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stop,
can you feel
the beat?
do you
sense
the holy
in the
rhythms of the
earth?
do your
feet long to
tap in time
to creations tune?
a tune
that calls
you home,
that is new
and old,
known,
unknown
and eternal...
+
stop,
can you feel
the beat,
do you sense
the holy
calling you
to life?
does your heart skip a beat
a it aligns itself
with the song?
are you ready to
join the dance?
can you
feel the beat?
fire and flood,
gifts given,
power poured out,
life renewed
in fire and flood;
fire and flood,
unstoppable,
unquenchable,
all consuming,
life affirmed in
fire and flood;
fire and flood
cleansing,
healing,
restoring
poured down,
and out,
and through
those
who would
willingly
stand in the
path of holiness,
in the way
of fire
and flood...
we want
to be able
to mend the doors
and stop the roof
from leaking...
we want to
pay our way,
to hold our heads up...
can these really be
our hopes,
visions, and dreams?
+
we want to
see more people,
more children,
we want these walls
to echo
with song and life
again,
we want people,
to help us mend the dooors
and stop the roof from leaking...
are these really
our hopes
visions, and dreams?
+
finally
in the silence
we ask,
have we forgotten
how to dream,
how to hope,
have we forgotten
how to seek
for vision...
+
we do not worship
this pile of wood
and stone,
this subtle idol
is not the
focus of
our faith...
what if
we dared
to be different,
to hope
to dream,
to pray...
+
what if we had
no doors,
no roof
and walls
to hold us down,
to hold us back?
perhaps
all we need
is a shift
of focus...
+
Can you hear
the unforced
rhythms of grace ?
Do you see
the heavenly
holy dancers?
Are you captivated
by the wonder,
freedom,
movement,
and life
that flows from their
uncreated song?
Can you hear the beating
of their hearts
as they whisper
softly
proclaiming their love
for one another,
and
for you?
Do you yearn
to join the joyful
throng
encircled in their midst?
For you are invited
to this heavenly
ceilidh!
Will you dare to take
the outstretched hand,
kick off your shoes
and dance?
I stand on the shores of
your mercy,
where love and light draw me,
here you are
ever with me,
I am bathed in
your beauty,
and the heartbeat
of your grace
is over,
under,
around and within me,
calling my heart
to beat to its
unforced rhythms,
lifting my lips
to sing
your praise
to whisper
my longings in prayer,
for here
on the shores
of your mercy
I know
that I am known
and all
is well
This poem was inspired by Tim's picture above,
and by Gerrard Kelly's Tweet:
I stand on the shores of your mercy God. Your love the light that draws me. Your presence the wind blown from a distant land
I am re-posting this, it was originally written by me in September 2007, interestingly it is a post that often attracts hits and comments even years after it was first posted. With Pentecost coming up it has again attracted a number of comments and queries. So what is it about the image of the Holy Spirit as a Wild Goose that we find so compelling? I offer you these thoughts again, and I'd be interested in yours:
Over the last few years there has been a re-kindling of interest in Celtic Spirituality within the Christian Church. Cd's and books have been produced in abundance, but are we simply trying to purchase a more holistic spirituality by adding to our music collection, or is there a real attempt to engage with the issues that Celtic Christianity raises for us?
The term Celtic Church’ is used to describe almost the earliest native form of Christianity in the islands of Britain and Ireland, it dates from around 400. The Celtic Church established itself as the most successful evangelistic movement Britain has ever seen with people like Ninian, the first known evangelist in Scotland, David, who had such an influence on Wales, Patrick, a Scot who evangelised Ireland, Columba, an Irishman who led many in Scotland to Christ.
Some folk say that the picture of Celtic Christianity we are given today is soft and rather romantic, it is in fact a pseudo spirituality that never really existed. I am not going to argue that here, rather I am going to ask you to look carefully at the following claims for Celtic Spirituality and ask whether or not they could encourage us to build bridges for dialogue with the Pagan/ neo Pagan communities which are on the increase in the West.
Are we ready to follow the Wild Goose?
In the Celtic tradition the Holy Spirit is represented as a bird, but not the peaceful and serene dove landing on Jesus at his baptism. For their symbol of the Holy Spirit, the Celtic church people chose the Wild Goose, ( An Geadh-Glas)
Why did the Wild Goose speak to those ancient Celtic Christians? To begin with, wild geese aren't’t controllable. You can’t restrain a wild goose and bend it to your will. They’re raucous and loud. Unlike the sweet and calming cooing of a dove, a goose’s honk is strong, challenging, strident and unnerving – and just a bit scary.
In much the same way the Spirit of God can be, demanding and unsettling. Think about the story of Pentecost, and the impression the disciples made on the crowd. People thought they were drunk and disorderly!
Its one thing for a gentle dove to descend peacefully on Jesus – it’s something all together different when the Spirit descends like a wild, noisy goose!
Celtic Christians see life as a pilgrimage, use earthy yet poetic prayers, and have a vivid sense of saints, angels and the unseen world. They believe that what is deepest in us is the image of God. Sin has distorted but not erased it. However, the struggle against evil in the human and the spirit world is real. Memorising Scripture, praying daily following the natural rhythm of the sun and the seasons, and working with a soul friend to overcome destructive passions are a means to this.
