Welcome to CCS

Thanks for checking in, Scotty. I hope things settle into a routine soon for you all--and I'm sure they will.

As for me, middle son is going into the army the end of Sept. I try not think about what that could mean and focus on the opportunities it will bring him and that he will probably like it. He's in God's hands. Youngest son out of work and not starting college until the winter. He missed some basic skills and we are trying to brush up on that, but he is not as diligent as I wish he was! Oldest son working hard and doing well. Hubby stressed out at work, but things are looking up. Me? About to type "the end" on a new novel and wondering if it's any good or not. But I do feel like I've added more realistic views of the Celtic Christians in this one--at least I hope so. What I believe and what God speaks to me comes out in my writing without me trying anyway!

Ta-dah! Like Lazarus; I LIVE! LOL

As far as Gustav, we are still in the wait and see mode. After Katrina, I don't to jerky about them. You would think the other way, but the way I see it, even if we get hit with a cat 5 here, we still won't be as bad off as before. In fact, it will have to be a direct hit for me to even think of leaving. But to give the group an idea where we are, so you can get a better idea, we are in Lafayette and if the storm is reported to be heading toward Vermilion Bay, you can expect, us to get hit pretty hard. Anything other then that, we won't be to bad.

As far as the rest of life, don't ask. LOL We are overly busy at work, Hope started a new job as a Reading interventionist, Keith started a new school (where Hope is teaching at) and Faith has 2 high school classes and to college classes. So we are going nuts. Which is good because it keeps our minds off the storm and all.

Thanks for ask, and I will keep you posted as Tuesday gets closer.

Scotty

Wondering how Scotty's doing and praying for everyone in the path of the current hurricane!

Dia annseo isteach!
God to all here!

Greetings all,

I have something else for you to consider from O'Donohue's 'To Bless the Space Between Us'. The chapter is 'To Retrieve the Lost Art of Blessing' but he has come upon something dealing with the core of our humanity, our human uniqueness, the soul. This is from pp. 206-7.

"The core of the human is not so psychological cellar that holds the crippled shapes of our woundedness and destructive choices, but the soul, the core self that dovetails into the infinite. Meister Eckhart said: The soul has two faces; one is directed toward your life, the other toward God. Our literal lifeline is this continuity with the infinite. To realize and believe this increases confidence; it can light up every thought, word, and action. Ultimately, thought is the infinite, breathing inside the word. Our grounding in the soul means that regardless of how badly we think of ourselves, there is a wholesomeness in us that one one has ever been able to damage. The intention of friendship, love, and prayer is to allow your heart to enter this inner sanctuary where it can regain its confidence, renew its energy, and quicken with critical and creative vision. The soul is the home of vision."

In his work, 'Anam Cara', O'Donohue continually brings up the belief of the body being within the soul. That who we are in eternity is greater than this mere physical shell we know ourselves to be. That took me a while to let settle in but now I can agree! Another thing he uses there is the word 'interiority', meaning the landscape of our inner self. This seems to be an area totally lacking in Western theology but it helps explain a lot of Paul's comments about struggling with his 'self'.

May God bring His Light and show us our own souls...

Slan
Marty

Dia annseo isteach!
God to all here!

Greetings all,

As promised, I have another quote for you from O'Donohue's 'To Bless the Space Between Us'. This time its from the section on 'Beyond Endings', p.157 Since we now have a firm handle on the First Harmony, its time to grasp hold of the Celtic concept Eternity!

"The nature of calendar time is linear; it is made up of durations that begin and end. The Celtic imagination always sensed that beneath time there was eternal depth. This offers us a completely different way of relating to time. It relieves time of the finality of ending. While something may come to an ending on the surface of time, its presence, meaning, and effect continue to be held and integrated into the eternal. this is how spirit unfolds and deepens. In this sense, eternal time is intimate' it is where the unfolding narrative of individual life is gathered and woven. Eternal life is eternal memory; therefore, it becomes possible to imagine a realm beyond endings where all that has unfolded is not canceled or lost, but where the spirit-depths of it are already arriving home."

