16/07/2025 · 10:42 am

Openness to what has never been

It was a lovely early morning at Jax Beach on a warm and windy day. We arrived about 20 minutes before sunrise and walked south down the beach. It was obvious from the ledge formations of the sand that you can see above… that it had been a rough couple of days on the Atlantic. The sand ledges were about 2 feet tall and stretched on for what would be several city blocks… before there was a break where the water likely forced its way back into the ocean. In four years of walking this beach (even after hurricanes) we’d never seen anything like this.

Looking closely at the raw edges, you can see the layers of sand and crushed shells. To my untrained eye it looked very much like the layers of the Grand Canyon in miniature. And while on most of the mornings when we arrive to catch sunrise, I take dozens of pictures of the sun on the water… this morning I was mesmerized by the ledge.

It awakened in me an awareness of time and how it often passes so quickly that we barely notice. The exposed layers I was seeing had been there for quite a while. They had been built up slowly, imperceptibly even. They were there the last 10 or 20 times we walked that beach at sunrise, though they were unseen; covered over with soft sand. Unseen until the recent Atlantic storm tore at the shore with force — carved the sharp ledge — washing tons and tons of sand back into its bottom revealing what had been hidden.

And though I sensed both the passing of time and the fierce energy it took to create what I was looking at–that some would think of as devastation or just ugly–I saw beauty. This revealing, this new dimension that I’d never seen before on this beach was beautiful. (And I have a camera full of images to prove it!)

As we turned to walk back up the beach, the sun had just broken on the horizon. And as though I needed anything else to make this morning more enchanting… I noticed immediately that the sun in its low position was catching just the edge of the newly revealed ledge. The sun was not yet high enough to engulf the whole beach, the sandy part all the way back to the dunes which was still in pre-dawn light. But because the ledge was more wet than the rest of the sand… it glistened.

I’m wondering about the ledges we have in our lives. What are those things that have come to be through time or force (without permission) and are now a part of what we walk with daily? Do we simply rail against them, or can we be open to them? Are they only a foil to our otherwise stable life, or can we find beauty in them? What if we made it an intention to find the glistening edge of the ledges that have come to us? Might we find the gold?

Surely the ‘ledges’ that appear in our lives aren’t all magical. I have failed thus far to mention that because the ledge was a 2 foot drop before more sand and then the ocean… I couldn’t get to the water. If I jumped down, or even sat down to do that, I would not be able to get back up. I always have to consider how to undo any physical undertaking I am considering. Gratefully, after walking several hundred steps, we reached one of the openings where the stormy sea had washed over the ledge and collapsed it. It could have been otherwise. Could I still be open to their beauty if there was not a break?

You can tell from the last picture in the collage up top that Bear did not want to have anything to do with the ledge. It was so funny to watch him and Sam walk down the beach on two levels šŸ˜‰ He liked the beach just fine when it was just a slight incline towards the water. This ‘new thing’ did not interest or attract him at all. All the same, our early morning walk reminded me to be intentionally open. To not steel myself against the new, invited or not. To be open even in less than desired circumstances to look for the good, the beautiful.

It’s very likely that the next time we go to the beach for sunrise, the ledge will be gone. But I will remember this unique morning, with its surprises, with its invitation to see more deeply, for a long time.

Blessings on your journey, Kathleen – thecelticmonk

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

02/04/2024 · 5:02 am

The Solemnity for Contemplatives

It has now been 5 years since I have been in a crowded space with closed doors and windows — with people elbow to elbow. I have visited zoos, arboretums, state and national parks, and wildlife refuges. But most noticeably for this retired minister, is that I have not been in a traditional church building. Not one. I have only recently become a little nostalgic about that, which surprises me. Not quite nostalgic enough, however to make the foray back.

This past weekend, Sam and I continued our practice of Easter sunrise on the beach. If something can be melancholy and joyful at the same time, my anticipation as we drove to the beach was just that. To our surprise there were fewer parking spaces at the “not too popular” dune walk-overs which are public access points in-between the multi-million dollar ocean front houses. When we came over the dune I snapped the photo above (and several more) with unexpected tears in my eyes.

