Kiss me, I'm Irish!

On the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador, we have deep roots from the Europeans who have come before us to fish the sea and settle in the land. The French and English coasts were granted by foreign kings for their own to harvest. The Irish Shore was settled by poor Irish immigrants who were fleeing the desperation of their own land in hope of a better life. 

I’ve recently had the joy of being able to tour Ireland. One of the people we met referred to Newfoundland as the “next county over.” Born on the Newfoundland “Irish Shore,” and with family roots continuing there to this day, it is with Irish culture that I most identify with. Yet that is only a small part of who I am. Being in Ireland reminded me of a much bigger picture.

From standing in a megalithic structure at New Grange where human beings stood and participated in sacred ritual 5000 years ago, to seeing Druid chieftain structures 2000 years old, to Cashel Mount where St.Patrick converted and crowned Irish Kings, to standing within Christian monastic ruins 1300 years old, to hearing the stories of the Vikings and their settling of the land, to the conquering English under Henry the VIII, to the flood gates of Irish immigration after the discovery of the New World, to the story of the surviver of Bloody Sunday in 1972 when the British army fired into a group of unarmed Irish civil rights protesters, to the lady from Poland working at Hertz Rent a Car, in the process of immigrating to Ireland. This story is part of all of our collective story. It is part of who we all are.

Over the summer I have been reading the Irish writer and poet John O’Donahue’s “Eternal Echoes.” In it, he reminds us that we are all just visitors, here for a while, and then returning to God. Our truest identity is much deeper than language, culture, geography. It is out of a deeper spiritual awareness that we experience true belonging, and a place where all human beings belong.

The Irish immigrated. My family immigrated, your family immigrated. Human beings have always immigrated and sought belonging in the process. The world we live in has always changed and continues to change. Let us be open and welcoming to today’s immigrants. Let us be open and welcoming to those who are different on the surface, yet who share in our deeper and truest identity in God. And as we gear up for a new year of ministry in our churches, let us make room for everyone, regardless of differences, who may want to join us in discovering the joy of Life in Christ.

Kiss me, I’m Irish!

The Slowing (a poem)

Life can be so fast paced.
Things to do.
People to see.
Prayers to say.

The calendar?
What's next?
With who?
When?

Mind racing.
No rest
            Even when sitting still.

And then

The slowing happens.

An awareness of God's Life
Gently moving me to forgetfulness

Of self
Of what needs to be done next
Of who needs to be seen.

A simple presence
                             To Presence

Open embrace of Life as it is in this very moment.

Eager to love Love itself.

(Inspired after reading Gerald May's account of what he termed "the Slowing")

At last I am free (a poem)

O holy room

O holy silence

The Spirit is near.

Yet there is a fear.

Fear of change.

Fear of surrender.

Fear of falling

                      Into God

Be still my fears

Be still my tongue

Be still my thoughts.

Silence.

And there you are

You were always here.

Your breath is my breath

Your love is my love.

At last

I am free

The Abundant Love of God (a poem)

Pentecost

Christ
You are all in all
You are everything,
All that is.

All that is life you are.
All that exists
Exists in you.

To love is to know you.
To be loved is to know you.

Breath your love deep into my heart.
Open me more and more to your life deep within.

As I have received your breath of Love
Free me to breath out your Love.

Upon all that is before me.
Upon all that is around me.
Upon all that I see.
Upon all that I do.

What Joy is in my Soul (a poem)

What joy is in my soul!

The silence opens up pathways
to life.

The stillness reflects the glory of God
rising from within.

I see You!

In the sky
In the tree
In the bird
In the flower

Yet most precious to my eyes
Is when I see You in the other person.

My heart rejoices.
My face smiles.

I love you.

You are mine

And I am Yours.

(written at the Bon Secours Retreat Center, Baltimore)

The Call to Go Deeper

Bishop Geoff Peddle has invited the diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador into this challenge: What needs to change in our parishes in order for us “to be Good News,” “to pour our love into the world to all who come our way,” “to be a church drenched in God’s Grace… and to act like we know that to be true and trust the Gospel to reshape us.”

And “Do you want the church to become more than it is and all that it can be?”

My answer is yes, yes, yes, yes and yes! And I’m sure your’s is also. But what is the obstacle? What is preventing God’s Spirit from moving more freely in our churches? What is preventing God’s Spirit from working through our churches in reaching out in love and service to all?

The ever present and exclusive “I” is one of the things that needs to be changed in our spirit’s and in our parishes.

