Celtic Odyssey

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

It seems rather fitting, as things happened to take place, that I should read The Holy Rule of St Benedict as my last reflection before my ordination to the priesthood. The reason for this somewhat ironic situation continues in that the focus on our retreat this year is on New Monasticism. (And, honestly, I didn’t plan this. Things have been such a blur that I didn’t realize it was my last reflection before ordination until I had finished the book!) So it is interesting to compare St Benedict’s rule for his monks to what we are and do in the Lindisfarne Community. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but I’m sure glad I’m a part of Lindisfarne and not a monk in St Benedict’s time! One of the big differences between our Rules and Understandings and that of St Benedict is we include women. And by that I don’t mean that we just ‘allow’ them to be part of the community - but women hold high offices of service within the community (our Abbess is a Bishop). Apparently, all of the religi...

Loving God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Child Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Child our Savior, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, on God, for ever and ever. Amen.

I have been getting a lot of questions about this one. We’ve heard about it on the news lately and there seems to be billboards all over the country talking about it (although, I don ’ t know if anything like this is being done in other countries. If so, I ’ m certain it’s not to the extreme that it is in America). The Rapture. Or, more correctly, the so-called “rapture.” The reason for the “so-called” and the quotes around the word “rapture” is that, now get this … The rapture is not true. In fact, it was not even in the vocabulary of the church until the early to mid 1800 ’ s (although there is supposed to be a text from as early as the late 1700 ’ s). Now think about this for a moment. This joyous experience was not even on the lips of the followers of Jesus for over 1800 years. None of the apostles talked or wrote about it (we’ll get to some of the biblical texts in a moment). None of the church Fathers or Mothers wrote about it. None of the churches councils ever made d...

I have been thinking about your questions about heaven some more and I have some other things I want to say. First, as I have stated already, all of the language we have regarding ‘heaven’ is poetic imagery. It would be like trying to describe the sky to a person born blind. When people talk about ‘heaven’ and what ‘it will be like’ they are on the edge of words, on the very precipice of conversation. The problem comes, however, from those of us who, when reading those great poetic words, read them in a wooden literal way. That is, as I’m sure you have heard of the ‘streets of gold’, some people think that ‘heaven’ has literal, material streets made of gold. When the symbolism is more surely pointing to purity rather than the actual material of the streets. Second, some things need to be established before we can, with any kind of certainty, talk about ‘heaven’. In the biblical imagery, there are two different things going on that a lot of people lump up into one thing – the place of t...