Fully Alive in God

  Cuando las cosas van terriblemente mal Éxodo 3, Salmo 26, Romanos 12, Mateo 16   Todos los Santos, Oxnard Rev. Alene Campbell-Langdell con La Revda. Melissa Campbell-Langdell   ¿Qué pasa cuando las cosas van terriblemente mal? Como mencione la semana pasada, una de nuestras paradas en el viaje fue el catedral en Kildare, Irlanda. Esta es la iglesia ancestral de Santa Brígida. Ella y los monjes y monjas en su abadía fueron conocidos como los que mantenían un fuego santo. Antes de que Brígida llego a ese lugar, fue un sitio santo a los druidas, y en una época antes de nuestra facilidad en crear fuego, mantener una llama dedicada para una comunidad en un lugar a veces muy frio fue un deber sagrado. Santa Brígida dedico el fuego a Cristo y lo mantenía. Aunque la iglesia fue quemada varias veces por los Vikingos, el santo fuego continuo hasta que el Rey Enrique Octavo lo extinguió en el sigo 16 cuando estaba cerrando los monasterios. ¿Qué pasa cuando las cosas ...

  M. Campbell-Langdell All Santos, Oxnard (Exodus 1:8–2:10; Ps.124; Romans 12:1–8; Matthew 16:13–20)   Good morning, everyone! I am very happy to be back with you all at All Santos and I hope the time has been an interesting one as you have heard various preaching voices. I am certainly grateful for the time of rest and renewal and a bit of adventure I have had over the past two months. I was blessed to travel to Japan, including the island of Okinawa, to see one of my best friends and my goddaughter, and then I came back for a rest before heading to an eight-day Centering Prayer retreat. After the retreat and a rest, with Dave’s funeral thrown in there, Alene and I headed to my birth country of England and saw some cousins, communicated with my godmother and got to stay with another dear friend in Hull. Then we journeyed on to Wales and Dublin, Ireland. We stopped by Eugene, Oregon, connecting with Monica there, on the way home, to see some other friends. It was a won...

  M. Campbell-Langdell All Santos, Oxnard (Éxodo 1:8–2:10; Salmo 124; Romanos 12:1–8; San Mateo 16:13–20)   ¡Buenos días! Estoy emocionada para estar de regreso con ustedes en Todos los Santos. Espero que el tiempo de mi ausencia haya sido interesante mientras escuchen otras voces en la predicación. Estoy sumamente agradecida por este tiempo de descanso y renovación. Además, tuve un par de aventuras lo que fue muy especial. Visite a Japón, incluyendo la isla de Okinawa, donde vive mi comadre y mi ahijada. Luego, después de un descanso participe en un retiro de Oración de Centramiento por ocho días. Después del retiro y un poco de descanso para empacar, y el funeral de Dave, Alene y yo fuimos a mi país natal, Inglaterra. Vimos a unos primos en Londres y comunique con mi madrina. Luego fuimos a York y Hull donde quedamos unos días con una gran amiga desde hace anos y su familia. Finalmente fuimos a Gales y Dublín, Irlanda. Regresamos a casa, parando en Eugene, Oregón par...

We had quite the adventure in Wales and Ireland. First we took the train to Holyhead from Hull, going via Manchester. We arrived and wheeled our bags uphill half a mile (a lot harder than it sounds on narrow streets) to our BnB. Having thankfully eaten dinner already, we settled in the parlor with a free drink and chatted with guests from Northern Ireland and Germany. The next day I spotted this little one having milk near the BnB. We checked out St. Cybi's church, the site of a Roman fort that had been then taken over as a Christian church. There is a local pilgrimage between this church and another church associated with another local saint, St. Seiriol. St. Cybi would walk to meet St. Sieriol to visit, and since he walked towards the sun he would become tanned and got a nickname as such. By contrast. Sieriol was light skinned as the sun was always at his back. In Holyhead we also walked by the water and took the bus to another bustling oceanside area. I stuck my feet into the oc...

  What a lovely week so far of connecting with family and friends! We landed in London, which was hot but beautiful, and got to our hotel in the downtown area off of the Strand and close to Covent Garden, which boasts views like the above. The next day was Six! and you can see the lovely Vaudeville theatre above. It is a play that fills in more details of the lives of Henry the Eighths' six wives with a feminist spin. But beforehand, we explored some London sites and churches, including a whimsical and moving exhibit on Pall Mall (Palace Mall) by a British-Chinese artist exploring the concepts of home, a walk around St. James' Park and a visit to a couple of churches. London was colorful and grand, and we even got to visit with two of my cousins. Sadly my godmother was not up for a visit but we had a marvelous email exchange, and perhaps my visit was the catalyst for a deeper sharing with her. It was great to see cousins I had not seen in 7 and 15 years respectively! Here is my...

  Last week, I was blessed by the opportunity to take part in an eight-day silent retreat given by Contemplative Outreach at Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Encino. For the first three days, Alene joined me, which was a blessing. On the last day, she picked me up, and we even got to see the Odyssey with my parents at a movie theatre on the way back!  Every day, we sat for meditation in the morning, ate in silence, and had a teaching session about contemplative practices and Centering Prayer by Fr. Bill Sheehan, an expert on CP who has been practicing since its start in the US in the early 1980's with Fr. Thomas Keating. The sessions were the only times when we could talk. After a daily Eucharist service (serving communion to all who believe in the real presence), we ate lunch in silence, did an optional two-part sit, then had downtime in the afternoon to do crafts/pray/read/walk, and then in the evening we would eat dinner in silence, do a sit and have quiet time to reflect. Thi...