My earliest memories of creation are primarily of light. They come to me in a kaleidoscope of recollection, of light reflecting off the waters of northern Canadian lakes where I spent time as a boy or of the clarity of the night skies above those same waters. I often would sit mesmerized by the sun’s setting colours or by the immediacy of starlight in the dark. I do not believe that I am unusual in this, nor do I think that the wilderness of the context was necessary to the depth of the impression, for I also remember light in the city, glistening off the metallic chrome of cars or dappling through the white curtains of my nursery window. In fact it is important that these memories are not unique, for the experience of the light that is in creation is a universal gift.
— J. Philip Newell from The Book of Creation: An Introduction to Celtic Spirituality
The light of the moon does not banish the dark as the sun does, flooding the world with its light. Rather, the moon is like a lamp in the night. It knows the night rather than fearing it. Darkness is allowed its space, and mystery is revealed.
— J. Philip Newell from The Book of Creation: An Introduction to Celtic Spirituality
May the Angels of Light
May the angels of light
glisten for us this day.
May the sparks of God’s beauty
dance in the eyes of those we love.
May the universe
be on fire with Presence for us this day.
May the new sun’s rising
grace us with gratitude.
Let earth’s greenness shine
and its waters breathe with Spirit.
Let heaven’s winds stir the soil of our soul
and fresh awakenings rise within us.
May the mighty angels of light
glisten in all things this day.
May they summon us to reverence,
may they call us to life.
— J. Philip Newell from Praying with the Earth: A Prayerbook for Peace
Blessed Are You Who Bear the Light
Blessed are you
who bear the light
in unbearable times,
who testify
to its endurance
amid the unendurable,
who bear witness
to its persistence
when everything seems
in shadow
and grief.
Blessed are you
in whom
the light lives,
in whom
the brightness blazes—
your heart
a chapel,
an altar where
in the deepest night
can be seen
the fire that
shines forth in you
in unaccountable faith
in stubborn hope
in love that illumines
every broken thing
it finds.
— Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace
See Also:
- Light Everywhere
- Flood the Path with Light
- Even In Darkness It Is Possible To Create Light
- I Want To Write Of The Light
- The Eternal Light of the Servant Candle
- The Light Came, But Not Without a Fight
- Numb The Dark And You Numb The Light
- Stars at Night: When Darkness Unfolds as Light
