zephyrofgod | (no subject)

It's snowing.

Here come 4-8 inches of the stuff.

YAY.

ick.

Oh, yes.

I'm in the process of getting Valentines ready to go for my co-workers. Any ideas for fun and funky-cool ideas? I was going to take a Coke can and futz with it so that it looked really neat, but more and more thinking isn't helping that idea. I'm also going to make sugar cookies for everyone.

I'm giving chocolate up for Lent. Yes, I know. I'm not Catholic. But it's honestly the best thing I've ever done and makes me realise how dependent I really am on God. And being surrounded by it at work, well, 'nuff said, yo.

I'm also going on this exploration of what it means to be a Celtic Christian. I've been listening to Eden's Bridge, Michael Card's Starkindler and Poiema (which I have fallen in love with, honestly. Yes, both of them), Maire Brennan (Enya's sister), and John Michael Talbot's music. It's only one stop for me. After music, I think I'll look at the art, like the Book of Kells. And then into the Irish, Scots, and British theologians of our time. I have one last empty paper journal to write in. If anyone has a lead that they think I should look at, I'd be very much obliged to look there. Thanks.

Z

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I don't think doing something for Lent is a Roman Catholic thing. I'm an Anglican and we are usually encouraged to give something up or take something on. I used to periodically attend an Orthodox church and they do things for Lent too.

What do you think of Maire Brennan? I've never bought her Cds, but read someone describing her solo work as being like Enya, but more overtly Christian.

My two favourite Celtic Christian books are "Celtic Worship" by Ray Simpson (a collection of prayers, liturgies, etc) and "Anam cara" by John O'Donohue.

And we're getting rain here, but it's supposed to go below zero tonight so that it will all freeze and be slippery tomorrow. I thought you lived in the Southern U.S. You aren't supposed to get snow.

I like both Enya and Maire, honestly. Yes, her stuff is more overtly Christian, but I have to tell you, both sisters have music that sounds incredible amounts alike.

I'm actually in Northwest Missouri. We get snow. Not as often as, oh, let's say Boston or NYC or Minnesota, but yes, we get snow. And ice. And slush. And all of the above.

I grew up Presbyterian, so the whole giving up for Lent wasn't highly encouraged. My family now attends a Charismatic Protestant church, and it's still not heavily encouraged, but it's not discouraged, either. My mother was a Catholic for ten years, and both my brother and I were baptised as such, and going to a university with a high Catholic percentage in a Catholic part of the state, it's quite the trickle-down effect. Personally, I think the Great Schism is starting to heal. And that makes me happy.

Being raised Baptist, I thought lent was something you found in a clothes dryer, until I got to high school and started hanging around the Catholics and Episcopalians. Rednecks ...

Hey, check out Maire Brennan's album "Perfect Time." Beautiful!

Read the Nag-Hammadi Library, or just the Gospel of Thomas.

It gives you a good idea of what Christianity really was before the Nicene Creed, the Roman conversion, the advent of orthodoxy, and 1700 years of terrible edits for political purposes.

I own it, actually. It's a great album, isn't it?

I would, but that's not where my focus is laying right now. I'm searching for the Apocrypha, just as a reference, especially with the Maccabean War.

Those are all apocryphal texts.

And the Gospel of Thomas is probably the most authentically Christian text that still exists.

I'm sure it is. I'm focusing on something else, though.