Indeed the sunrise was magnificent, better than the photo. But most often when we come up to the top if we see one or two people that’s a lot, maybe another throwing a tennis ball for their dog. But on this morning…on this morning…the shore was lined with people just standing. On the walk-over a fairly young man was standing with his hands folded and his head bowed. (Never saw that before)

When we got down to the shore, I noticed (about a mile or more to the south) on Ponte Vedra Beach there was an Easter service set up with lights and music. And a mile or more to the north on Jax Beach by the pier, another religious service in full swing. I know those services well. But here in the 2 miles in the middle… were people who for whatever reason chose not to go there. They chose to come to the ‘not too popular’ part of the beach and just be. And for what seemed like a very long time, they just looked to the light rising in the east.

This is what that same beach looks like on other mornings as we wait for sunrise–beautiful but empty. It’s why the mile long line of people standing very still, looking east, was so surprising. And so touching. I know why I chose to be here rather than in a crowded indoor sanctuary… but why did they. I know that I was here to honor the Christ that rose…was it the same for them? I know who taught me what Easter means, and that it is special…who was behind their decision to be there on this holy day? All these wonderings came at once and caused the tears that needed to be shed.

I feel privileged to have participated in the Solemnity for Contemplatives on Easter 2024 on a familiar beach with hundreds of unfamiliar people. We were a community without anyone organizing us. We said sacred words that no one else could hear. We paused to pray in ways seen and unseen…and I can’t help but believe we were, as a community, grateful, thankful to the One who paints such beautiful sunrises.

I think, God willing, I’ll go back again next year to the same place at the same time.

Filled with joy,

Kathleen — thecelticmonk

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , ,

14/03/2024 · 8:26 am

HELLO, LOVE

A few months ago I was listening to an interview on public radio. It was a conversation with an older English actor, one that had been knighted for his long body of work. The interviewer got around to asking him why he chose to still live in the small town where he was reared, rather than in a large city almost anywhere in the world–which certainly was within his reach.

He only paused a moment before he began to tell this story: “I just came home recently, after being in a play that ran for quite some time. I took the train from London to almost the end of the line. When I got off the train, I gathered up my bags and made my way to the cabbies stand. When it was my turn, the cabbie picked up my bags and I got into the back seat. Without hesitation as he got behind the wheel he said cheerfully: ‘Hello Love, where to?’ You see, it was there, in that moment, I felt, I knew, I was home. Not because of any recognition or fanfare, but just because an ordinary working man could turn and say to another ordinary person, ‘Hello, Love’ … and I don’t know any place else in the world that that is so .. or anyplace else in the world that I would feel so very welcome and at home.”

I immediately loved that story. It made me smile. And I found that it didn’t leave me easily, even though it took only a minute or two to listen to. That night when I woke up in the middle of the night (which is my new normal) and I began to pray, ‘Hello Love’, were the first words on my tongue. It made me smile as I thought about how fitting it is to say “hello Love” to Love Itself. And for the next few weeks, when beginning to pray it was my almost involuntary salutation. As the weeks went on, it began to feel so authentic to start my prayer that way. All of the traditional ways: Holy God, Loving Father, Great Creator… had fallen to the side. After so many years, I was surprised how easily they fell.

Then one night when my first few hours of sleep were once more greeted with being awake, I turned to look at my phone to see what time it was. After being satisfied that it was indeed the middle of the night and not morning, I turned to begin my prayer… but before I could get my mind fully awake, I heard “Hello Love.” My eyes were closed and I was smiling in the dark in the dead of night. And I heard it again… “Hello, Love.”

It only took a moment on that night to accept that those words that I heard were not for me to use in my prayer … but rather were words that I was being invited to hear. I was not to be the initiator of this lovely phrase, but its recipient. These were words of comfort and tender calling from Creator to creature. From Love to beloved. And I was still smiling as I settled in to the love I felt.

Another month or so has now gone by and when I wake in those morning watches, “Hello, Love” is still the first thing I hear and I respond in like manner. And as it was from the very first time, I get the same physical response–smiling from ear to ear. I can only hope it will continue to be with me for a long while.

I’m wondering where is it that you feel loved and at home? Where or how do you recognize God’s voice speaking to you? Has there been a time when you thought you were the initiator of prayer but found that you were bidden instead, responding to a greater call?

I am grateful for the many ways God invites me–even when at first I don’t know I am being addressed. And I hope for you to recognize these special moments on your journey.

