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Our Sacred Longing for the Garden of Eden
Read more...John Philip Newell, Christ of the Celts, Celtic Christianity
We remember our "origins"...both in the Garden and in the Creator.
In the Celtic tradition, the Garden of Eden is not a place in space and time from which we are separated. It is the deepest dimension of our being from which we live in a type of exile. It is our place of origin or genesis in God. Eden is home, but we live far removed from it. And yet in the Genesis account, the Garden is not destroyed. Rather Adam and Eve become fugitives from the place of their deepest identity. It is a picture of humanity living in exile.
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Listening to God by Listening Within Yourself
Read more...The feature of Celtic spirituality that is probably most widely recognized, both within and outside the Church, is its creation emphasis. It was certainly this that first drew my attention. Like most children, I had grown up with a sense of awe at creation. Our earliest memories are generally of wonder in relation to the elements. Do we not all carry within us, for instance, something of the memory of first listening to the waters of a river or to rainfall, or lying in the grass, feeling and smelling it and seeing its brilliant green, or watching sunlight dappling through leaves?
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The Universal Gift of the Experience of Light
Read more...The Universal Gift of the Experience of Light in Celtic Spirituality.
My earliest memories of creation are primarily of light. They come to me in a kaleidoscope of recollection, of light reflecting off the waters of northern Canadian lakes where I spent time as a boy or of the clarity of the night skies above those same waters. I often would sit mesmerized by the sun's setting colours or by the immediacy of starlight in the dark. I do not believe that I am unusual in this, nor do I think that the wildness of the context was necessary to the depth of the impression, for I also remember light in the city, glistening off the metallic chrome of cars or dappling through the white curtains of my nursery window. In fact it is important that these memories are not unique, for the experience of the light that is in creation is a universal gift.
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John Philip Newell Speaking on the Yoga Hour Online Broadcast - May 31st
Written on Friday, 25 May 2012 08:25 -
Images and Music From the 2011 Contemplative Voices Award
Written on Thursday, 24 May 2012 09:21 -
Prayer for the Week of May 20 to May 26
Written on Monday, 21 May 2012 23:50 -
Reports from the Sounds of the Eternal Book Launch in Manhattan
Written on Wednesday, 16 May 2012 21:02 -
Salva Terra Newsletter: May 2012
Written on Wednesday, 16 May 2012 10:20 -
Prayer for the Week of May 13 to May 19
Written on Tuesday, 15 May 2012 10:36 -
John Philip Newell Book Signing in New Harmony, Indiana
Written on Sunday, 13 May 2012 12:00 -
Prayer for the Week of May 6 to May 12
Written on Tuesday, 08 May 2012 10:14