What is really difficult to understand with our linear finite minds is this whole understanding on another dimension outside of time. It existed before us.. it will continue to exist after this dimension has ceased to be relevant. All things, even eternity, exist within God. With God as the Source of our being, eternity is within as well in His Presence. Just something to try to wrap your mind around for this week...

Slan
Marty

Dia annseo isteach!
God to all here!

Hey Jill,

I think you've got it!! For me, it was funny to see the same two concepts appear in both 'The Shack' and in O'Donohue's work! That always makes me wonder what the Lord is up to?!

In the Early Church, one of the doctrines that still survives in Orthodoxy is 'theosis', the process of becoming like God. Not that we would ever be separate from Him but more the idea of conformity to His Nature so we may fellowship more fully. I believe this is the purpose of Protestant 'sanctification' but carries a richer, fuller meaning. You've expressed it very well in your last post! God intentionally created us unique and diverse because that is His Nature! I think that's something very difficult for me to wrap my mind around...

I appreciate O'Donohue for expressing plainly what the Celtic psyche perceives. I always felt at odds with the simplicity of Western Christianity and its one dimensional approach! Something like this is just 'awesome' and inspiring!

Yet, as great as it is that God seeks Harmony with us, He also desires that we seek it with others! To Him, all His created children need the awareness of His presence within them. That is the message of the Good News! That is the Light that calls us and conforms all mankind to the Source of their own being! We have entered into the River of His Love that continues to flow through all Creation each day. He just never stops loving!!

Next week, I have something else for you from O'Donohue dealing with Eternity! I know its of interest to you...

Father God, continue to lay your hand upon Jill's husband's family. Be in their midst, assure them of your presence and provision. In the midst of dismay and grief, bring your Light showing the Joy at the center of Him. Enrich their hearts with your own and bring them to the place they must be in you. We thank you for this opportunity to seek you in all we do...

Slan
Marty

Marty,
 That is an interesting quotation, and indeed gives me something to think about. But as I do several other thoughts come to my mind. We are each individuals, completely unique in the details of our makeup, and yet, we are incredibly alike, and united in what we have in common in our physical makeup and being image bearers of God. And the most challenging to me, is that God calls us and is indeed working in each individual in a the most effective way to bring us into conformity with the image of Christ. I used to think that meant to think "what would Jesus do" , and how I can follow the example of Jesus presented in the bible. While that is part of being like Him, I think it is far more than to act just like Him, to mirror His actions. Christ's image is the perfect image of God. Jesus is the perfect human, setting aside His God being (though it is fully in HIm), He is in relationship with God as God intended all mankind to be. He is in harmony with God, fully in God as the source of His being. This, I am beginning to understand, is the image we are to be conformed to. This is somehting that is in scripture, but that "The Shack" made clearer to me through the book's imagery.
So... how about this... Each of us bears the image of God, and each of us is a unique creation, with individual tastes, abilities, looks, thought patterns, sensitivities, etc, so what does that say about God our Creator? How inconcievably immense (and I don't mean size), is our God. Not only to create all humankind with infinite diversity, but everything in creation with all it's diversity as well. Once again, the idea that God, this amazing beyond words God, created us to have a realtionship with, and to demonstrate His love toward, and to dwell within, is a concept I know I can only minutely begin to comprehend.
Thanks Marty, you got my brain going, and I needed to think of the BIG picture tonight.
PLease pray for my hubby, his nieces and especially his nephew, as they deal with the imminent death of my sis in law in the next day or two. Our visit with her last weekend was difficult , but it was good to talk to and pray with her. She is limited to one or two word answers and only a couple minutes of concentration which takes great effort for her. Pray that her passing out of this life and into the embrace of her Lord will be swift and peaceful. We ask according to His will, and His mercy.
Thanks Marty and everyone.
Jill

Edited by author 08-08-2008 12:43 PM
Dia annseo isteach!
God to all here!

Greetings all,

My life has slowed down a little so I've had more time for reading. I found something from O'Donohue's, 'To Bless the Space Between Us' that I'd like to share. Its from the chapter on 'Callings', p.132.