Sending you love,

Kathleen…. thecelticmonk.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , ,

14/11/2023 · 4:20 am

YET ANOTHER TRANSITION

Today is that day in November when by 10:00 am rather than being empty, the feeder is still full of food.Ā  There are only a few stray Bluebirds, Finches, and Blackbirds left outside of my window. The large flocks that came last spring have flown farther south now. Too much chill here from the cooling Atlantic sharing its Norā€™easter winds. In just a few weeks, the Mergansers will return, having made their journey from Canada and the Upper Peninsulaā€“ believing as they always have, that this is quite far enough a place to spend the winter.

Living in a heightened awareness of the natural world here on the marshes edge, itā€™s often my spirit that recognizes these transitions first. I sense them.Ā  I celebrate them.Ā  I live into them.Ā  So this late fall morning is my time to ponder, to reflect, to once more be filled with wonder, to be grateful for what was, to patiently wait in anticipation of the joy which is yet to come.

But just for a moment on this particular morning, I will also notice the loss I feel and be very still. I will stop for a while and join my heart to other hearts who grieve this day for losses of their own; great and smallā€“ seen and unseenā€”public or private. And in that divine joining of being, I acknowledge the single Consciousness of which you are, and I am, and all of creation is, a part.Ā  And just perhaps, in the great Mysterium Tremendum, such pure heart intention may heal each of us, all of us, even the world, a little more.

May it be so.

With warmth and love,

Kathleen – thecelticmonk

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

04/07/2023 · 3:58 am

A Spirituality of Nature

Since moving mid-pandemic, early in 2021… this is what greets me from dawn to dusk out our back door. No buildings, no cars, only an occasional walker on the trail. I don’t need to drive anywhere to take a ‘nature bath’ as the Japanese have named it. I don’t even need to get dressed to abide in this sanctuary (as I sit here in my pj’s with an unobstructed view).

The sun falls first on the tops of those almost 4 story tall pines across the lake. When it does, the Ibis and Spoonbill leave their roosts in the thickets and take the opportunity to sun bathe before heading out for breakfast in the marsh grasses–a bounty of small fish and oysters. They will all return again within 5 minutes of sunset to start their ritual of getting ready for bed.

It took me a while to catch on to the rhythm of the place. I’d never experienced nature so up-close-and-personal growing up in the inner city of Chicago. Oh, there were a few weeks of lightning bugs in the summer. But I wasn’t a great observer of much else. Certainly not aware of the tides, as we must be here. Nor aware that the creeping and winged beings around us follow the course of the sun and moon. I do feel blessed by it all.

Thomas Merton wrote: “The sun, the clear morning, the quiet, the barely born butterfly … Solitude-when you get saturated with silence and landscape, then you need an interior work, psalms, scripture, meditation. But first the saturation. How much of this is simply restoration of one’s normal human balance? Like waking up, like convalesence after an illess. My life here in solitude is most real because it is most simple.” A YEAR WITH THOMAS MERTON, JUNE 30th, page 188.

How many years, did my life consist of the ‘work’ without the saturation? Thankfully, I didn’t know any better! It has only been within the past 30 years that I realized the value of “silence and landscape” and sought it out at a monaastery or two in thousand acres woods, with miles of secluded walking paths–proverbial rafts of nature to carry me for a while.

And now in this time called retirement I am blessed with this saturation on a daily basis, a gift that came as a surprise. One that took me a while to see, then to recognize and only now, only now begin to understand. And as it was for Merton, it is: “like waking up, like a convalesence after an illness…my life here in solitude is most real because it is most simple.”

I have taked A LOT about my found spirituality of nature with my spiritual director. In fact, I sought her out at a time when I wondered if I was veering too far off the path. (Old habits die hard). I’d say things like, I feel the breeze coming through the pines and am reminded of the gentleness of the Spirit… or, The constancy of the ebb and flow of the tides reminds me of God’s faithfulness… or, the colors of the sky at sunrise and sunset speak to me of the unnecessary beauty all around us… or, I really am learning to care for the bounty of nature. And she’d remind me that I could not learn any more by sitting in a building.

After too long without “Solitude which saturates with silence and landscape” I am beginning to feel full once more. It’s the feeling of taking a cold drink, when one didn’t realize they were thirsty, or eating before knowing one was really, really hungry. I am, after these two years in this lovely place, feeling satiated, and as though there is a ‘something more’ beyond taking it all in. What Merton says is — only possible once the restoration has returned one to one’s normal human balance.

