Celtic Odyssey

The Prayer Omnipotent and merciful God, it’s only by your Grace that people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus the Christ, our Rescuer, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.                                     The Lessons Habakkuk 1.1-4; 2.1-4 (CEB; adapted): [1] 1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2 YHWH, how long will I call for help and you not listen? I cry out to you, “Violence!” but you don’t deliver us. 3 Why do you show me injustice and look at anguish so that devastation and violence are before me? There is strife, and conflict abounds. 4 The Instruction is ineffective. Justice doesn’t endure because the wicked surround the righteous. Justice becomes warped. 2.1 I’ll take my post; I’ll ...

The Prayer: Grant us, O God, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy; through Jesus the Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.                                     The Readings: Jeremiah 18:1-11 (CEB; adapted): [1] 1 Jeremiah received Yahweh’s word: 2 Go down to the potter’s house, and I’ll give you instructions about what to do there. 3 So I went down to the potter’s house; he was working on the potter’s wheel. 4 But the piece he was making was flawed while still in his hands, so the potter started on another, as seemed best to him. 5 Then Yahweh’s word came to me: 6 House of Israel, can’t I deal with you like this potter, declares Yahweh? Like clay in the potter’s hand, so ...

Today marks the anniversary of my Mother’s passing through the thin veil of this world’s realm to the Otherworld of God’s Realm. So, in honor of my Mother, I thought I’d do something a little different—I’d create a Feast Day for her. Throughout church history, feast days are days that are set aside in honor of those saints who’ve gone before us. There’s the familiar ones—Christmas (the Feast Day of the birth of Jesus), Easter (the Feast Day of the Resurrection), the Feast Day of St Brigit, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Feast Day of Saint Francis, etc.—as well as some that aren’t as well known—the Feast Day of Saint Cellach of Glendalough, the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Rosary, etc. And while my Mother would be the first to tell you she wasn’t a saint, she would certainly say she was blessed. So in the tradition of those who have gone before us, I mark 7 October as the Feast Day of My Blessed Mother, LaNita Kaye (Holt) Gillespie. And on this Holy Day, I offer...