In the Name of the Spirit

At the start of our events we often light a candle to signify the Divine presence and the light that has come into the world in Christ and in the Spirit. As a way of bringing our attention to that light and presence, I wrote a few words to draw us to an awareness of being embraced fully by the Spirit.    

We light a flame

In the name of God, the Creator, who breathes life into every thing.   

In the name of the Christ who embodies God's love and embraces life, death, and life again.

In the name of the Spirit who helps us remember who we are.      

I am creating a few blog posts to say a bit about each line of this “invocation”. Today we will be considering this line:

“In the name of the Spirit who helps us remember who we are.”

Celtic Christians are enamored by the “three-ness” of things. Many pre-Christians Celtic symbols celebrate the nature of Divine presence and truth as it arrives in threes. And Celtic Christians incorporated this primitive and basic sense of the rationality of three into their understanding of God. As do many Christian traditions, the Celts spoke of God as the “Trinity” - Creator, Christ, and Spirit. 

For millennia, theologians have worked to define “Spirit” but it seems always just out of reach. Spirit is not a thing to be defined as much as it is a presence or outpouring of God into Creation for all of eternity.   Much can be said about the nature of Spirit, but the foundational idea is always that Divine Spirit is powerful and always about the work of love.     

I have always enjoyed the idea that the Spirit is the unnamed love between Creator and Christ, or between Father or Mother and child. It is the powerful bond and co-created presence between persons, particularly the presence of God’s very self. The Spirit is the power of love calling every thing into harmony and restored relationship with the Source of all.  God is love, and the Spirit is the powerful and constant invitational force that unites our soul-heartbeat with the Divine heartbeat. The Divine narrative announces that eternity is always built upon relationship and love.      

We humanoids have a strong tendency to forget that we are forged out of relationship and are an expression of the “three-ness” of God. We easily fall into the belief that my little ego-based understanding of self is the center of truth, reality, and under my ultimate control. We tend to think of ourselves as separate from all else and thus we raise our self needs above those of others and Nature. We unconsciously adopt and champion the false truth that my needs are more important than yours, that my sense of myself is right while yours is wrong, and that my survival outweighs any or all of Creation.    This forgetting is bad enough when manifested in the life of one person, but as it gains strength in community, culture, and country it becomes devastating. The Spirit is at work sabotaging those small self-centered notions, beliefs, and practices in order to open us to the greater truth that we are born out of Love and called to participate in unity with God in many creative, sacrificial, life-giving, and restorative ways. We are always faced with the opportunity to wake up to who we truly are and embody that essential nature in all things.     

The Spirit’s invitation is not passive, but active. Although we often ignore the invitation to wake up to our truest selves, the Spirit is persistent and always present both within and without. The invitation is always upon us to fall into the truth that we are from God, walking with God, participating in God’s outpouring of love and power, and will return to God’s eternal being. This drawing of our hearts toward that which is of God’s essence sometimes arrives as a whisper and sometimes as a shout but is never silenced or extinguished. The Spirit is as ever-present as the relational energy between peoples, things, and all of Creation. Love, creativity, bonding, and co-creating new possibilities is not a luxury.   It is the very essence of who we are. To make all things new again by remembering all things is the gracious and constant work of the Great Spirit.   

Kirk Webb
Director of the Celtic Center