I spoke briefly to a standing-room-only auditorium last evening as we celebrated St. Patrick's Day a few hours early.
I co-lead (with Carol Saysette and George Wilson) a large seminar of Redwoods folks who are exploring the many dimensions of the Celtic spiritual tradition. I wanted to give those assembled some context about our seminar, which sponsored last evening's wonderful music, song and dance:
St. Patrick’s Eve, March 16, 2019.
"I wrote these brief remarks this afternoon. I hope they evoke some still, small voice in you, as they did and do in me.
"The seeds of this evening are in the hardy band of forest folk, our ‘red-woods-hood’ we call Celtic Spirituality, and earlier in a three-day retreat with John Patrick Newell. I speak of us. We are always in motion and always still, always constant and always changing. The mysteries of this evening, the music, song, dance and drama, the poetry and stories we remember and have forgotten but can recall, and those for which we can as yet only listen. Our celebration of Patrick, the ur-saint if you will, of Celtic spirituality, the weave of the ancient traditions, the druids in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the gifts we know and are still learning and as yet barely glimpse or intuit from the traditions, the stories and the practices—I think especially the practices—of Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
"All that is part of our inheritance, our foremothers and forefathers, our birth, life, death and rebirth, the legacies we’ve left, still leave, have yet to leave, will never finally leave, for our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren… and they in turn for us and for their children. At our Celtic heart is the earth, the precarious, precious, terribly endangered earth, and our fellow sentient beings, that sustain us as we awaken to them and still destroy them, so often before we even know them, much less their place in the family of life.
"I’m grateful for—and only a little embarrassed by—the number of Johns in our Celtic heritage and in the voices to which we listen: There is John the Evangelist also known as John the Beloved, who listened to the heartbeat of God. We’ve had the companionship of John Patrick Newell and John O’Donohue. Those to whom we—our band of Celtic folks here at The Redwoods—return again and again, growing, deepening our practices, returning, reconnecting, following an invitation. In Newell’s words, 'The invitation is to recover an inner stance of listening that will equip us to move forward into new beginnings we may not yet even be able to imagine. This is my prayer,' John Patrick said to us—'that we may grow in such awareness and commitment. Together they—and we—hold the promise of rebirth.'
"Our spirit is one of pilgrimage, with Patrick and Columba, Brigid and Brendan, and in the green shamrock, the walking stick, the living tree, the bell. Patrick described a vision he had: 'I saw a man [or was it a woman?] coming, as it were from Ireland. He [or she] carried many letters, and gave me one. I read the heading: ‘The voice of the Irish.’ As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: ‘We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.’ So he did; so he does this evening. Welcome, dear brother Patrick."
The symbolism of the Celtic cross: heart for love, two hands for friendship, crown for loyalty.