The Compass of Compassion
"Notice the similarity between the word compass and the word compassion. They share an etymological root. The earliest use of the word compass does not, of course, refer to the modern hiking compass as we know it. The word is first used to refer to the mathematical compass, that simple two-pronged device that many of us remember using in grade school to measure the distance between two points and to draw arcs and circles. A compass, then, is used to determine the relationship between two points. The related word compassion is about honoring the relationship between two people or between one group and another, and remembering those who suffer. It is about making the connection between the heart of my being and the heart of yours, and following that connection . . . even when we are filled with doubts as to whether we are moving in the right direction."
— The Rebirthing of God: Christianity's Struggle for New Beginnings
Longing for Peace
"There is a longing for peace deep within the human soul today. It is a yearning within us and between us in the most important relationships of our lives. It is a yearning among us as nations and as an entire earth community. Yet ranged against this longing for peace are some of the most threatening forces that history has seen. These are forces of fear and fragmentation. And they are wedded to the mightiest political powers and religious fundamentalisms of the world today. Yet deeper still I believe is the longing for peace.
— Christ of the Celts: The Healing of the Creation
The Light in All of Us
"A number of years ago, I delivered a talk in Ottawa, Canada, on some of these themes. I referred especially to the prologue of the gospel of John and his words concerning 'the true light that enlightens everyone coming into the world' (John 1:9). I was inviting us to watch for that Light within ourselves, in the whole of our being, and to expect to glimpse that Light at the heart of one another and deep within the wisdom of other traditions. At the end of the talk, a Mohawk elder, who had been invited to comment on the common ground between Celtic spirituality and the native spirituality of his people, stood with tears in his eyes. He said, 'As I have listened to these themes, I have been wondering where I would be today. I have been wondering where my people would be today. And I have been wondering where we would be as a Western world today if the mission that came to us from Europe centuries ago had come expecting to find the Light in us.' "
— Christ of the Celts: The Healing of the Creation
Connecting Prayer and Creation
"In the Celtic tradition the practice of prayer often is pursued in the context of creation. If it is not possible for you to be outside, you may wish to meditate by an open window or in a space in which you can be aware of the elements of creation. The other possibility is to include a bowl of water, for instance, or plants or stones in your door place of prayer — symbols that can help make the connection between a prayerful awareness of God and the mystery of creation."
— The Book of Creation: An Introduction to Celtic Spirituality
Listen for the Beat of Beauty
"In the early 1990s I spent time with the English Benedictine monk Bede Griffiths at his Indian ashram in Tamil Nadu. One of the themes that characterises much of his teaching is also the title of one of his works, Return to the Centre. He speaks of the way in which we have become distant from ourselves and thus from God at the heart of our being. The return to God is the return to the centre of all life. Bede died in the mid-1990s but he occasionally visits me in my dream life. In one dream he said very simply to me, 'Keep on reading Sleeping Beauty. Keep on reading Sleeping Beauty.' We need to read the deepest text of who we are, listening for the intimations of beauty that issue up from the heart of our being. It is the Beauty that is at the heart of all being.
"The Celtic tradition uses the image of listening for the heartbeat of God. It is derived from the Gospel account of John the Beloved leaning against Jesus at the last supper. The legend is that John thus heard the heartbeat of God. He became an image of listening within all things for the One who is the very beat of life. It is the beat of Beauty without which nothing that is would be."
— Echo of the Soul: The Sacredness of the Human Body
