Celtic Odyssey

Am I the only one who finds the view that some people have about guns extreme and unsettling? I keep seeing links to articles and videos by some people stating that other people are wanting to remove all guns from law abiding citizens. That all “they” want to do is ban the purchase of firearms. Some are even saying that the Socialist dragon is raising it’s ugly head to devour the Constitution, specifically the Second Amendment. Really? I have not heard a single person of power speak about removing all guns or taking away the right to purchase guns, own guns, or destroy the Second Amendment. This is spin that has gotten way, way, out of control. (I’ll grant that I haven’t heard all of the spin the other way. There may be some people saying we should ban all guns. I’m just saying I haven’t seen it.) All people are talking about is the need for reform . Change . Restrictions . Are we so much more concerned about our personal rights to own a firearm that we’ve forgot the most importan...

In my ongoing conversation about “church,” my friend asked: In my Bible, (Ignatius, RSV, 2nd Catholic Ed.) John 6:41 (RSVCE) [1] says: “The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, ‘I am the bread which came down from heaven.’” Would you please explain why this led you in the direction it has? When I read this verse, and continued on, it is clear to me that Christ is framing himself as the Bread of Life prior to introducing the Eucharist to his followers and others. Definitely, a difficult concept – one must eat his flesh and drink his blood to have eternal life? It’s difficult for a lot of people to grasp today – 2,000 years after it was introduced! But, I do not see where it leads us from Church to the The Way. As I re-read this, I think I’ve found where the misunderstanding is coming in. It actually goes back to my second post (which you can find here ). In that post, I referred to the difference between what the biblical writers meant by the word “church” and what that wor...

14. In the Lindisfarne Community, we are willing to be out on a limb, to be vulnerable. In doing so we always run the risk of being rejected, which is at times an intense form of suffering. Nonetheless, to that we have been called. Jesus was the most vulnerable on the cross and in our discipleship we willingly embrace the cross — to be vulnerable, to be out of control, knowing the freedom that vulnerability brings. Being vulnerable. That’s difficult for some people. Some of us are pretty guarded. We’ve been hurt so deeply that we don’t trust people the way we used to. We’re suspicious of even those who are closest to us. We “know” that they could, at any moment, hurt us again. So, we guard ourselves. We try to be the people we once were, but the damage is too great. It take years before we become trusting people again. Sometimes - a lot of the time - we never trust people again. We remain distant. Guarded. Broken. Some of us have even changed the “Golden Rule” to reflect our new wa...

A very dear friend and I have been discussing many wonderful things! One of these is the Immaculate Conception . For those who don’t know, the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary, the mother of Jesus, being conceived without sin. My contention is that there is not any biblical support for the doctrine and furthermore, there isn’t a need for it. My friend did some digging and sent me a great article that outlined some of the major points for the doctrine and also some of the arguments against it. I’ll briefly address some of those here. First, the author of the article clearly indicates that the tradition is not explicitly stated in the Bible but only inferred. The passage that makes this inference is Luke 1.28 . In the Mounce Reverse Interlinear New Testament 1 , that verse is translated as, And he came to her and said, “Greetings, highly favored one, the Lord is with you!” The words “highly favored one” are the ones that infer Mary’s sinlessness. They’re actually one word in the ...