God’s Life is spacious and inclusive of all that is. The greatest lie that the enemy to Life has to tell us is that we are separate from God and from each other. Acts reminds us that it is in God “in whom we live and move and have our being.” Jesus teaches us that “I am in the Father and the Father is in me, I am in you and you are in me.”

Yet we are so easily threatened by those who are different from us, we are so threatened by that which we do not know or understand. We are so threatened by the thought of change. The simple and obvious truth is that this is the result of shallow spiritual living. 

If we are only living life on the surface of our consciousness, then we will not be open to renewal, we will not be open to change, we will not be able to let go of that which is already dead, we will not be inclusive and caring to all.

That surface level of consciousness, of spirituality, is the “I.” This is our obstacle and challenge. In psychological terms, it is our ego. In spiritual terms, it is our false self. In Biblical terms, Jesus teaches us that we must die to self.

If this “false self” is all that we know, then we cannot “be the Good News,”  we cannot “pour our love into the world to all who come our way,” we cannot “be a church drenched in God’s Grace… and trust the Gospel to reshape us.”

God’s call upon us now, and in every individual life in every generation, is to go deeper. Authentic spiritual practice is about learning to get beneath the grip of the ego surface (our false self), and to open up to God’s spacious Life that is within every single one of us. This is the place of the Communion of the Saints and the Unity of the Holy Spirit. It is the place of the Unitive Love of God. It is in all of creation. It is in every culture, every language, every people. It is inclusive of the person you don’t like, the person you don’t agree with, the person who has hurt you. We are indeed one with God, and at One with every other person.

God’s love and life is unimaginably spacious, inclusive, abundant, and overflowing to all.

Let us hear the Bishop’s challenge for “the church to become more than it is and all that it can be.” And let us become more intentional about our spiritual lives. Let us learn to get beneath the turmoil and insecurity of the surface, to go deeper into our Truest Self that is at one with God’s life. And from that place of Life, to welcome, love and serve all out of God’s immeasurable abundance. 

Lent: A Life Giving Journey

What an amazing spiritual and life giving journey the church offers to lead us through every year in Lent. 

On the first Sunday of Lent we follow Jesus into our own inner wilderness and begin to recognise that there is more to who we are than our ego consciousness. Our ego consciousness is actually our false self. Our truest self, made in the image of God, is so much larger and spacious than our small egos, and is just beneath the surface of our egos, deeper within. To discover our true self (St.Paul reminds us "that is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me") is a spiritual struggle in our inner wilderness, and we have to trust Jesus and know that His Spirit is with us along the way.

On the second Sunday of Lent we are called to follow Jesus up Mount Tabor, the Mount of Transfiguration. This spiritual mountain is also within us. As we mature and make progress in this inner journey, we come to realise more and more that all scriptures are fulfilled in Jesus. Then we begin to see Jesus as he truly is: Christ who is Risen and Alive. This realisation changes us. We share in Christ's suffering, but we also share in Christ's Divine and Risen life. We cannot stay on this holy mountain of Transfiguration, we need to come down to serve the world that is hurting and suffering.

On the third Sunday of Lent we meet Jesus at the well in Samaria. He offers living water to the Samaritan woman. Christ offers fulness of life to all people, regardless of gender, religion, culture, language, your past, your shortcomings, your whatever. As we are challenged and changed in Lent, continuing to die to our small ego self, and surrendering to the larger, deeper Life that is within all human beings (and indeed all of creation in all of the universe and whatever else might be out there), we will find ourselves becoming more compassionate and accepting of ourselves, and with others who struggle. This life giving water is a Divine Spring that is again within us to discover and to tap into. We need to have eyes to see.

On the fourth Sunday of Lent, we hear the story of the blind man who is given his sight. This blind man wants to see, he knows there is more. We need to come to that empty and shallow place in our journey where we ask ourselves “there has to be more to life than this!” We are on a journey from spiritual blindness to spiritual sight. And like the blind man, the more we encounter the living Christ, the more clearly we will see Life in all its fullness. 

In Lent, the Church is leading us on a journey from darkness to light, from hatred to love, from self to other, from death to life, from the Cross to the Resurrection.

The Church, though broken and wounded in its members, is leading us on a journey into Christ. Christ who is ALL. Christ who is IN us. Christ who, when we get our little ego out of the way, Rises from within us. Christ who is our life. 

Let us know our need of Christ. Let us desire His Spirit. Let us live in the Light of His Love.