that love for Eve and all her daughters (and of course for all mankind) I was immediately fired up to help with her book launch.

Having read the book now I’m so glad I did! I recommend it, Forever Loved: Eve’s Story – A Creative Re-telling, and my dear friend, Joanna May Chee, to you whole heartedly.

 

“Forever Loved: Eve’s Story is the story of Father and daughter, as told by Eve. It is the story of a love so deep, so passionate, so beautiful, it pursues Eve even in her darkest moment, lavishing forgiveness, life and hope on her. It is the story of the Father’s heart for you, his precious daughter. He whispers to you now and calls you closer.”

Simply but beautifully written we experience Eve’s life from her own perspective. The book opens with a vivid description of her first, formative moments, “Gradually, a glow, like the first touch of sunrise, then a brightening, a flickering orange behind my eyelids.  I open my eyes. Waterfalls of soft light”.  It then describes and support’s the fact that she did indeed find that time with Father alone before her idyllic and fantastic life with Adam, the wonders of Eden and glories of face to face communion with Father and a richness of existence way beyond our current one. Whilst we know the story and that this cannot last, Joanna has captured the wonder, simplicity and tremendous REST that living from the Fathers love brings…a love we can experience now because of the Cross.

“All I knew of in those early days was love and acceptance. I was not an after thought. As my Father shared his heart with me, I learned of my preciousness. I was a treasure to be sought and found.”

The Fall is indeed awful. But the insight and agony that Joanna portrays from Eve’s heart is truly enlightening, The consequences never stop, and as a mother I felt so deeply for Eve as Cain kills Abel, knowing that fatal bite has caused her own flesh and blood to this.

But far more striking is the enormous grace that the she and Adam receive from Father in spite of the consequences of their actions…and that is the message of the book.

“Adam and I are remembered for the wrong we did, not for the saving love of our amazing Father.”

Alongside Eve’s story Joanna shares something of her own journey, how that led her to write the book and she invites each reader to go deeper with Father God providing lots of biblical background and references to support the story and the truth it contains.

It is released on 27th February 2018 and can be bought via Amazon, The Book Depository and other good outlets.

Read more reviews, find out more, and see all purchasing options here.

I do hope this has encouraged you to check it out further. There are some more links and information below.

Praying God’s abundant and sacred blessings be upon you this day,  Wondering Celt X

***********

 By clicking here you can listen to Joanna teaching on these themes from her book.

Her video Knowing God:First Steps is available here.

A seasoned blogger, she can also be found here: this particular blog post is on the very first time God spoke to her about Eve, and now its a whole book!

She loves to write, and is often awake in the night with a million ideas for her next book or project. It is her heart to encourage and equip women to love their families and meet with God. Joanna blogs at JoannaMayChee.com and MumsKidsJesus.com, where her blog posts, free resources and courses are a source of encouragement and inspiration to women around the world. Joanna, her husband, and four children have lived and ministered in Malaysia, Bosnia and Turkey, and are now settled near London. Connect with Joanna: Facebook.com/JoannaMayChee | Facebook.com/MumsKidsJesus | Pinterest.co.uk/MumsKidsJesus

Connections

There were 33 years between the First Christmas and the First Easter.

We talked last night, around a table filled with good food and friendships, of how so often we underestimate the connection between the two. And how many moderns, post-moderns, millennials, whatever…don’t even realise there is a connection at all.

The donkey knew…

What the Donkey Saw

No room in the inn, of course,

And not that much in the stable,

What with the shepherds, Magi, Mary,

Joseph, the heavenly host –

Not to mention the baby

Using our manger as a cot.

You couldn’t have squeezed another cherub in

For love or money.

Still in spite of the overcrowding,

I did my best to make them feel wanted.

I could see the baby and I

Would be going places together.

 

U.A.Fanthorpe*

 

 

*Ursula Askham Fanthorpe, CBE, FRSL (22 July 1929 – 28 April 2009) was an English poet. She published under the form U. A. Fanthorpe.

Ia

The little Seaman’s Mission, St. Ives Harbour (on right)

Is she the Celtic female saint with the shortest name? Whatever the answer she certainly has one of the most beautiful natural resting places – despite the hordes of holiday makers with buckets, spades, pasty shops and greasy chip papers.