I have of course already begun this ‘work’ without realizing that it was what I was doing. It was from my saturation in solitude that I agreed to convening small online gatherings for WCCM-USA, temporary spiritual communities for nourishment and fellowship. The beauty of this work is that it is not scheduled months or years in advance. I can offer programs from fullness, not schedule–from wholeness not demand–like the tides and the movement of sun and moon.

There is balance to this spirituality of nature. Just as there once was to much work and not enough solitude… now there can be too much solitude and not enough work. My true self lies in the balance. For all of us, our true self lies in the balance.

With much love and peace,

Kathleen — thecelticmonk

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

01/03/2023 · 12:59 pm

What to Expect from a Meditation Retreat

Dear Readers, Followers and Friends,

For a week in April (16th-21st) I’ll be leading a meditation retreat at the Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina, just outside of Asheville, on Black Mountain. More than a few folks have asked what happens at a meditation retreat and why do people pay to be silent… Both are good questions.

As to what happens, together we keep a schedule of times together and apart. There is an early morning time of Meditation that is led by one of the retreat leaders before breakfast that includes several readings. We will have breakfast in the main dining room together, but in silence. Each day, there will be a morning and afternoon plenary session where I’ll be teaching on our theme of BEAUTY AND SILENCE. There is free time for your individual use, and lunch together. You are invited to walk, wander, wonder or nap. Each day we will have a contemplative service before dinner including the Lord’s Supper. And after dinner we will keep the Divine Office of Compline together before retiring. Then, we do it all over again, for the rest of the week.

On my retreats (where I am making it, not leading it) in my free time I read, I write, I’ve been known to bring supplies to paint, and of course nap. During many WCCM retreats you are invited to write Haiku to share with the group by posting them in our gathering room. But I have to say that mostly, its a time for listening. We each listen for the Spirit, who for most of the rest of our lives doesn’t get a chance to be heard above the din of very, very, busy lives.

One of the amazing things about coming together for a meditation retreat, is how quickly we form a community of silence. We learn, whether this is our first retreat or our 10th, that silence becomes our bond and our way. We strengthen one another by this solidarity that we form together. And we often have much to say by that final morning when we offer our words to one another.

Our subject matter in April will lead the way for our week. We’ll consider how God inhabits Beauty. (Not as culture defines it.) We’ll consider how God speaks through Beauty…and what our response means. We’ll take a look at Beauty from various traditions, people and places. And we will tie it all together with how our silence allows us to see Beauty and how Beauty leads us into deeper and deeper silence. And before I tell you everything about my presentations, I think I’ll stop here.

When I was in church ministry, I most often used my continuing education time for silence. It was a necessary part of both my spiritual and self-care. I depended on that time for renewal, for healing, for joy to return, for fresh ideas to germinate. My guess is that most everyone needs renewal, healing, joy and freshness. But sometimes we have no idea how to access it. And likely we cannot imagine that it could all happen within 5 days! Which really is the answer to the second question above…why do people pay to be silent.

I hope you will consider joining me in April at Montreat. Registration is available on the WCCM-USA.org website, and will be open through March 16th. The cost of the retreat is $125.00 plus the room and food package of your choosing. Costs are low because all of the leadership team volunteers their time to make this possible. We each want to share what we have found in this gift of silence, of meditation.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. In the meantime, if you would like to try just a little meditation… I am hosting WEDNESDAYS IN LENT on Zoom at 7:00pm Eastern. Registration (free) for that program can also be found on WCCM-USA.org

In a world that seems to be changing more quickly than ever before, at a time when doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly is often ridiculed or ignored, when fear shows up more often than we care to name… meditation, the silent prayer of the heart, offers a needed balm.

Blessings upon you as we move from winter to spring. May you know the hope of new beginnings!

In peace and with love,

Kathleen

The Celtic Monk

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

07/01/2023 · 4:49 am

…My Journey into Silence and Beauty

I’ve begun to prepare for a retreat in April that, God willing, I will lead in Montreat, NC for the World Community of Christian Meditation (WCCM-USA). This week-long event has a subject/title which has been brewing in me, percolating actually, for more than a few years. I’m aware that my history with noticing Beauty goes back to childhood while my more recent practice of Silence has only enhanced my ability to see it. But with just a little intentional reflection, I find that both themes have woven themselves in and out of my life since before I had the words for them.

