There are a number of songs or videos to choose from. You don’t need to listen to them all. If a title catches your imagination listen to that one as your preparation for entering into a time of silence with God . Then the other songs in preparation for you to enter the theme. It is your choice, do everything or enter where you desire.
Deep Peace:
Deep a Peace:
Let Your Light Shine
O God, Will You Restore Us?
3) Passion for God/Christ and life. To seek out wholeness. (Shalom)
Connection to God, comes out of our passion and purpose, and a connection to people and nature. Scripture states that the Lord has plans to prosper you not harm, plans to give you hope for the future (Jeremiah 29:11). The Celtic people only moved out of a connection with the Lord. Their lives were Christ-centric / focusing on Jesus, or more so a Trinity focused people, Looking to experience of the three in their life. If you are not Christian, find a role model who you aspire to be like, and who is a good example that allows your passions to come to the surface. But it is ultimately the Lord who knows your place and perfect fit, the dream and desire that is placed in your heart.
It is friendship that God invites us into, the intimacy of the circle of friendship or [Trinity of community] that exists between him [Jesus] and the Father and the Holy Spirit. The friendship that Jesus offers he has shared from eternity within the Godhead, The Christian doctrine of the Trinity places friendship at the very heart of the nature of God. And almost unbelievably, the eternal interflow of companionship that binds Father, Son and Holy Spirit to each other extends to those Jesus calls to be his followers and friends. pg 65 Sacred Companions ~ David Benner.
Jesus’ call was to journey with him and be welcomed into the community of the Trinity.
John 15: 13-16 says we are no longer servant but friends and it is a shared journey with the Trinity.
What is your God experience or your experience of God?
Jesus Be The Center
This is the Air I Breathe
The Holy Spirit or the Wildgoose is our guide, the be the inner compass that directs and supports you and I into your life purpose, and the journey. Into that which is right and true of you, and gives peace, and gives you joy. As you walk out the instruction you hear Spirit say, a the Spirit will guide you to live out your purpose and enter your passion.
Being in purpose causes you to be in constant contact with your inner guide, the Wildgoose. Giving a flow to your life, and satisfaction, plus fulfillment, when you walk in your life role.
Have you come to terms with your life role! Do the following exercise “My purpose is too _______________ put your name create a purpose statement. Keep it short enough to commit to memory. Make sure to include how your purpose will touch others.” To have an awareness of the sacred, and those things that give life, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It is about discovering what makes you feel whole? Fills you with joy. The seed that is growing needs to be watered with encouragement, so that confidence, faith, and hope are sustained and nurtured. The first step is saying yes, giving yourself permission to be released into life.
The Lord desired to be with Adam and Eve and came to enquire at the end of the day, a loving enquiry out of desire to communicate and this was out of care for that which God created.
God knowing even when a sparrow falls, and even knowing our sitting, standing, and when we even sleep, and we cannot run and hide from God. The Divine being is the one who knows and wants to know us intimately and delights for us to have a passion, to have a joy filled and fulfilling life. A enriched life, a full of joy life, as life is ultimately to be lived, a daily experience of flow, this comes from being aware of our spiritual needs, aware of our personal growth, looking to see if transformation and restoration is taking place in our lives.
Are we seeking after the Spiritual, the things of the Spirit? This “for the Celtic Christian, Rodney Newman suggests, salvation is not a matter of changing human beings into different people, from worthless to worthy. Salvation is the restoration, or recovery of the person God created us to be in the first place.” Pg 103, David Cole: Lent Book.
There has to be an encounter that is experiential and meaningful, that touches the persons at their present need, by allowing for the passion and presence of the Spirit to be tangible. This allows for a life transformation to occur. This begins by drawing close to the divine, having a heart that seeks for the spiritual. A modern translation states that blessed are those who recognize their spiritual need… for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. Matthew 5: 1-10. Manga Bible.
We are all needy people, needing a connection with each other and with the divine. This connection will encourage us into righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, this is the kingdom of God. To have a connection and to feel right about your life, to be a human being, you have to feel like you are being purposeful. Having a peace, as a result of this purpose, a joy about life will surfaces, as we walk out our purpose, but a Christ centric from our inner experience of connection and communication, this is Relationship with God.
Life is a pilgrimage, a journey that you take, and you take you, with you. You can’t leave yourself behind. You are the only person who can take the steps and make the changes necessary, to line up with your role and purpose, so as to enter into your full potential.
Know yourself, what is going on in your life at this present moment?
Do you experience and the know the presence of God by the leading of the Holy Spirit or the wildgoose in your life?
