Keeping Up With the News

Celtic Theme is Coming, Garden beauty, Prayer for the Week

Garden Aeoniums

Another crazy week! We certainly do live in interesting times. As Joe Biden steps out of the race and Kamala Harris steps in to take the reins of Democrats for the presidential campaign our heads are spinning. These events weigh on all of us. Whether we see it as good or bad news, I know that the coming season of vitriolic attack from both sides will be draining and pray for God’s peace and wisdom to rest on all those who are involved.

For me this week has been overshadowed by my brother Nick’s declining health. As many of you know he is in the last stages of malignant melanoma. It is hard to be half a world away at a time like this. I am very grateful for Zoom and WhatsApp which help keep me in touch. I am also very grateful for Tom’s supportiveness, for friends that pray and for my garden which brings me peace every time I walk around it. This week my Aeoniums are flowering on my back step. They make me smile every time I walk past.

I am also grateful for the fact that Goldie’s wound is healing and she finally has her hood off. Yesterday she ran around the house and yard like a mad thing obviously delighted to have her freedom from the dreaded cone of shame.

One of the delights of my week was attending the Maple Leaf ice cream social on Wednesday. I loved meeting Beth Altman and hearing about her Little Free Bakery, which I talked about in my Meditation Monday: Freely You Have Received, Freely Give. She places delicious desserts in her free bakery, a little like the free libraries that dot our neighbourhood and then posts on instagram to let her patrons know what is currently on offer. The generosity of people in our neighbourhood never ceases to amaze me. It restores my belief in the goodness God has placed within all of us. I may not become part of the Little Free bakery movement, but I do like to share and my post includes 2 of my favourite recipes to make from garden produce at this time of year.

Monday was Mary Magdalene’s Feast Day so I revisited my Godspace post Standing With Mary Magdalene And All The Women of the World because in many ways I feel that the ways she has been maligned and misrepresented throughout history is so much what still happens to women today. Even the images created of her throughout history represent her as a redeemed woman of ill repute bathing Jesus feet with her hair not as the “apostle of the apostles” as she was evidently known. Many people are more willing to see women as prostitutes rather than leaders.

Carol Dixon provided a delightful post Singing the Psalms yesterday. As she says Psalms are a wonderful way to worship God and there is a psalm for every season. Lilly Lewin’s Freerange Friday: Jesus Loves Us In the Interruptions is also worthy of a good read. Who of us isn’t plagued by interruptions? I love her question: What kind of REST do you need this week?

Last week we launched the 12th episode of The Liturgical Rebels podcast with a fascinating interview with spiritual director, pastor, and author Kathy Escobar. Don’t miss this important episode and those that have gone before it. The summer is a great time to catch up on your listening. I was going to list my favourites, but have enjoyed interviewing all my guests so much that it is hard to choose – from artists, like iconographer Kelly Latimore and block print creator Kreg Yingst, to theologian Brian McLaren and poet Drew Jackson, and worship curators Mark Pierson and Lilly Lewin, I think all the episodes are worth listening to and some of you I know have listened more than once to selected guests.

Next week Martin Poole, another very creative worship curator will be my guest, followed by Brian Edgar, Professor of Theological Studies at Asbury and author of a fascinating book The God Who Plays. After that I will move into a Celtic theme as a lead up for the beginning of Celtic Advent on November 15th. I already have theologian John Phillip Newell and musician Jeff Johnson as well as Christine Valters Paintner and am still pursuing a Celtic artist and a poet for this series. I am very excited about where the podcast is going and hope that you are enjoying the interviews. Please let me know if you have any feedback that will help us continue to shape the podcast.

My Celtic theme will be reflected in other offerings for August to December. I am delighted with the progress I am making with my book Celtic Advent: Following an Unfamiliar Path. Each week will not only highlight a different Celtic saint but will also have a different theme. Here is the tentative outline:

Brendan and Holy Wanderings
Brigid and Kingdom Hospitality
Columba Welcoming Community
Hilda Embracing the Circle of Creation
Cuthbert Creating a Thin Space

I love Scottish theologian Prof John Macquarrie’s  observation that ‘the Celt was very much a God-intoxicated person whose life was embraced on all sides by the divine Being.”  I long for that same intoxication and intimacy with God where the awareness of God is present in every moment and every thing. There seems no better season than Advent to explore this deeper intimacy and spiritual intoxication and it is my hope that you too will become intoxicated with the presence of God as we read together.

As well as that I am planning a couple of online retreats for the season September to Christmas. Save the Dates: Introduction to Celtic Christianity on September 7th;  Ready for Celtic Advent on November 16th. It will be a very busy but fun season, as these retreats are always very interactive not just full of information but also creative exercises and prayers. I am really looking forward to both creating and facilitating these. It is my hope that the Advent book will be available by the Celtic seminar in September.

A big thank you to those who have become paid subscribers on Substack. As I mentioned last week, this really helps me broaden the array of resources we make available, many of which are free. It will also provide you with a 20% discount on the webinar cost. At this stage the only regular “subscriber only” post is the audio for my Meditation Monday. However there will be more such input in the future.

The upheaval that we feel around the world at the moment is challenging for everyone. I pray that you are able to find places of rest and peace in the midst of it. Perhaps you would like to pray this prayer with me.

Lord Jesus Christ,
Grant me patience,
As you are patient.
Waiting, hoping, expecting,
Never forcing.
Lord Jesus Christ
Grant me kindness,
As you are kind
Generous, compassionate, gentle,
Always overflowing with care.
Lord Jesus Christ,
Grant me love,
As you are loving,
Trusting, enduring, sacrificing yourself,
Ever delighting in truth.
Lord Jesus Christ,
Grant me life,
As you would have me live,
Journeying together with all peoples
Into wholeness,
And the wonder of your eternal world.

Christine Sine