As a child our house almost directly backed up to a clay pot factory. Some days a large garage door in the factory would be open onto a hill of broken, discarded pots just inside. It was often my aim on those days to go ‘rescue’ one or several of the pots which I deemed, well, redeemable. The tricky part was that the men whose job it was to discard the damaged goods, weren’t any too happy to have a little girl scavaging in their pile of debris!

As I’m remembering it, I’d hang out in the alley and listen carefully for the way to be clear. If it seemed that no one was bringing out a new load, I’d start hunting-first close to the ground-but also for those pots for which I might need to climb up the pile a little. šŸ˜‰ If I was lucky, I’d make a small stack of 4 or 5 pots and skeedaddle out of the factory, across the alley and back through our back gate. If I wasn’t so lucky, a sweaty, grimey man would come towards me, shouting and flayling his arms, and then lower the big door so that I couldn’t return.

My task was often a solitary one. Stealth is easier when alone. And not everybody thought that rescuing and then painting damaged clay flowerpots, using only a tin box of 5 watercolors was worthwhile. But I thought it was, and I thought they were Beautiful.

That little girl quietly creeping into the pottery factory had no idea that the abililty to see cracked, broken, blemished discards as beautiful, was a virtue. Nor did she realize that seeing and valuing what other people saw as broken, or would throw onto a heap, or simply walk by without noticing, was a gift she’d been given. Those deeper learnings about myself came only slowly over the past 60 plus years since my pottery adventures. I know only now that what drove me back then was beyond any conscious thought or explanation. Compelled is likely too strong a word, so I’ll just say it was a gentle nudge or leading. A leading that imprinted itself in my consciousness–to look for the beautiful–that would play out in myriad ways my whole life.

One of the authors I ran across in my research for the retreat suggests, as the catechism does, that “the chief end of humankind is to love God and glorify God forever. He seconds that with “most of us have no idea what it means to glorify.” And his conclusion is that to glorify God “is to see and appreciate Gods Beauty” in Godself, all creation, Christ and one another. In some ways I’ve known that in an ‘unknowing way’, my whole life.

There are many other beginnings into Silence and Beauty along my path–too many incidences of Silence and Beauty to which I felt called in my lifetime to count. And then many, many more that, once I recognized those themes, I have sought out and nurtured.

So dear friend, I’m wondering where you find beauty. I’m wondering if you have a sense of the connection of Beauty to God and vice versa… Do times of silence, reflection, contemplation lead you to Beauty? Do you recognize God in the beauty in your life? What do you think is our task as Beauty finders? Where does that thought lead you?

As this New Year begins, I welcome you to join me on this journey. And my hope is that both Silence and Beauty will lead you.

With love,

Kathleen–thecelticmonk

Leave a comment

Filed under Beauty, Silence

22/08/2022 · 6:02 am

STOP.APPRECIATE.THANK.SHARE

Golden surf at sunrise August 21, 2022

It’s Sunday morning and Sam and I participated in our sacred ritual. We rose while it was still dark. We dressed for the occasion. We brought along what was required. We partook of what was offered. And we returned home refreshed in body, mind and spirit.

For most of our lives, this ritual was experienced in a building, with lots of people, with traditions, and language, and texts centuries in the making. For almost 30 of those years, I led the ritual with all that I had to offer and a lot of help. But with the beginning of the pandemic, that fell apart. First, my leadership was moved from in-person to on-line. Then life intervened and I simply no longer had a ritual to lead. Not only that, with my autoimmune disease, I am not engaging people in groups of any size indoors. So many changes. Yet, change does not necessarily equal loss.

I’ve summed up our new worship ritual with the four simple words above. Stop. Appreciate. Thank. And Share. We stop what might be our usual daily practice and make our way out into creation. We appreciate, mostly in silence what we find around us. We take it in–and let it wash over us. I often appreciate by not only noticing but capturing in photos. As we take our leave, there’s more silence…grateful silence, thankful silence, worshipful silence. And the important final step, sharing. A disciple not only sees, learns and follows… but shares. My practice of sending a photo to someone is not only prayer, but a sharing of the goodnes, bounty, mercy and love of God.

Man and Best Friend August 21, 2022

There is so much inspiration that is a part of this worship ritual. No hymns, but waves, and birds, and children laughing. I don’t know anyone’s name, but most strangers up at 6:30 a.m. greet one another with a smile and a word as we pass. All around are examples of love, of faithfulness, of beauty, of goodness, of joy. A guy and his dog run north. A dad has brought his young son to fish. Couples sit cross-legged side by side in silence, waiting. A whole family is on their blanket. No one has organized us, but at the moment the sun slips up from the horizon, or comes out from the distant bank of clouds, everyone stops–awe abounds.