What is the first thing that comes to mind, the undercurrent or the item in the background running consciously or unconsciously. Does is create apprehensions, and are there people, and aspects of your life you will miss. What are you excited about going forward toward, and what are you grateful and thankful for? Ponder, reflect, commit these joys and concerns to the spirit who is constantly at work in your life.
All the inner stuff of the heart is carried with you wherever you go, there is no escaping yourself. You have to come to terms with who you are and what you are to be about today, this present moment, the season of your life.
Then there are the people who you will hang out with. Those you hang out with, is ultimately what you will become like. This is just with association with them, are they your encouragement and cheerleaders as you walk through life? (Anam Cara or Anam Chairde) The journey a lot of the time is difficult, trying to come to terms with were we fit in and find our place of significance, connection, and belonging. We carry a lot of baggage, we have to learn how to travel light. Not carrying the things that that need to be laid down along time ago, discerning the thing that are extras, and are not of necessity for you to carry now.
Fenelon, the seventeenth – century spiritual master, put it well: A traveler who is marching across a vast plain sees nothing ahead of him but a slight rise which ends in the distant horizon. When he tops this rise, he finds a new stretch of country as vast as the first. Thus, in the way of self – renunciation, we think we see everything at once. We think we are holding nothing back, and that we are not clinging to ourselves or anything else. We should rather die than hesitate to make a complete sacrifice. But in the daily rounds, God constantly shows us new countries. We find in our hearts a thousand things which we would have sworn were not there. God only shows them to us as He makes them appear. It’s like an abscess which bursts. The moment when it bursts is the only one which horrifies us. Before this we were carrying it without feeling it, and we did not think we had it. When it was hidden, we thought that we were healthy and quite as we should be. When it breaks we smell the stench of the pus? The break is healthy, although it is painful and disgusting. Each one of us carries in the depth of his heart a mass of filth, which would make us die of shame if God should show us all its poison and horror.”
The World is about to Turn:
Celtic Christian Spirituality is about being present in the moment, being open to the Wild Goose or the Holy Spirit as we may be more familiar of knowing the third member of the Trinity. It is about a transformation of the heart, this happens when we are open to the flow of blessing that has been given, we have a choice to choose from blessing or curse. This is why there are many prayer or blessings open to the positive and there was also the negative supernatural forces, thus the reason for the lorica or caim prayers for protection against evil and the reason for the feeling of melancholy in their music. This highlights that these people do have an awareness of the mix of darkness and light. This can been seen in their art, because of the hardships and harsh conditions in life. The vivid colours in the illuminated manuscripts, demonstrate there is hope in knowing a creative life giving God, who is slow to anger, who is a loving divine being, who is light, who gives this illumination and inspiration, and this pursuit of good or favor is interwoven in our being physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
In this period of time in the history, the Celts had a great awareness of the finite and mortal nature of life, conscious of how fragile and of the dangers that threaten life. There are uncertainties, and how they are vulnerable, and there is always a possible threat of attack, from another tribe. Then there is the possibility of failed crops, these being some of the very reason for the need of prayers of protection. Seeking the favor, blessing, and protections from the trinity, to allow that which is separating them and us today from presence of the divine, to draw close and push away what is hindering and re-establish connection and blessing once more. There was an interconnection with the physical and spiritual realm and sacred places and spaces, knowing there was places that were known to be hallowed ground and location that were known as “Thin Places” were the connection was palpable and real, this intersection with the divine and the human.
“For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Ephesians 2:10 NRSV
Can you imagine you have walked and talked with God in heaven agreeing on your role to play, and that it was recorded in your book of life? Is it possible that every moment was laid out before us before a single day had passed, we agreed on this journey together, and now it is our quest to remember, we get glimpses given by the Lord, God knows the outcome! These glimpses we record in our journal, to remember, as we can so easily forget. We at times do forget, not remembering to believe, to have faith, and remind ourselves, that all things are possible for those who believe, we do need a friend to bring things to mind, this is the wild goose, helping us to enter into what we are destined to accomplish. To bring us to a place of fulfilment, joy, purpose, and accomplishment of our life role.
We can have confidence in the knowledge that, we can say. You Lord go before me and ahead and also follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head, you know my thoughts, and you are familiar with all my ways, you discern my every action, we can’t flee from the Lord. Look further into Psalm 139. Reflect on the whole Psalm sometime, here is a segment to contemplate.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them! Psalm 139: 15 – 17.
God to enfold me,
God to surround me,
God in my speaking,
God in my thinking.
