Gaelkirke Church of Christ - Celtic Rite

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Raymore, MO
Gaelkirke Church of Christ - Celtic Rite

Celebrating the antecedent "good-very-goodness" of Creation that has been actualized and made availab Amen.

Believing that the Faith Once Delivered was preserved in its most plain, pure and precious form by the Celtic Christians of the early post-apostolic period and that, in accordance with the Vincentian Rule, the perenniality and permanent validity of the content of that Faith is for that time and for all time, including our time, this campaign is being launched for the purpose of birthing a Celtic C

hristian community in the Cass County, Missouri area , hereafter to be known as: Gaelkirke - Church of Christ, Celtic Rite. This invitation to participate in this work is extended to: those wishing to support financially, whether in the form of one-time or periodic contributions, both large or small; those willing to sponsor ongoingly as benefactors; and, especially those desiring to become part of a society in the Cass County, Missouri area committed to worshipping and serving our loving and powerful Lord in the context of a Celtic Consciousness- being not primarily about ethnicity or geography, rather a "way of being" in the world which, while not dismissing the reality of brokenness, seeks to celebrate the antecedent "good-very-goodness" of Creation that has been actualized and made available through Christ the Lord. Funds secured through this campaign will be designated to "Phase One" of this project and will be utilized to: Identify and obtain a suitable site for the establishment of Gaelkirke House, which will serve as a Place of Peace, a "Thin-Place" to which folk can come to be refreshed and to refresh as well as the base from which all subsequent ministries will proceed; Formulate a Celtic Rite Liturgy which will preserve the essential elements of a Celtic Christian self-understanding while remaining relevant in a "post-christendom" civilization; Develop a comprehensive catachesis or Faith Enrichment Program which will serve to educate and edify Community members and friends; and, Articulate a "Rule of Life" to serve as a "Framework for Freedom" to which members and friends will be invited to embrace as we all journey together towards the the Life of Beatitude to which we are called. As a community which sees itself as an organic local expression of what may best be decribed as "orthodox", "consensual" and "classical" as well as "non-constantinian" and "incarnational" Christianity, Gaelkirke will affirm its identity essentially as a Communion which is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, in a mystical union with the Universal Church transcending time and place as well as a realized unity within the Communion of Saints of all times and places. Additionally, as a Church Community seeking to express itself in the context of a Celtic Consciousness, Gaelkirke embraces some specific distinctives which include:

1) Hope – Gaelkirke looks first for the good rather than the evil in all things. (Genesis 1:31; I Corinthians 13:13)

2) Equality – Of men and women, clergy and laity. (Galatians 3:28; I Peter 2:5)

3) Mystery – The Infinite God cannot be fully comprehended or explained by finite man but can be experienced and expressed and shared as we co-inhere through, with and in the Life of the Son. (I Timothy 6:16; I Corinthians 4:1; I Timothy 3:16; Romans 11:34-36)

4) Environment – Stewardship of God’s Creation. (Genesis 2:15; Psalm 8:6-8; I Corinthians 4:2)

5) Holism – Awareness of the sacred in all times and places; refusal to compartmentalize life. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7; Romans 14:8; Ephesians 1:9-10)

6) Immanence – God is present with His Creation. (Romans 11:36; Acts 17:27-28)

7) Simplicity – Emphasis on the plain, pure and precious basic essential doctrines. (II Corinthians 11:3; I Corinthians 15:3-4; I Corinthians 2:1-2; The Nicene Creed.)

8) Creativity – Since our God is Creator and made us in His image, we are like Him when we exercise creativity. (Psalm 33 ,40, 96, 98, 144, 149; 149:3)

9) Hospitality – While living a semi-aescetic existence, Celtic Christians were devoted to hospitality as well. They took seriously the admonitions not to forget to show hospitality to strangers. (Hebrews 13:2; Romans 12:10, 13)

10) Anamchara –An anamchara or soul-friend is someone to accompany you on your spiritual journey, walking together; so essential to spiritual formation that Saint Brigit is quoted as saying “A person without a soul friend is like a man without a head.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; James 5:16)

So, with that Gaelkirke offers to all the invitation of the Savior of all: Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you.

10/31/2024

Fanāʾ and Baqā: Holy Ground

Let the vision
of the vastness
you are
leave you
in glorious
ruins.