Just like I don’t know if/when I’ll ever go back into a retail store, or get on an airplane, I don’t know if/when I will ever be part of a traditional worshiping community. But I do realize, finally, that it’s not about the building, or like-minded people–or even about the rituals and traditions that once sustained me. I realize that I have been graced with all I need to love God, self and neighbor. And just this morning in my appreciative silence, I suddenly hoped that at sometime across my ministry year, I said that, conveyed that, to those before me.

It doesn’t have to be Sunday to STOP. APPRECIATE. THANK. & SHARE. You don’t need to live next to the Atlantic. You don’t even need to love pre-dawn. Just see with your heart. Behold it Trust it. Be grateful. And Share. It’s really that simple.

Sola Deo gloria (Glory to God Alone)

xo Kathleen

thecelticmonk/ JAX BEACH

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , ,

16/06/2022 · 7:59 am

A Message on Behalf of my Tribe..

Sitting on the glider this morning just after sunrise, moments before the hum of traffic going over the bridge would begin in earnest, I experienced a clear ā€œsound memory.ā€ Itā€™s one that may come to each of us differently, depending on where weā€™re from geographically.  Iā€™m remembering Alle, Alle, Ocean, free, free, free.  But itā€™s also been recorded as Ally, Ally, Oxenā€¦ Ollie, Ollie, Oxenā€¦ Ole, Ole, Olsenā€¦

A quick Google search reveals that the most likely explanation for the phrase is that itā€™s a corruption of the German ā€œAlle, alle auch sind freiā€ which, when translated, means ā€œEveryone, everyone also is free.ā€Ā  Or, that it is equivalent to: “Come out come out wherever you are.” Ā Perhaps your inner child remembers it in the gameĀ hide-and-seek; used when the seeker gives up and all hiders are allowed a free walkĀ to baseĀ so a new seeker can be chosen. Another source offered that itā€™s a ā€œtruce termā€Ā used inĀ children’s games.

It’s not clear where or why that sound memory came to me in the quiet of the morning, just that it did.  Nor is it clear why I chose to follow it up with some on-line research, just that I did.  But in that memory and in the midst of my searching I began to find in that phrase a purpose (a hopeful oneā€”one not yet realized) for ā€œeveryone, everyone to also be free.ā€

Over the past few weeks, Iā€™ve had more than one conversation with friends about the winding down of the pandemic in some areas of the world. But even though there are those who proclaim with bravado: Alle, Alle auch sind frieā€”not everyone is feeling free. At least not yet.

Do you remember what it felt like for you, carefully tucked in your hiding placeā€¦ keeping very stillā€¦ when the seeker called out?  When as Google suggests, the truce was called?  Do you remember how you unfolded yourself, maybe jumped for joy, maybe squealed, and ran for home base?  Even though this relinquishment of the seeker made the game end in a draw, it always felt like a victory for those with the wits and skill of being a good hider!

Yet as the truce is being called for the pandemic, many people arenā€™t yet ready to unfold their lives or jump out into the world. The past 2.5 years was a long time of being tucked in place.Ā  We all can hear the call, ā€˜come out, come out, all are freeā€™ but some of us know that this is an ending which is a drawā€¦not a victory.Ā  Yes, the pandemic is winding to some kind of a conclusionā€¦ but there is not yet the end we hoped or imagined. So there is a check in our spirit that sounds more like: Alle, alle nine auch sind freiā€”Come out, come out, not all are freeā€¦ and it gives us pause. I am among the hundreds of thousands of people for whom the pandemic is not overā€¦ mask wearing is not overā€¦ getting on an airplane is not an optionā€¦ and I’m not yet close to seeing the inside of a restaurant. My compromised immune system doesnā€™t care who is shoutingā€¦ I am not free.

My invitation friends is to be gentle with yourself as you hear various calls for a truce with the pandemic. Make thoughtful choices for yourself and others. Be especially gentle with yourself in discerning what your new ā€˜normalā€™ will be. Donā€™t allow the call to ā€˜come out, come outā€™ drown out the true inner voice youā€™ve come to know. Donā€™t be enticed or coerced. Stand strong in what this time of being tucked away has taught you, has shown you. (And by the way, what are those things youā€™ve learned about self and others?)