Ia was an Irish princess, the sister of St Erc and was an apostle to the Cornish and a 5 or 6th Century martyr. There was an early Latin document detailing her life but it no longer exists although other surviving writings refer to it. So there is a reasonable chance that her legend is true. Due to set off one morning with others, she arrived at the shore to find that they had left her behind fearing she was too young. Wether they were planning to cross what we now call the Celtic Sea, for Cornwall, or simply set off to wherever the Spirit led, the we don’t know. Ia, weeping and praying, prodded a passing leaf with her staff. It grew until it was large enough to step onto, so that’s what she did! It seems she was almost immediately transported to the deserted Cornish coast, shortly to be followed by her co-workers. She set up an oratory in a small clearing and the settlement eventually became the town of St Ives that we know today.

She was martyr by King Teudar near the River Hayle but returned to her home to be buried and today’s Norman style, Anglican church is said to be built over her tomb.

* * *

St Ives is remarkable for many things, its food, its beaches (it has several), its natural beauty but most of all for the quality of its light. Artists have long settled there including Barbara Hepworth, who was a contemporary and friend of my great-aunt Florence. She was the Headmistress of the local school during the 1920’s and until her retirement many decades later. Between the rhythms of the tide, the sea and sky can turn every shade of blue or green each day. I’ve watched a large storm cloud pass over the bay, sending the sea a dark and moody blue, whilst the town itself has basked in bright sunlight. The above painting is my beginners homage to a famous view of the Seaman’s Mission at the head of harbour seawall on a bright sunlit day.

* * *

Ia, a young woman of enormous bravery and faith continues to inspire today. Perhaps her life would suggest she took seriously these words:

Psalm 62:7

My help and glory are in God     

     —granite-strength and safe-harbor-God—

So trust him absolutely, people;     

lay your lives on the line for him.     

God is a safe place to be.

The Message

Antony

St Antony meeting St Paul (another monk and forerunner of the Desert Fathers) by Osservanza Master (Washington NGA)

Today is St Antony’s Day he was:

An Egyptian Christian                                                                             A Desert Father

An Ascetic                                                                                                An Obedient Son

A Contemplative                                                                                    A Caring Brother

A Truth Lover                                                                                             A Cave Dweller

A Solitary Wanderer                                                                                An Abba Father

A Fearless Spiritual Warrior

A Frugal Eater

A Fore Runner

A Miracle Worker

A Reconciler

A BELOVED SON

“He, indeed, did not hold time passed in his memory, but day by day, as if making a beginning of his asceticism, increased his exertion for advance, saying continually to himself Paul’s word about forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, and recalling also the passage in which Elijah the prophet says, the Lord… lives, before whom I stand today.

He observed that in saying today he was not counting the time passed, but as one always establishing a beginning…”

from The Life of Antony (251 -356AD) by Athanasius (295-373AD)

Rhythms

 

Sometimes we forget that the Israelites spent A LONG TIME in the desert and still didn’t receive the promises.

I suspect my re-curring prayer this year will be: ‘Teach me the unforced rhythms of your grace, Lord!’

If I want to receive the promises of God, and I do, all of them – well at least as many as I can – I will need to learn those rhythms and enter into His rest.

After an anxious night (who’d be a parent of teenagers at New Years!) this was my daily reading today:

This is what God says,
    the God who builds a road right through the ocean,
    who carves a path through pounding waves,
The God who summons horses and chariots and armies—
    they lie down and then can’t get up;
    they’re snuffed out like so many candles:
“Forget about what’s happened;
    don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
    It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert,
    rivers in the badlands.
Wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’
    —the coyotes and the buzzards—
Because I provided water in the desert,
    rivers through the sun-baked earth,
Drinking water for the people I chose,
    the people I made especially for myself,
    a people custom-made to praise me.”

Isaiah 43:16-21

I’ve been in that desert long enough – time to get my head down and concentrate, be present and alert so I’m custom made together with others to praise Him.

Watch this space…

Hild

Today is the day of St Hild, 1614-80.

Regular readers will know that I am something of a feminist. One of the things I love most about the Celtic church (and forgot to mention in my last post) was that perhaps for the only time since the very early days of the Church was the scripture ‘neither male nor female’ fulfilled in the Body of Christ. (Someone will probably put me right there but hey!).

Women freely led, and led men too. No problems, no questions. And as I wrote about once before, men who didn’t like it were promptly confronted!

Most of what we know about Hild is from the account of the British Church by Bede in 731.

Hild was of noble birth. The great-niece of King Edwin of Northumbria she was baptised by Paulinus at the age of 13. She grew up under Roman Christianity and moved south under her queen aunt’s protection, after Edwin fell in battle. Here she continued to receive Roman education.

At the age of 33 she changed direction and became a nun. Giving up the opportunity to join her sister in Gaul, she decided to act when Aiden challenged her not to go, but to carry out her ministry in her home kingdom.