Pilgrims will come
to imagine
the grand temple
that once stood,
not realizing
the wreck
made this empty plain
holy ground.

(by Ivan Granger: Contemporary)

So often we imagine our spiritual journey to be one of construction. We want to build a great shining monument within ourselves. The Truth is that much of real spiritual work is actually about tearing down our self-made structures.

Happily, no perfect construction of spirituality is needed. We need only to reveal the holy life that is already the foundation of our becoming. With courage and supreme balance, stand back and do nothing. Staying poised.

As our facades collapse we begin to experience our liberation from self and only then the realization of our essential Unity with Self. That is when we discover the “empty plain” beneath our feet. And we are a part of that living space.

10/30/2024

Trance Ending Our Stories

Love came and emptied me of self,
every vein and every pore,
made into a container to be filled by the Beloved.
Of me, only a name is left,
the rest is You my Friend, my Beloved.

(by Abu-Said Abil-Kheir: 967-1049)

When the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves can no longer be sustained, one option is to cling to the crumbling edifice and be injured by its collapse. Another option is to construct a new story.

Or we can let all stories fall away. We can stop struggling to be either this or that. We can actually step beyond our stories. That is when we rediscover what we actually are. That is when hidden doorways open.

The little self is simply the sum total of all the stories we tell ourselves. When those stories fall away, the self becomes empty of itself. We then become a cup, empty and ready to be filled.

Any life struggle or experience, pleasant or unpleasant—can be transformed into a teacher of wisdom when we stop taking it person-ally. Wisdom roots itself most deeply when we keep our hearts engaged and our eyes open in the midst of our shifting self-stories.

What can one do but stand in silent awe of the vision that emerges, showing us how much bigger we are than even our grandest stories?

10/29/2024

The Thunder, Perfect Mind

I was sent forth from the power,
and I have come to those who reflect upon me,
and I have been found among those who seek after me.
Look upon me, you who reflect upon me,
and you hearers, hear me.

You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves.
And do not banish me from your sight.
And do not make your voice hate me, nor your hearing.
Do not be ignorant of me anywhere or any time.
Be on your guard! Do not be ignorant of me.

I am the substance and the one who has no substance.
Those who are without association with me are ignorant of me,
and those who are in my substance are the ones who know me.

Those who are close to me have been ignorant of me,
and those who are far away from me
are the ones who have known me.

On the day when I am close to you,
you are far away from me,
and on the day when I am far away from you,
I am close to you.

10/28/2024

The Unbroken

There is a brokenness
out of which comes
the unbroken,
a shatteredness
out of which blooms
the unshatterable.

There is a sorrow
beyond all grief which leads
to joy and a fragility
out of whose depths
emerges strength.

There is a hollow space
too vast for words
through which we pass with each loss,
out of whose darkness
we are sanctioned into being.

There is a cry deeper than all sound
whose serrated edges cut the heart
as we break open to the place inside
which is unbreakable and whole,
while learning to sing.

(by Rashani Réa: Contemporary)

10/26/2024

Slowly…

I am beginning to understand
That I cannot see You with my eyes
But only with my heart

For so long I have been
Trying to catch a glimpse of You
Staring madly
Into the middle distance

Now effortlessly
In moments
You are here
My heart empties
Into You
And I am no more.
(by Ayaz)

10/25/2024

On Waking

In that vast land
that exists between dream
and waking, there is no I
and no other-than-I.

There are no borders,
no citizens, no factions,
no right side, no wrong side.

A realm of pure openness
where I am not aligned
with any feelings or beliefs,
where I am wholly breath and being.

How would it be to bring
such openness into the day?
To fly across the lines
of I and not-I
the way a bird flies
between countries,
across state lines,
across fence lines.

To know the Self
as seamless, undivided.

(by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer)

10/19/2024

Moksha

on the terrace of immortals
i am laughing at mortality
I climb straight to silence
where there is no ambiguity

my eyes are like jade cubes of ice
they smile into the wind
and tear at the rainy sun

through favor or disfavor
I pay no mind at all
in poverty or solitude

though the dreams of living
be filled with uncertainty and doubt
i speak the original language
of waiting without thinking

of loving without seizing
i find the shinning moonlight
is whiter than long ago
what’s the use of contending?

with grief or disgrace
to both I can aptly respond
only light resides in the
city of the mind, in the
distance of the heart
that knows no separation

between places, centuries, entities
we drift happily like the clouds
our lives turn like the leaves.