Then have the courage to wait on the One who does not call out a simple truce, but victory. Not a victory for a few, but for all.Ā 

With love and caring,

Kathleen

the celtic monk

Leave a comment

Filed under Health

13/05/2022 · 5:37 am

Peace, Mercy and Grace to you

I found myself up in the middle of the night, wide awake, with no discernable purpose. This blank page of time doesn’t happen often. If I do wake in the watches of the night there’s usually a reason that rather quickly reveals itself. But not last night. So I began the inventory of the usual suspects… too hot? too cold? numbness or pain? my ‘to do’ list for tomorrow? concerns for a loved one? recent news? the planet? No, I thought. I covered most of those things as I prayed before sleeping. So what’s up–or better yet–why am I up?

My mind wandered around for a while and settled on the words above, words I’d recently written in closing a note to a friend. Now lying on my back watching shadows of water dancing on the ceiling I wondered what I meant by them, by each of them. Good question. What did I mean? And like a row of perfectly placed Dominos… the answers began to fall perfectly as if by design.

The peace I intended to send was a feeling–the feeling of taking a deep breath and feeling one’s whole body responding pleasantly to the increase in oxygen. As I thought of it last night, and as I am writing it now I couldn’t help but taking that kind of breath. The peace that I hoped for my friend was the openness and ease of such breaths, as a part of their life. Yes that was it.

But why mercy? What was I thinking? Too much theological training likely. Thinking about it now, I don’t know if I was hoping they would be the recipient of mercy (compassionate forgiveness) or would dispense it to others. The promise of the Beatitude aside, my experience is that it’s a lifes work to be a person of mercy. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

Grace came easily into my hopes and wishes that day. Just as easily as I see it everywhere. I believe that unmerited favor is ours any time we witness something beautiful… in relationships, in nature, in an interaction with a stranger, in silent solitary times, in rush hour traffic, in life’s pedestrian and ecstatic moments. Grace just is–for those who see with their heart. Knowing all these moments of life as grace-filled is something we grow in.

I needed to sort all those things out for some reason at an hour when the almost full moon was high in the western sky making the water outside my window dance a reflection on my ceiling causing the rod and arms of the still ceiling fan look like the petals of a flower blowing in a breeze. I said ‘thank You’ as a response. I was in a moment of grace.

These thoughts led me to the practice of a widening circle prayer. I prayed for this peace, mercy and grace for myself. I prayed for peace, mercy and grace for Sam, sound asleep beside me. I prayed for peace, mercy and grace for my son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren… pausing to consider what that might look like for each of them (because it is different for all of us). I continued out in widening circles to extended family, to friends, to neighbors, as faces or names came to mind. With the list of folks I knew now nearly exhausted, I continued to consider those I don’t know. Peace, mercy and grace to any who are awake in the middle of the night. Peace, mercy and grace to the lonely. Peace, mercy, and grace to those in places of war or disturbance. Peace, mercy and grace to unjust world leaders. Peace, mercy and grace to those who…

I don’t know who was next. I fell back asleep by the time I got to the unjust leaders and pictured them taking a breath and becoming a little more humane… then experiencing compassionate forgiveness (mercy) being willing to offer it to those over whom they wielded power… and being a recipient of God’s unmeritied favor, I observed them seeing the humanity of every living creature. The world set right, I fell asleep in peace. “I will lie down in peace, and sleep comes at once, for You alone Lord make me dwell in safety.”

There is a name for what I call the widening circle prayer, in Buddhism. I’ve long since forgotten the Sanskrit name. But on a more or less regular basis, I find myself praying this way. I’m not hoping to throw ideas out into an unknown universe, but petitioning the Creator of that universe. Beyond that, I believe my prayer is joining the Creator’s desire as well. The final piece I am aware of more and more, is that I cannot pray for something for myself, that I also don’t wish, hope, or desire for all others. We are all connected. Our well-being depends on the well-being of all. It cannot be any other way.

So to those of you I know, and those of you I don’t; to those of you who are at this moment doing really great and those of you living on the edge; to those of you who need peace or can offer it; who are in need of compassonate forgiveness or can extend it to someone; to those of you who know unmerited favor or aren’t even sure it exists; to all of you I offer Peace, Mercy and Grace today and in all the days to come. And I invite you to make your own widening circle prayer.

With much hope,

Kathleen Bronagh Weller thecelticmonk

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , ,