Celtic Odyssey

To celebrate International Pipe-Smoking Day this year, here are some of my favorite pipe smoking quotes! “Life is meant to be enjoyed. A good woman, a good pipe, and a good whiskey. Three things that, in moderation, will help achieve this.” Basil Meadows “After some time he felt for his pipe. It was not broken, and that was something. Then he felt for his pouch, and there was some tobacco in it, and that was something more. Then he felt for matches and he could not find any at all, and that shattered his hopes completely.” J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit “A pipe is the fountain of contemplation, the source of pleasure, the companion of the wise; and the man who smokes, thinks like a philosopher and acts like a Samaritan.” Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton “A pipe is to the troubled soul what caresses of a mother are for her suffering child.” Indian Proverb “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgm...

Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability— and that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually—let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete. — Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ excerpted from  Hearts on Fire

Today’s entry in Ray Simpson’s book, The Celtic Book of Days , is titled, “Unwanted Baby”, and tells the story of Tannoc, the daughter to King Loth of Dunpelder. The story goes that when Tannoc was a child, her father sent her off to a convent where she gave her life to Christ and excelled in “atmosphere of spiritual and intellectual learning.” Later, when she was 15, her dad offered her in marriage to a Prince Owen of Rheged (gee, thanks, dad). When Tannoc refused, she was exiled. In a shocking display of sexual violence, Owen tracked her down and raped her. Alone and rejected by her family and the convent, a local community of peasant farmers took her in and cared for her. When Tannoc gave birth to her son, the farmers contacted a neighboring priest who christened the child “Mungo” (meaning “my beloved”) and adopted them both. Saint Mungo became the founder and patron saint of Glasgow. The reflection Simpson gives talks about carrying “unwanted life” (whether literal or me...