I will try an experiment today because this blog community has been so versatile and spirited. Today in our chp from Tracy Balzer, Thin Places, I want to post two items and get your reflections.

Chp 6 is about “Saints and Symbols,” but mostly about “Symbols (and a little about Saints).” Tracy’s opening section about symbols evoked Alexander Schmemann’s For the Life of the World. “Since they [the Celts] seemed to have been determined to see the glory of God in all times and places, it follows that their own worship would be filled with image and symbolism” (135). In other words, the Celts found reason to see the presence of God or the evocation of God in the graphic, the visible, and the concrete. In short, ordinary things became sacramental.
Nothing like the Celtic cross, with its circle, and the Celtic knot. I’ve not done this but I’m wondering today if we could have a “meditative conversation.” I’m posting two pictures of a Celtic cross and a Celtic knot and ask you to reflect on what you see and what it leads you to think about.
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Here is a pattern of the Celtic cross at the Durham Cathedral decorating a page of the Gospel of Matthew:
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Here are my thoughts:
I see in every Celtic cross I observe — especially if I slow down to ponder it — an image of the Trinity — the Trinity who in perichoretic and unceasing love surrounds everything the Cross stands for.
I see in the Celtic knot the connection of heart, soul, mind and strength, the connection of all of earth with God, and the reminder to keep all of life focused on the one needful thing.
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