The Cross and the Circle

Many ancient Scottish crosses include a circle as well.

The pre-Christian Celts worshipped the sun and walked sunwise around their sacred sites.

The Celtic Christians thought this was a good idea to keep. The circling prayer or Caim prayer continues to represent a prayer of protection for people and places:

Circle us, Lord.
Keep darkness without,
keep light within.
Keep falsehood without,
keep truth within.
Circle us, Lord.
Keep.....

The pre-Christian Celts passed on a legacy to the Celtic Christians of an intuitive sense between them and the environment, a sense of the unity of Creation.

I'm writing this on Sunday and my notes from the Retreat say:
"God rested on the seventh day not because He was tired, but  because He wanted to enjoy what He had created". I think that a good attitude to a 'day of rest'!

At the beginning of June I had a three day retreat in Dunblane.
We were just a small group from all over Scotland learning about the Celtic saints and looking to find a way to rediscover that holistic way of living in the 21st century.
On the last morning I woke up with the words "Sacred in the ordinary" popping into my head. Something to reflect on for a while, I suspect!

Yesterday was Beltane - the start of summer. The weather here is beginning to reflect the season a bit more accurately at last! The grass is growing and the trees are putting out leaves.
I hope to put out a vid soon. Need to take a few more shots and get editing.
Meanwhile...there is a Beltane prayer below:


Touch the earth lightly, use the earth gently,
nourish the life of the world in our care.
Gift of great wonder, ours to surrender,
trust for the children tomorrow will bear.
We who endanger, who create hunger;
agents of death for all creatures that live;
we who would foster clouds of disaster,
God of the planet, forestall and forgive.

Let there be greening, birth from the burning,
water that blesses and air that is sweet;
health in God's garden, hope in God's children,
regeneration that peace will complete.
God of all living, God of all loving,
God of the seedling, the soil and the sun,
teach us deflect us, Christ reconnect us,
using us gently, making us one.

(from "The Celtic Prayer Book Vol. 3" by Ray Simpson)

The following piece I found years ago and keep to read every now and then!

I cannot pass my faith on to others as a doctor injects a patient with serum.

I cannot pass my faith onto others as a service station attendant fills a car with petrol.

I cannot pass my faith onto others as wharf labourers move cargo from one ship to another with cranes.

I cannot provide a pill that produces faith when it is swallowed.

I cannot explain my faith as a teacher explains a mathematical formula.

I cannot demonstrate my faith as a clever lawyer demonstrates the innocence of the accused to a sceptical judge.

I can only prove my faith by letting Christ heal my entangled, sinful life.

I can only prove my faith by praying for others as Christ prayed for Peter and others.

I can only prove my faith by doing loving deeds to others, even as Christ revealed his love to the sick and hungry.

I can only prove my faith by being ready to forgive and forget the evil words and deeds of others, even as Christ forgave His enemies on the Cross.

I can only prove my faith by being prepared to suffer for others, even as Christ suffered for others.

I can only prove my faith by not letting my failures deflect me from my calling, even as Christ could not be deflected from His course by the peoples' unbelief.

I can only prove my faith through the power of the Holy Sprirt, given by Christ.

John Gnanabaranam (Liturgy of Life)

Why do I persist in believing that a spiritual life is important?
Over the years it certainly would have been easier not to believe in anything else than the physical and emotional life that we have. It might have made some aspects of my life simpler.
But I do beleive that I have a soul and that I'm responsible for what I do with it! We are encouraged to exercise our physical bodies, to give our brains a regular work out, so we should also do something to exercise our spirits too, shouldn't we? 
So I chose to do that in the context of my Christian faith. Maybe it's because, culturally, that's the belief I'm most comfortable or familiar with. But I don't think that's the whole answer. I have looked and explored other faiths but I'm always drawn back to my relationship to God through Jesus. It's the one that speaks to my human condition, my relationship to my fellow human beings and to creation as a whole. How I express it and how I value it may have changed over the years but that's the bottom line.
I certainly do not dismiss others experience of God through other religions or those who have no epxerience (and do not want one) at all. None of us knows for certain whether there's nothing more than just this life or if there is something beyond it. But this faith I wrestle with day by day, year by year won't let me go and I'm ultimately glad of that!