{"id":19365,"date":"2020-09-30T10:20:51","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T14:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19365"},"modified":"2020-09-30T10:20:51","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T14:20:51","slug":"the-fruitful-margins-of-the-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19365","title":{"rendered":"The Fruitful Margins of the Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Mystics and the Margins<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The\nFruitful Margins of the Empire<\/strong><br>\nWednesday, \u202fSeptember 30,\n2020<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B87p2WHry9Y\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>On\nthe margins of the Roman Empire, Ireland and Scotland helped hand down the\nChristian contemplative lineage. The Romans had conquered much of Europe by the\ntime of Jesus\u2019 birth; though they ruled Britain, the Romans never occupied\nIreland or parts of Scotland. This allowed the Celtic culture and Christian\nmonks the freedom to thrive independently. They weren\u2019t controlled by Roman\npracticality or Greek thinking. When Christian missionaries arrived by the\nthird&nbsp;century, the Celts blended their pagan or creation-based\nspirituality with Christian liturgy, practice, and structure. As a result,\nCeltic Christianity was still grounded in the natural world, and they had much\neasier access to a cosmic notion of the Christ.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Perhaps we can\nthink of Celtic Christians as an alternative community on the edge of the\ninside of organized Christianity. Lacking the structure and support of the\norganized church, radical forms of Christianity never thrive for very long.\nWithout the Irish monks, much of Celtic practice and thought would not have\nbeen passed on to us at all.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Like the Desert\nFathers and Mothers who influenced them, Celtic mystics focused on rather\ndifferent things than the mainstream church. The Celts drew on their own\ncultural symbols and experience to emphasize other values than the symbols of\n\u201cRoman\u201d Catholicism. For example, Celtic Christianity encouraged the practice\nof confession to an<\/em>&nbsp;anam cara <em>(soul friend) more than to an ordained priest.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>They also saw\nGod as a deep kind of listening and speaking presence, as in \u201cThe Deer\u2019s Cry.\u201d\nI invite you to read this excerpt of St. Patrick\u2019s traditional prayer slowly,\nand to allow yourself, like the ancient Celts, to become aware of the presence\nof Christ surrounding you through all things.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Lorica of\nSt. Patrick (The Deer`s Cry)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\narise to-day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>vast might,\ninvocation of the Trinity,\u2014<br>\nbelief in a Threeness<br>\nconfession of Oneness<br>\nmeeting in the Creator. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\narise to-day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>might of Heaven<br>\nbrightness of Sun<br>\nwhiteness of Snow<br>\nsplendour of Fire<br>\nspeed of Light<br>\nswiftness of Wind<br>\ndepth of Sea<br>\nstability of Earth<br>\nfirmness of Rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\narise to-day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Might of God for\nmy piloting<br>\nWisdom of God for my guidance<br>\nEye of God for my foresight<br>\nEar of God for my hearing<br>\nWord of God for my utterance<br>\nHand of God for my guardianship<br>\nPath of God for my precedence<br>\nShield of God for my protection<br>\nHost of God for my salvation . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christ\nwith me, Christ before me,<br>\nChrist behind me, Christ in me,<br>\nChrist under me, Christ over me,<br>\nChrist to right of me, Christ to left of me,<br>\nChrist in lying down, Christ in sitting, Christ in\nrising up<br>\nChrist in the heart of every person, who may think of\nme!<br>\nChrist in the mouth of every one, who may speak to me!<br>\nChrist in every eye, which may look on me!<br>\nChrist in every ear, which may hear me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\narise to-day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>vast might,\ninvocation of the Trinity<br>\nbelief in a Threeness<br>\nconfession of Oneness<br>\nmeeting in the Creator. [1]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mystics and the Margins The Fruitful Margins of the Empire Wednesday, \u202fSeptember 30, 2020 On the margins of the Roman Empire, Ireland and Scotland helped hand down the Christian contemplative lineage. The Romans had conquered much of Europe by the time of Jesus\u2019 birth; though they ruled Britain, the Romans never occupied Ireland or parts [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19365"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19366,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19365\/revisions\/19366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}