The early Celtic churches were communities of work, prayer and hospitality at the heart of local life, and those with a Celtic vision seek to restore these features to church life today.The Celtic way of mission is to plant the experience of Christ within the natural patterns of the people, to be friendly towards all people of good will and respect other faiths. Many people today see Celtic spirituality as a way to weave together again the separated strands of Christianity, and to heal a fragmented world.
Because the Celtic Church had not been infected with a dualistic outlook on creation, they did not see matter as evil, nor the spiritual world as divorced from the material. Thus, they looked on Creation around them as one great hymn of praise to its Creator, reflecting His nature and character, whilst not actually being God itself.
The Celtic believers lived in a rural world, life was lived in rhythm with creation and was made up of work, worship and rest, with everything cloaked in prayer. Thus, many Celtic prayers are associated with simple events such as rising in the morning, lying down at night, cleaning a hearth or baking bread. They saw the creatures around them as fellow servants of God. So, on one occasion, Cuthbert chided a young companion for not sharing a fish with an eagle who had just miraculously presented it to them for food.
On another, Columba instructed a brother on Iona to give shelter to an injured bird which had fallen on the shore on its flight across the water, as an expression of God’s love for His creatures, there is the famous story of Cuthbert being warmed at Coldingham by sea-otters after he had come out of the cold North Sea where he had been singing psalms during the night.
Creation is therefore seen as an outward expression of God’s nature and character, sustained by His upholding Word, and declaring His visible glory. It is not seen as a decaying, disposable utility to be exploited by man, which came with the later dualistic thinking.
How then can a re-awakened sense of God's presence in creation serve to encourage Christians to build bridges to their Pagan "friends"? For we should seek to be friends.... For too long we have simply swallowed and accepted a dualistic mindset without question, separating the spiritual and physical worlds, often in an unconscious way, we have simply compartmentalised our lives.
I wonder then what type of dialogue might be struck if we were to celebrate the passing of the seasons ( with more than increasingly meaningless Harvest festivals)? If we were to develop liturgies to recognise solstice and equinox, choosing to see the ebb and flow of the seasons as Gods good gift to us?
I wonder if healing might flow if we were to recognise the possibility that "thin places" and ley lines look at the world in similar ways? Our task is to make connections rather than raise barriers, and to tear down old barriers in order to move forward to a more positive place.
You can’t restrain a wild goose and bend it to your will.....In much the same way the Spirit of God can be, demanding and unsettling.
Are we ready to follow the Wild Goose?
+
Do you brood
over us still
Holy One?
Do you long to
transform
the chaos of
our hearts,
the wild waves
of our minds?
+
Do you brood
over us still
Holy One?
If we stopped,
would we hear
your
still small voice
calling us
to life
again?
+
Are you
wooing us still
Holy One?
Are you calling us
beyond our
comfortable lives
to something
fresh,
something
shot through
with adventure
and possibilities?
+
Would you
fill us again
Holy One?
Would you purge
the dross,
refine the gold?
Can we be
made
whole, and useful
and holy once more?
+
Will you
waken our dreams,
colour our visions,
inhabit our praises
again?
+
We need
your power
Holy One.
Without you
we are empty,
we are weak…
+
Come fill us
again
Holy One,
come fan
this spark,
come
set us ablaze
fill us
with your love.
I enter in,
and though twigs
and roots
obscure the
way ahead
and threaten to trip me,
I move forward,
inward
and forward,
seeking the centre,
my centre,
+
stones scatter
under my feet,
and the way is
not smoothed
out before me,
but I move
forward, inward
and forward
seeking the centre,
my centre…
+
There is a way out,
but I must press on,
I must press in,
my heart leads me,
and though I may pause
to admire
a wildflower
as an unexpected jewel,
my way is forward
inward and forward,
seeking the centre,
my centre…
+
my steps
are burdened,
and my heart beats
loud in my ears, and
as I seek you,
as I place one foot
before the other
my way is forward,
inward and forward,
seeking the centre,
my centre…
+
and there
I find you,
and at last
I find myself again,
I am centred,
and at peace,
and I rest here
with you,
I lay my burden down, for
I have found you
here
my centred
centre...
+
but you call me
forward,
outward,
yet forward,
and I must go, must respond...
+
but I do not
leave alone, for
you go with me,
you are always with me,
my centre
and my Lord…
only help me to find you,
to meet you
day by day
on both the inward
and outward steps
of my faith's
pilgrimage…
To find and
to be found,
to seek,
to be sought
to search,
to come
and to go,
only to
return
to my source again.
+
To find
that I was
never lost,
never abandoned,
never forgotten,
but
I have changed…
+
Through my
wanderings,
I have grown
and my faith
is no longer
enclosed
by such tight
boundaries,
its horizons
are broader,
its colours deeper,
its substance softer,
yet surer.
+
I am able to
embrace mystery and
uncertainty
with an awe filled
wonder
at Love
whose depths are
unfathomable...
+
And Love beckons me
to launch out
into the deep
to seek,
to find,
to search
once more…
+
Picture of Forest of Bowland Lancashire
Inspired (in a way) by this post from Dave Perry.
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