anam cara spirituality

Some beautiful words which I was reading from John O'Donohue's beautiful and inspiring Divine Beauty, which I loved particularly as I have been studying child development in my course and John's ideas are certainly valid.

Even amidst chaos and disorder, something in the human mind continues still to seek the beauty. From our first moments in the world we seem to be on a quest for beauty.

Usually we go to the Easter sunrise service at Castle Ring iron age fort in Cannock Chase with friends, but this year we were away with family in Norfolk.

lord of the sea and the sky
the beach and the edge places
thank you for the borders of our lives
where reality meets imagination
and the physical meets the numinous

help us to see from a new perspective
the everydayness of our lives
help us to recognize in bread and wine
in water
the real presence of you
show us the traces of your indwelling spirit
as we travel on the adventure

mystery
is the part of god which is beyond us
transcendent
eternal
shrouded in glory too bright to imagine

mystery
is the world in all its beauty
where even fuzzy pictures of distant galaxies -
millions of stars, planets, lives -
is but a fraction of the whole.

mystery
is the life of the spirit
our soul’s journey
the future which frightens and dismays us
drives us to hold on to the present
in case there is nothing better
mystery
is everything we cannot explain
even if we dissect it

After hearing the reading of Thomas at church on Sunday, I remembered Maggi Dawn's take on Thomas and the relationship between faith and doubt.

http://maggidawn.com/doubting-thomas-or-honest-thomas-2/

Lots of people name their children after their own heroes, and Christian parents often, with perfect justification, name their children after great leaders of the faith.

Patrick, 17 March
???-493
evangelist
Ireland

Slavery to freedom

Patrick’s story:
My name is Patrick, and I grew up in an old Roman settlement in northern Britain. My mum and dad were Christians but I wasn’t really very interested in either church or studying.

But then, when I was about 15, some thing truly awful happened… Some raiders came across from Ireland on a ship and attacked my home and village. They kidnapped me, and dragged me roughly back with them back to Ireland.