Celtic Odyssey

I know. Another post about shaving . If this isn’t your type of thing, I understand. There will be a regular post on Sunday. But I just had to share my latest shaving experience. I mean, I’ve been telling others in person so why not tell you, too, dear reader. I’ve been out of shaving soap for awhile now. Well … not out . I’ve been using a couple of samples I’d received. But I was getting close and needed to purchase some new soap. I’d heard about a particular company ever since I started shaving with a double-edge (DE) safety razor but I was always on the fence about their products. Recently, though, I’d been watching a few YouTube videos 1 and the staple in each video was a product (or products) from this company. Oh! I guess I should tell you who it is. It’s Proraso — an Italian company that’s been making shaving products since 1908 . Yes. You read that right. 1908. Matt Pisarcik, in a video profile about Proraso on the Razor Emporium YouTube channel , said that

John 3.1-18 (MSG; adapted): 1 1-2 There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, “Rabbi, we all know you’re a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren’t in on it.” 3 Jesus said, “You’re absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to — to God’s Realm.” 4 “How can anyone,” said Nicodemus, “be born who’s already been born and grown up? You can’t re-enter your mother’s womb and be born again. What are you saying with this ‘born-from-above’ talk?” 5-6 Jesus said, “You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation — the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life — it’s not possible to enter God’s Realm. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at a

Acts 2.1-21 (MSG; adapted): 1 1-4 When the Feast of Pentecost came, the followers of Jesus were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force — no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them. 5-11 There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were thunderstruck. They couldn’t for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, “Aren’t these all Galileans? How come we’re hearing them talk in our various mother tongues? “Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of