(by Wuji Seshat: Contemporary)

10/18/2024

Rooted

Walk lightly
pay keen attention
practice gratitude
but not at the expense
of truth
take sparingly
share.

An Underground Web
writes the Story
my roots
belong to Earth.

Listen to
feathered voices
seek mushroom clouds
keep breathing deep
into the forest floor
feel that luminous Light
rooted beneath my feet.

(by Sara Wright: Contemporary)

10/17/2024

What Is Here

Midsummer, she stood in the midst
of deep blue delphinium
and did not move.
Stood until she became a delphinium.
Till she petalled and pollened
and blued.

Oh, joy in the flesh
that forgets it is bound to an I.
Joy in the flesh that remembers
it’s part of it all.

Months later,
she returns to the stems,
tall and brown and dead.
Did she really believe
things would not change?

This is the way she learns
what she wants the most:
To be open to falling in love
with the world as it is—
beyond hope, beyond wish,
beyond memory.

To not mistake love
for the object of love.
To stand in the midst
of what is brittle and gone
and fall in love with
exactly what is here.

(Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: Contemporary)

10/16/2024

Desert Tears

And she went into the desert to find the answers.
She looked into the sky and began to ask,
And the days passed.

When no answers came
She looked across the land and asked again,
And the days passed.

When she realized the desert could not answer,
Tears from the heart began to fill her eyes.
And the tears fell like spring rain
Forming a small pool at her feet.
And she looked into the water
And watched the sands drink of her suffering.

Then the answers came.

(by Stewart Bitkoff: Contemporary)

10/15/2024

The Sacrament of Bewilderment

What is Tao?
It is just this.
It cannot be rendered into speech.
If you insist on an explanation,
This means exactly this.

(by Lu Tung Pin: 755 – 805)

I remember the first time I tried to navigate through the Tao Te Ching as a teenager. There was undeniably something beautiful and poetic about it, but it was so infuriatingly vague! What is "the Tao"? Calling it The Way doesn't help. Are we talking about God? Something else? Other Taoist writings were the same, taunting me with endless non-definitions. It took me years to begin to appreciate this approach.

There's a real dilemma at the heart of religion and spiritual endeavor. The Eternal, the Whole cannot be adequately held by such small containers as words. Yet we humans are instinctively communicators and word-makers.

What are the sages and saints to do with what they witness? How do they render the Eternal comprehensible to others and inspire new seekers? Describe the profound love and bliss and unity, and we naturally name it Mother. Convey the immensity and power, we name it Father. Or we say Beloved. Or Friend.

All of these are valid ways to begin to form a notion of the Eternal. Through these words we as individuals can form a relationship to this vast Reality. And through this relationship we can be drawn into deeper awareness, into deeper opening, and into our own direct encounter at which point we realize how inadequate all words are.

The problem arises when the mystics are no longer heard or are relegated to history, when too few people have their own direct wordless encounter. Then we end up with entire religions stuck at the level of words.

No matter how sacred and truth-filled those words may be, words are always incomplete. Words alone are soon taken literally, and then true gnosis is lost. Not knowing what is real, religion becomes embalmed, self-protective, sectarian, and often violent.

The wounds of religion are healed through compassion and through direct perception. Instead of forcing meaning, we settle into ourselves and come to see things as they are.

10/13/2024

Shabad

Water, which becomes turbid by relishing the earth,
Gets cleansed of its impurities when filtered.
Waves of pure bliss emanate from the heart
When the moss that covers it is removed.

The invisible world is contained within the human eye.
Behold the universe within, through your astral eye.
When that eye is opened, everything stands revealed.

The Soul in expansion will hear
The resounding peals of the unstruck melody.
She will uncover and know
The essence of the Sacred Hymn.

They alone will know that perfect state,
Who have seen and experienced it themselves.

(by Tulsi Sahib: 1763 - 1843)

Address

POB 281
Raymore, MO

Website

http://gaelkirke.wordpress.com/

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