God in my sleeping,
God in my waking,
God in my watching,
God in my hoping.
God in my life,
God in my lips,
God in my soul,
God in my heart.
God in my sufficing,
God in my slumber,
God in mine ever-living soul,
God in mine eternity.
(Ancient celtic oral traditions – carmina gadelica) Read more at:http://www.faithandworship.com/Celtic_Blessings_and_Prayers.htm#ixzz5bMqsInuz
Protection Prayers:
http://www.faithandworship.com/Celtic_Blessings_and_Prayers.htm
https://markscelticchristianspirituality.com/2016/10/05/caim-prayer/
Let Your Light Shine:
You may struggle at times with your place in life, knowing where you fit in. Don’t worry about this, abide in me says the Lord. Out of those remaining in me will flow the course of your life. So make time for the Lord. Making it a number one priority. Draw near to the Lord and he will draw near to you.
A journal entry from a few years ago
Infinite possibilities – God gives his spirit without limit John 3: 34b
We have not passed the kindergarten stage the basics of the faith.
ABC’s = Authority, Boldness, Courage or confidence, this is given in, and through the Trinity. The Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
There has to be a entering into the basic elementary teachings of Christ, we are told we can be like Christ, and do greater things for the glory of God.
The Celtic Saints understood this, let’s learn from St Columba and St Ninian, these people had authority over creatures and also raised a person from the dead.
Columba
On this day, August 22, 565, St. Columba is said to have encountered the Loch Ness Monster.
Columba, you may recall, was trained by Irish monks. However, his youthful Christianity was skin-deep while his passions were strong. He was partly responsible for the battle of Cul-drebene in which many men lost their lives. Repentant, he sailed to Britain as “a pilgrim for Christ” and founded the monastery of Iona, from which Christianity spread across North Britain. He himself traveled and preached, establishing several churches and monasteries.
Revered as a saint, his life was written by Adamnan. In reporting Columba’s life, Adamnan gives what appears to be the first written account of the Loch Ness Monster.
Traveling in Scotland, Columba had to cross the Loch Ness. On its banks, he saw some of the Pict folk burying a man who had been bitten by a water monster while swimming. The body had been pulled from the loch with the aid of a hook by rescuers who had come to his assistance in a boat.
Despite the danger, Columba ordered one of his followers to swim across the loch and bring back a coble (boat) that was moored on the other side. This man’s name was Lugne Mocumin. Without hesitation, Lugne stripped for the swim and plunged in.
The monster, robbed of its earlier feast, surfaced and darted at Lugne with a roar, its jaws open. Everyone on the bank was stupefied with terror; everyone, except Columba, that is. A firm believer in the authority of the crucified Christ, he raised his hand, making the sign of the cross. Invoking the name of God, he commanded the beast, saying, “You will go no further, and won’t touch the man; go back at once.”
At the voice of the saint, the monster fled as if terrified, “more quickly than if it had been pulled back with ropes,” says Adamnan.
The heathen were amazed. Everyone who witnessed the sight gave glory to the God of the Christians.
Did the event really take place? A church historian may be permitted a few doubts.
To begin with, Adamnan’s account was written over a hundred years after the alleged events.
Furthermore, different versions of the story disagree with one another. One has Columba raising the monster’s first victim from the dead by laying his staff across his chest.
We also note that this is only one of many extraordinary events in Adamnan’s account. According to him, Columba dripped with prophecies and predictions that came true. He made water into wine like Jesus, drew water from a rock like Moses, calmed a storm at sea, provided a miraculous draught of fishes, multiplied a herd of cattle, drove a demon out of a milk pail, and cured the sick. A book owned by Columba could not be destroyed by water. Through his prayers he killed a wild boar, stopped serpents from harming the inhabitants of a certain island. Angels and manifestations of divine light attended him throughout his life. Adamnan’s account has so many incredible tales that it is unbelievable.
- Adamnan. “Life of St. Columba.” Medieval Sourcebook. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/columba-e.html
- Edmonds, Columba. “St. Columba.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
- Vann, Joseph, editor. “St. Columba.” Lives of Saints with Excerpts from their Writings. New York: John J. Crawley & Co., 1954.
Last updated June, 2007. Christianity.com accessed 4.6.2020
Ninian
“Thieves planned to carry off by night some bullocks that belonged to Ninian’s community. That same day, however, Ninian prayed for God’s blessing on his herds before staying the night with a neighbour.
I walk by faith each step by faith:
Let us be led by the wild goose:
Mark's Treasury Of Celtic Christian Spirituality 