Celtic Odyssey

On Monday evening, my classmates and I were commissioned to the service of Spiritual Directors, or, as they’re known in the Celtic Christian world, soul friends. We graduated from the HeartPaths Spiritual Center in Oklahoma City, an ecumentical center that recognizes the diversity of religious expressions that God has called into being. It was a three year process based in the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises: Year 1: Spiritual Formation —There were about a dozen or so of us when we started out. We met once a week and practiced various prayer styles. We also start meeting with our own spiritual director (some of us had different directors throughout the 3 years). We read and discussed key books in the field of spiritual formation, spiritual disciplines, and prayer. We wrote reflective papers, and prepared and presented a closing project to demonstrate proficiency in organizing and leading a prayer workshop. Mine was on, you guessed it, Celtic Christian Spirituality. Year 2: Spi...

Today’s a repetition of Day 2 where we discussed the schema that Ignatius supplied. The idea is, basically, to see that the things God’s given us can be used against us if we’re not careful. Most notably are seeking after riches than can lead to seeking after honor (or human approval) , which, in turn, leads to a false sense of pride . And If pride goes unchecked, it could lead to all vices. That’s the story Ignatius tells anyway. And I can kind of see the point. “Paul” wrote that “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” ( 1 Timothy 6.10 ). So I think that’s what Ignatius is referring to—not the money itself but an unhealthy desire for more wealth. If one is solely focused on obtaining wealth one begins to look at scrupulous ways to get it. At the beginning, one might be hesitant, but if one doesn’t get caught stealing, and doesn’t for a long time, then one begins to think one can get away with a lot more. But it all starts from “the love of money.” Now, this doesn’t...

In my Spiritual Director’s class, we’re reading a book titled, Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life , by Marjorie Thompson. In chapter 3, she gave an example of prayer as conversation: Another exercise is to write a dialogue with a person from scripture. The following example imagines Jesus as a conversation partner; the writer is identifying with Simon Peter after the miraculous catch of fish (Luke 5:1-11). ME: Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful person! JESUS: Don’t be afraid; from now on you will be catching people. M: No, you don’t understand, Lord. You are holy, pure. I’m just a common person with a lot of weaknesses. I don’t belong with you. J: Remember, you didn’t choose me, I chose you. M: But why, Lord? I’m not worthy of you! J: Did I say you had to be worthy? I only ask you to follow me in trust. This really hit me. Hard. I’ve said this often — I feel so unworthy of my calling. When I was about to be ordained, I was given an oppo...