"Behind each face there is a unique world that no one else can see. This is the mystery of individuality. The shape of each soul is different. No one else feels your life the way you do. No one else sees or hears the world as you do. The creation of the individual is a divine masterpiece. We were dreamed for a long time before we were born. Our souls, minds, and hearts fashioned in the divine imagination. Such care and attention went into the creation of each person. Given the uniqueness of each of us, it should not be surprising that one of the greatest challenges is to inhabit our own individuality and to discover which life-form best expresses it.

The great law of life is: Be yourself. Though this axiom sounds simple, it is often a difficult task. To be yourself, you have to learn how to become who you were dreamed to be. Each person has a unique destiny. To be born is to be chosen. There is something special that each of us has to do in the world. If someone else could do it, they would be here and not us. One of the fascinating questions is to decipher what one's destiny is. At the heart of each destiny is hidden a unique life calling. What is it you are called to do? In old-fashioned language: What is your vocation in life?"

One of the consequences of the First Harmony is to come to an understanding of who you are and how God made you! You come into a peace about yourself instead of the constant struggle with the things you don't like about yourself. Beyond that, you find Him there, the Light at the center of your soul, and you begin to understand and appreciate you place in Him!

Just something to think about on a quiet August afternoon....

Slan
Marty

Thanks for that, John. 36? Hmm. I didn't realize that. I remember the woman you are speaking about. Hopefully she heard me say that miracles happen everyday around us. We only have to look.

Like I said, I was expecting skeptics. That was my mistake!

Anyway, it was fun. I do not think I'll be attending next year, though, because of a conflict. But I would like to attend Milwaukee next year, God willing.

By the way, this is no little festival. It used to be, 20 years ago I hear. But they expected about 100,000 people to attend over the weekend.

Since Cindy mentioned my name, I'll jump in. Yes,
I'm still here. I never left, but simply haven't
been posting lately.

But don't worry, this time I'm not going to ruffle
any feathers with disagreements over theology. (Can't
promise I won't do that some other time, though!) And
I won't even talk about environmentalism.

(Although I do have to share that I've learned a
new term recently, to wit --

Q. What do you call the fear of hearing too much
about global warming?




A. Algoraphobia. )


Okay, back to my REAL reason for being here. I
spent all day Saturday at the Dublin (OH) Irish
Fest, and it was quite enjoyable. I've already
done a lengthy post about what I saw and heard for
the Celtic Christian Music discussion board, and if
anyone who is part of this group but not that one
wants to read it, let me know, and I'll gladly send
it along.

I did want to comment about Cindy's Saturday
presentation, the only one for which I was present.
I thought that she did a great job, given the
less than ideal circumstances. Having to hold a
microphone in one hand and juggle materials in the
other is not particularly easy, for one thing.
At the outset, one could hear music from one of
the other venues, but gradually that seemed to
fade. As Cindy commented, people came and went,
although I think she underestimated the size of
the group, as I looked around and counted about
36 at one point.

At one point, early on, I overheard somebody behind
me comment that "I don't know why it is so hard for
people to believe in miracles!" Or words to that
effect. I don't think Cindy heard this comment, but
apparently this individual (a woman, as I recall) was
misunderstanding a bit, thinking that Cindy was
skeptical of miracles. Not at all! She was trying
to point out that we simply don't know if a lot of
the stories about saints of old are true, or to
what extent they are true, or even (in some cases)
whether such a person actually existed. But the
ensuing discussion, in which Scriptures were quoted
(by myself and others in the audience), made
everything a bit clearer, I think.

Anyway, it was a good session, in spite of the
obstacles. And it was good to see Cindy and Tom
again.

Oh, and I was really glad that Cindy still had a
BRIGID OF IRELAND t-shirt available in my size
(XL), so that became my final purchase of the day,
joining two CDs of a local Celtic group called the
Ladies of Longford.

The Dublin Irish Fest is always the first weekend
in August, so if any of you are anywhere in the
vicinity at that time, come and join us!

John Pierce

The festival: (warning: this is a very long post. The longest I’ve ever posted!)

