Celtic Christian Spirituality Within An Urban Environment

Living the Celtic Christian Way in the suburban/urban environment fills my thoughts on most days. It is like a companion on the journey who beckons me, “come and engage me. Let me awaken new visions and insights.”

These thoughts, these engagements…do they have the power to give birth to feelings? Are they the rain to nurture a growing awareness of the divine all around me? Do they call me into a deeper contemplation about life in general and move me to embrace deep, particular friendship at the same time?

The traffic is much heavier than when we moved here twenty years ago. The freeways themselves have physically grown wider. New freeways and some not so free have blazed new paths in Colorado. Many have, like us, decided to call this home. The light rail is old enough to run and mature enough to give birth. Choirs of sirens now sing throughout the day and night. As we move closer into summer the orange cones of human design decorate these busy roads. Who says we hate plastic flowers? Their gardeners adorn the same material with matching colored vests. It is a brightened, noisy, and warming time of year.

Nature is here too! She has entered with vivid shades of brilliant greens as her foundational attraction. We are thankful for the bounty of rain that makes this so alive. The flowers are striking their colors for all to see. The bees are buzzing, the birds are singing, that rabbits are running and rolling playfully in the green grass, the squirrels are a tumbling with one another, even the ducks’ waddle has an extra kick in it these days.

Being a Celtic Christian in terms of my spirituality has never given me dreams to escape my suburban home nor called me to condemn the city. It is restoring some spiritual balance to my life. It does open my heart to appreciate others’ spiritual paths in new ways. It is watering the profound sense of gratitude I have for the “human made” things of this life as it intersects with Mother Nature’s many gifts to us.

Throughout the summer months I will start “breaking this” down into some thoughtful nuggets. I invite you to join in the conversation as often as you like.

In closing, please remember one of our spiritual mentors in spirit, Teilhard de Chardin. May 1st was the anniversary of his birth. I feel his presence often when I engage the weavings between our ancient Celtic Way and our contemporary urban setting. One never knows what or who will be birthed on any given day. So let’s walk together, we all need community during these times. Let’s keep our eyes open and SEE what God is up to on this day, tomorrow and every day.

Peace,

Scott Jenkins