The faith in Northumbria generally was the Celtic version, brought from Iona, in Scotland, by Aiden and others. She learned the traditions of this version of the faith before she founded several communities for men and women to serve side-by-side together before setting up the great double monastery at Whitby in 657. Double monasteries allowed for joint worship but separate living conditions for their adherents. The Bible was the central means of study, practical outreach and help was offered, all goods were held in common, and all the Christian virtues practised. Whitby Abbey (then known as Streoneshalh) became one of the most important centres of faith in the Anglo-Saxon world.

It sat high on a steep cliff (I know because I’ve climbed it!), above the sheltered harbour and river mouth. Here the great council of Whitby was held to resolve the issue of whether the English church should follow the Roman version or Celtic. Perhaps unsurprisingly given her conversion and upbringing, she supported the decision to opt for a Romanised church, but later recanted.

Personally for a woman known for her deep wisdom, I feel she got her first decision wrong and England has suffered for generations since under the Whitby decision. But none of us get everything right and who knows what pressures she faced at that time and ones earliest experiences are the most formative.

She was a very energetic and busy woman, known for her devotion and grace. She encouraged Caedmon to write some of the greatest Celtic poetry and was sought by the highest in the land for advice. She held huge responsibilities for lands, farms, stock and people.

She suffered a fever for the last 7 years of her life. This didn’t prevent her from establishing another monastery in Hackness, 14 miles away – a long way in those days.

Her monastery was destroyed in the ninth century probably by Viking Danes but a new Benedictine one was founded after the Norman Conquest in 1066. This in turn was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII.

The photo is of the latter monastery ruins.

Whitby lies now in Yorkshire, the county of my birth. So from one Yorkshire lass to another, I salute you today Hild. May I be known one day for wisdom as great as yours!

Heart

I was asked recently “What is Celtic Christian Spirituality?”

It’s a good question. It made me think. So much of what I read about Mystical or Celtic or Forest Church, etc…… is flaky and off centre (although there is great stuff out there too, and I’m learning lots from the folks I meet online). 

I’m no expert! But I decided to answer it for myself and blog it here for others to check out and see what they think. Whether they agree. Or not?

A couple of years ago I did a BA level course in Early Church Spirituality. I wrote an essay contrasting Benedictine spirituality (Roman) with the Celtic variety (earthy!) as Patrick practised it. So here’s where I’ll start.

Ancient Celtic Christian Spirituality is…….

• Relationship: Very much a relationship of the whole person with God, heart first with head following, where Benedict’s approach was much more cerebral in orientation – a product of his highly educated perspective on life.
• Christocentric: Focused on the One, Jesus Christ who, born of a virgin, lived a perfect life of simplicity, devotion, teaching, healing, working miracles, being God with skin on. Who suffered, died and rose again having conquered sin and death, and will return at the end of time; here there is no divergence with Benedict, although as we will see the practical outworking is somewhat different. But also…
• Triune: Deeply centred on the mystery of Three in One. The Trinity, or Triune God, fitted well with their pagan spirituality in which all things were often infused with divine presence. Now this changed to being infused with the specific presence of Yahweh, by the Holy Spirit, because of Jesus, the Son. By seeing God through His creation, their worship was turned upside down, something the Gospel has a tendency to do!
• Rhythmic: Expressed in the simple acts of daily living. It found a rhythm of prayer and worship like Benedict’s rule but ALL things were done in and through Him. For Him. All was holy – no sacred or secular.  Their poetry, prayers and songs show this.
• Different: Because it sometimes incorporated pagan practise but NOT pagan doctrine or philosophes. Known as syncretism – this is a biblical practise*. It’s a tricky path to walk but even today some missionaries use this method to communicate the Truth. Many of the early monks who carried the Word of God, including Patrick, where educated, well read and trained in doctrine and scripture. They were able to differentiate from practise and principle and were among the first to make the Word of God understandable by adopting the practises of those they were reaching with the Good News. *e.g. Paul used the Shrine to an Unknown God to explain the truth about Christ to the Athenians in Acts 17.
• Mystical: A Spirituality at home and comfortable with mystery, tension, and uncertainty. Celtic tradition and experience in daily living was fragile and tenuous. Pushed as they were from the very centre of Europe to its remote, difficult edges they knew that much of life was uncertain, their pagan practises and worship had joined the mystical with the real and found no obstacle to the more magical expressions of God in healing and the miraculous. Thus the Celtic Church was marked by it’s extreme and often bizarre miracles. It also embodied a concept of journeying and not having arrived, which sits well with those who recognise that ultimately that is what the Christian life is about, until……
• Family: Walks united with God, in community. Community (tribal in this case) and village life was paramount in Celtic culture and this encouraged the spread of the Gospel and the active sharing of Body Life. This means Celtic culture was ready to accept the true meaning of being family that the Gospel brought to them. This challenged the practises of  internecine warfare, treating women and girls badly and also the culture of slavery and treatment of strangers.