John Pierce came out to support me at my Saturday session, which I really appreciated. The title of the talk was: Ancient Irish saints: fact or fiction. But the sign in front of the tent said: Ancient Irish Saihts: faith or fiction. I don’t know what “saihts” is, but the word “faith” may have scared off my skeptics. I had expected some to be there, but the people who came seemed to embrace the stories and want to learn from them. (About 20 people were there, not nearly as many as came to hear the storyteller talk about wild Irish women—titles are important!) Several people even remarked that Jesus said those who come after me will do even greater works than I did (my paraphrase, sorry). They couldn’t hear each other so they didn’t know the comment had been made. One man sat in the middle and his face was beaming the whole time. I’ll never forget it. He was smiling and nodding his head. I really needed that encouragement. He had me sign a book to his niece and told me he enjoyed my talk.

Sunday? Not so good, at least not what I anticipated. But first was the Interdemonational service that we always attend at the festival. Always uplifting and fun. The pastor spoke about encouragement, and I had already been praying that God would use me to encourage another writer. My topic was to be a Q&A on writing and publishing, especially as it pertained to Irish themes. I was on a panel in Milwaukee that did this and it went very well. Well, not the same crowd here. There were only about 12 people, the sound manager yelled at me because I wandered too close to the speaker with the wireless mic, there were bagpipes playing somewhere behind me, two kids wandered in and walked right in front of me as they were passing through the tent on their way somewhere else (stage manager was no help with that!), no one seemed to want to ask any questions so I had to ask myself, not knowing what they were interested in. Some apparently were not interested because they left, but that is typical for these kinds of events.

To be fair, there were a few people who shared the names of authors of Irish-themed books they enjoyed and asked me a couple of good questions. But it was a 45-minute presentation! I talked and talked, having no clue if anyone cared about what I said. I was grateful when it was over.

Then a woman came up to me and told me she had published a few magazine articles and was working on a romance trilogy. She wanted to know how I got the courage to put my work out there. She signed up for my newsletter (if you want to you can sign up here: www.brigidofireland.com). So I hope I was encouraging to her. I also got to see some old friends I had made at these festivals and heard a lot of really, really good music. I did not sell many books, and I won’t pretend that I was not disappointed about that. But God did take care of me because the festival paid me for my “performances.” So things did not go as I had anticipated, but God had a purpose. Thanks for your prayers for the weekend.

Hey Cindy,

It's not just you! Sometimes that happens to me too. I think its a bug in QT, like the occasional 're-direction' to some other website! Sorry for your troubles though. I have notified the owner but never heard back from him.

Slan
Marty

I'm having one of those days, it seems. I typed a long message and it disappeared somehow. I got this message: "You need to enter your name. Please click your browser's Back button to see the message you typed and fill in your name at the top." When I clicked back, it wasn't there. My name is there this time, so I'm sure it wasn't missing.

I'll be back later with my message! :(

Dia annseo isteach!
God to all here!

Hey Cindy,

Thanks so much for the link to William Paul Young's interview! He really addressed all the issues that most thinking people would care to know. Isn't it amazing how 'simple acts' can turn into such monumental 'God Things'!!!

Slan
Marty

Marty,
Thank you for those words.
I'll comment about my weekend later, but I thought you all might be interested in this interview with William Paul Young, author of The Shack. I just started listening to it.
http://cwahm.com/podcast/teleconference.mp3

Dia annseo isteach!
God to all here!

Good Sabbath all,

I've been reading, on and off, John O'Donohue's 'To Bless the Space Between Us'. Its basically a book of blessings about various aspects of life but at the beginning of the chapters there are some sections in prose. In the fourth section he discusses 'Homecomings' and at the end of that section said something worth sharing. This is from page 82.

"...When a person is at home in his life, he always has a clear instinct about the shape of outer situations; even in the midst of confusion he can discern the traces of a path forward. When one is at home in oneself, one is integrated and enjoys a sense of balance and poise. In a sense that is exactly what spirituality is: the art of homecoming."

I think this would be a good explanation of what I have been calling the 'First Harmony' of the Celtic mindset. When we stop the struggle against our 'self', the self assassination, we find out who we are in Christ and how He designed us to live this life. Our failings (sin nature) even fall into place as part of the dimension of our design. We see ourselves as He designed us! It is just so much easier to Christ within ourselves if we can come 'home' to our self!

Enjoy your sabbath...

Slan
Marty