Pre-Departure

Pre-Departure Party

The Party

St. Michael's Parish did an amazing thing that blessed me immensely before leaving on sabbatical. They held a luau/roast. I have a strong identity in the parish as someone who wears casual Hawaiian style shirts. So the planners (Fr. Peter Floyd, Kristy Callihan and Suzi Rowe) styled the party as a Hawaiian themed roast. The food was excellent thanks to the BBQ ministry and Carl Nesbitt and Allison Mitchell.

About 150 people showed up, mostly wearing Hawaiian style shirts. Several people stepped up and talked about how they know me. Some people read jokes from a list of jokes that have been posted to my facebook account over the last few months. Some people who could not make it to the event sent in videos. I felt deeply honored and humbled by all that went on.

I did get an opportunity to share both a brief outline of the plan and the reasoning behind the sabbatical. I will share it again right here.

The Plan

The plan is to start with few days with family who are currently stationed in Ramstein. Then I will move to my uncles house just south of Heidelberg for a few weeks. Part of being on sabbatical is spending time with family. While staying with my uncle I will travel to several interesting museums and archeological sites. I will also have access to the archeology department at the university. I will learn as much as I can about the pre-Christian Celts. The Celts are a civilization that arose in southern Germany about 1200 years before Christ and spread throughout what today is Western Europe. They made it as far east as Turkey and as far south as the Po River Valley in what is now Italy. They even invaded and controlled Rome for a time. It was later that some of them moved from what is now Spain and Portugal and headed north to what is now Ireland. So the people we think of today as Celts have a deeper richer story than most of us know. I hope to spend a couple days at a current dig site in central France during this time as well.

After Heidelberg, I will head to Paris. Paris will be a sort of mental and spiritual break. I have lead a number of groups there and have never found the time to just soak up the art, the culture and the sacred spaces of Paris. I will have the time I want to enjoy the impressionist paintings in the Musée d'Orsay and can sit in the Basilica St. Denis as long as I like to enjoy the first Gothic architecture structure in the world.

After Paris I will shift gears and head north to northern England and southern Scotland. This will begin the phase of understanding Celtic Spirituality. This will be an exceptional opportunity to soak up the current heart of Celtic Spirituality. I will have a  chance to visit Durham Cathedral before Mary, my wife joins me. Once Mary arrives we head to Iona. I so look forward to a couple days of  unstructured time in the special thin place. A thin place is where the veil between this world and heaven is particularly thin. After Iona, we also have a couple days on the Holy Island of Lindesfarne - another thin place. During this time we will be engaging in prayer and meditation and working to move our souls into the rhythms of the sacred pace of Celtic Spirituality.

When we leave Scotland, the final destination is Ireland. In Ireland, I'll have a chance to explore still more thin places such as Croagh Patrick - the holy mountain from which St. Patrick banished the snakes from Ireland. I'll also have a chance to climb Skellig Michael which has been a hope of mine since I learned of it's history. A monastic community was founded in the 6th century on this tiny island and persisted despite hardship and many challenges for about 700 years.

The Hope

Why all the travel? Why all the prayer? Here is my hope. I learned a few years ago that Ireland is the only place where when Christianity showed up, there was no bloodshed. Christians didn't kill to force conversions and neither did those learning about Christianity find a need to violently reject it. In fact, it seems likely that the druids - the pre-Christian priestly class - actually were early adopters of this new faith and spread it among their people. What I hope to learn is what made the pre-Christian Celts so ready for this new faith. Whatever I learn along those lines I hope it informs my understanding of Celtic Spirituality today. Celtic spirituality is a special expression of Christian faith that is rooted in a deep affinity for nature and sees all of creation as an expression of the sacred, an expression of God.

After I return, I pray I will be refreshed, renewed, and have a new vision for the next few years of ministry. In the coming year I hope to lead more than a couple adult forums to share from what I have learned and experienced.

Please Pray

Please pray for me. For safety, for openness, for heath and most importantly, that the Holy Spirit fills me and leads me to a deeper understanding of who I am in God and who God is in me.