There’s a lot more but for me these aspects are among the most vital. All are key for the Modern Practise of this Spirituality.

I try to keep my posts to 500 words and have already massively exceed that today. Lets chat about what I’ve expressed so far, shall we?

Comments can be added from the menu at the top of the page by the title, or you could try Celtic Christian Spirituality on Facebook where I will put a link and no doubt a jaunty but polite discussion will emerge there too!

Grace and Peace!

No-One

Dante Alighieri’s The Sparkling Circles of the Heavenly Host

Celtic Spirituality, especially the Christian variety, emphasised a wholeness, a oneness that is represented in the Trinity. This unity was also valued in individual terms too. Celtic believers KNEW that they were one, through the Cross, through Jesus, with all of creation and with the God who is All in All.

Division did not exist in their world view except as failure, wrong thinking, wrong believing.

And the key to maintaining this place in all of created and uncreated life was exuberant Thanksgiving and Praise.

Not as we practise it now, led by someone else – at the front, by CD, with a guitar to chosen and written music – but as an intentional focussing of the mind, heart and body, in expressing truth from within one’s own heart. It played in part in resisting evil and declaring a status, a position, an authority all of which had been invested in the believer at the Resurrection.

This is an effort on my part to create such a litany of praise which helped me focus this morning (in the shower) as I battle against a creeping depression which threatens once again to engulf me.

Jesus!
Lover and Friend

I wish and intend to praise you because

No-One has done for me what you have; going so deep, suffering such pain, facing such foes, WOW!
No-One has forgiven me so completely for the things I’ve done wrong
No-One has cleansed me so I feel sparkling and bright and new
No-One has delivered me from evil like you, fought my battles, destroyed my accusers, and made my way a celebration of victory and                       triumph, in Your Triumph

No-One has stood by me no matter whether I deserve it, or not, like you stand by me
No-One has been as faithful as you in waiting for me when I was unfaithful to you, wandering along interesting and often fascinating paths but ones unchosen by you

No-One has rescued me from all my own mistakes; but you look closely at all I do and often place barriers where I would go flying on into disaster

No-One has cheered for me like you do, when I get it right
No-One is as pleased and delighted in me, as you are

No-One believes in me when I get low, and can no longer see my likeness to you any more, so totally as you do

No-One dances as good as you
No-One is as much fun as you
No-One gives such wonderful gifts as you do
No-One throws great parties like you do

Your parties are the parties to end all parties!

Praise is opening your heart to let God in, so you receive his love afresh!

A Divine Exchange.

 

Photo Credit: Public Domain

Encompassing

 

Before Christianity arrived in Scotland, Wales and Ireland a ‘caim’ was a demonic, protective spirit. Celtic Christianity either abandoned these traditions or incorporated them, using them as a bridge between the pagan and Christian practises. So, in this case, a ‘caim’ became a prayer of protection, firmly rooted in the Trinity.

‘Making the caim’ the saint stretches out his right hand with forefinger extended, and turns around sunwise, as if on a pivot, describing a circle with the tip of the finger while asking Christ for his desired protection. The circle accompanies and protects the saint wherever he walks, safeguarded from evil without and within.

Obviously, this could be executed in a superstitious or ritualistic way, which would have no value and not please God in the least. Made in faith, trust and hope of the grace of a God who never leaves nor forsakes us, it can be a powerful focussing of our eyes on Him, who is our All in All. It’s no different to an evangelical ‘putting on the armour’, or in using Patrick’s famous Breastplate prayer, which in itself is a ‘caim’:

“Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left,”

Anyway, I say all this by way of introduction to this ‘caim’ which I found recently, which is also written as a form of a blessing. Perhaps whoever was praying walked around another person who was maybe leaving on a journey or about to go about a difficult task………

The compassing of God be on thee, 

The compassing of the God of Life.

The compassing of Christ be on thee,

The compassing of the Christ of love,

The compassing of the Spirit be on thee,

The compassing of the Spirit of Grace,

The compassing of the Three be on thee,

The compassing of the Three preserve thee,

The compassing of the Three preserve thee.

I think it would be a powerful way to head off with that as my focus, knowing that those I left behind would continue to pray like this for me!

Wouldn’t you?

In the meantime, from me, “May the compassing of the Lord God, His Son and His Spirit be upon you today”.

 

Picture Credit: Public Domain via Pixabay