Celtic Odyssey

On this Good Friday, I present to you a different way of seeing the cross. In the ancient Celtic Christian world, they viewed the passion of Christ as Christus Victor . Instead of Christ being understood as a sacrificial substitute for humankind, the ancient Church believed Christ fought the greatest of all battles and rescued humanity and creation by defeating the devil, sin, and death. This view of the cross is still largely held by Orthodox Christians. Below is an Anglo-Saxon Christian dream poem dating back to around the 8th century that reflects Christus Victor . Part of this poem is found on the Ruthwell Cross in Scotland (ancient Northumbria). ~~~ In the Love of the Three in One, Br. Jack+, LC The Dream of the Rood Translation by Elaine Treharne . Listen, I will tell the best of visions, what came to me in the middle of the night, when voice-bearers dwelled in rest. It seemed to me that I saw a more wonderful tree lifted in the air, wound round with light...

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