Celtic Odyssey

O G‑d, I am unprepared for the task at hand, but you know the end from the beginning. I’m at a loss, O G‑d, but you are my Rescuer. I see only white paper before me, but you, O G‑d, are the Word. My thoughts are lost in darkness, but darkness is as the noonday to you, O G‑d. Map out my path, O G‑d, and set my feet upon The Way. Speak to me your words, O G‑d and open my ears to your whispers. Give strength to my hands, O G‑d, so that I may move my pen across the page. Breathe your Life into me, and rekindle the Light of Creation buried within me.

In class last night, our session was “Praying with Icons.” I’ve never done this before and wasn’t too sure what to think about it. But there was one thing I was sure of and that’s the idea of “communion with the saints.” That is, someone explained it to me like this — “Did you ask your Mom to prayer for you when she was in this world?” “Of course,” I replied. “Then why wouldn’t you continue to ask her to pray for you now that she’s in the Otherworld?” See, for me, it was about my belief in the resurrection. Do I really believe that my loved ones are alive? Jesus was asked a similar question in Mark 12.18-27 . There, he responded — “As for the resurrection from the dead, haven’t you read in the scroll from Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how G‑d said to Moses, I am the G‑d of Abraham, the G‑d of Isaac, and the G‑d of Jacob? Yahweh isn’t the G‑d of the dead but of the living. You’re seriously mistaken.” (vv. 26-27; adapted). So, what does this have to do with ...

As many of you know, I smoke pipes. Not all the time, mind you; just occasionally. And when I say “occasionally,” I mean I think I smoked less than a dozen times all of last year. I started several years ago when a friend of mine threw away a pipe bag. He had left the sliding window of his truck open during a rain shower. The rain had soaked the interior of his truck and saturated his pipe bag. I dug through the bag and found a Dr. Grabow that wasn’t too badly damaged. In fact, it was virtually dry. I cleaned it up and went down to a local tobacconist. “So,” I asked, “how do you smoke one of these things?” The guy behind the counter went to the back and returned with a few sheets of paper. “Here,” he said, “read this. It’ll tell you everything you need to know.” So, I bought some of their best selling tobacco, matches, and pipe cleaners then set off to learn how to smoke this strange instrument. After a couple of years, and a couple of “cheap” pipes (the ones that range b...