Bøker av Ray Simpson

Although we often think the definition of shalom is "peace," the Hebrew word encompasses far wider meanings, including completeness, well-being, safety, prosperity, contentment, health, friendliness, and rest. Shalom implies the divinely ordained state of well-being, of justice, equity, and fulfilment, which God wants for each of us as individuals and for all of us as communities. It's a state of harmony, an interwoven connection that supports and nourishes both the parts and the whole.God yearns to heal all that is wounded or diseased, restore all that is lost, and mend all that is broken. This is the work of Christ, reconciling all Creation with Divinity, so that we all enter and participate in shalom. We need shalom in our bodies, our minds, and our spirits-and we need it in our relationships and in our communities. In these prayers, Ray Simpson invites us to offer up all that is broken or unhealthy, so that we can experience the full meaning of shalom.May the Divine Creator make us instruments of healing.May the Complete Christ take from us all that frustrates healing.May the Holy Spirit give us power for healing.

Join Ray Simpson in prayer as you follow the hidden way to spiritual life.Ray Simpson has spent his life following the mystic's path that lies hidden in the midst of everyday life. This path is also the heart of Celtic Christianity: simply following in Christ's footsteps in the ordinariness of life. From this perspective, everything becomes an act of spiritual meaning-getting up in the morning and going to bed at night, going to work and playing with children, suffering pain and rejoicing in pleasure, working together in friendships and families and communities.Ultimately, the hidden path is the way of love-love of God, love of other human beings, and love of all Creation, including our own selves. Love weaves through all Reality, expressed in souls and cells and societies. Love empowers us to walk confidently, even when the way ahead is obscured, for this is also the Path of Promise. As it leads us through the humdrum details of each day, our earthly lives participate in eternity. As John Chrysostom wrote in the fourth century, "Love brings us heaven."Knowing One of the hidden path,Infinite One of the wise heart,may I learn from night, may I learn from day.Show me your hidden path.

Energize us with Your compassion, Giver of Life,to help the dispossessed, to listen to those without voices,and to reach out in friendship to all.Empower us with Your love; encourage us with Your Spirit;make us strong to bring Your justiceto individuals, communities, nations, and the entire globe.Our society often assumes that "justice" has to do with punishment. We think it means we make criminals pay for their crimes. The biblical meaning of the word "justice," however, means "to make right." This concept of justice has to do with healthy relationships based on equity and kindness; it refers to a society based on life-giving relationships between God, human beings, and the natural world. This is the world Ray Simpson seeks to build, and he offers these prayers as openings into the Divine power that constantly seeks to heal and restore.Remind us, God of Love,that when we eagerly desire the best for one another,the differences between us no longer seem as important.Knowing that we share the same origin, the same essence,and the same journey together away from fragmentation,may we work with You toward the completion of all thingsand all people, so that in Christ,we might be reunitedin love.

Holy Spirit,breathe upon the cosmos.May it share in Christ's resurrectionand grow with the birth pangs of his kingdom.May we, even in the middleof its groanings and agony,be instruments of its healingand breathe peace upon it this day.In the prayers collected in this book, Ray Simpson asks us to "hear the cry of the earth and work together to 'choose life'" (Deuteronomy 30:19). He reminds us that Divine life courses through Earth's rivers, breathes through her winds, and sings in each life form she nourishes, and he invites us to celebrate Earth's beauty as we learn from her deep wisdom. At the same time, with a prophet's clear voice, he calls to us to repent of our selfishness and ignorance, and commit ourselves to the Earth's healing and restoration. "Come!" he says. "Celebrate! Learn! Repent! Take hands and work together! Join in Creation's dance with all your strength and soul!"May every soul join with the song Nature sings.May the birds sing,may the trees clap,and may we humans taste and dance.

The ancient Celts found God''s presence in each ordinary moment of the day. Everything they encountered revealed to them the presence of the sacred; each day was deep with meaning. Now you too can practice the Celts'' faith, as you take a few moments to immerse yourself in their wisdom. These small daily moments of reflection and insight will open your heart to each day and all it holds.This day I call to meGod''s strength to direct me,God''s power to sustain me,God''s wisdom to guide me. . . .God''s sheild to protect me.(Saint Patrick)Celtic spirituality is luminous with poetry and prayer, stories and sagas, canticles and contemplation. In this splendid book of daily readings, Ray Simpson draws from scripture, liturgy, folklore, his knowledge of history, and the power of his own experience to weave a richly textured tapestry of insight, invocation, and invitation. Spend some time each morning with these spiritual readings, and the blessing of Celtic wisdom will be yours. -Carl McColman, author of Befriending Silence: Discovering the Gifts of Cistercian Spirituality, The Big Book of Christian Mysticism, and Answering the Contemplative Call: First Steps on the Mystical PathThis book''s spiritual insights coupled with stories and prayers from the Celtic tradition have shaped my daily life for several years now. It would be hard to imagine so much wisdom packaged between two covers-and yet Ray Simpson has skillfully distilled it into day-size portions that bless and enrich the meaning of ordinary daily life. -Kenneth McIntosh, author of Water from an Ancient Well: Celtic Spirituality for Modern Life and Magic Reversed

Celtic Spirituality for the Modern WorldThe world of the long-ago Celts appeals to many of us in the twenty-first century. Whether we are looking to find our cultural heritage or are seeking an alternative to worn and restrictive religious forms, the earth-centered, woman-friendly, inclusive faith of the Christian Celts offers us a deep-rooted alternative approach to traditional Christianity. The Celts experienced "thin places," where they sensed the supernatural world; they honored their poets, singers, and artists; and they passionately followed the Christ of the Gospels. Theirs was a church without walls, which lived naturally and comfortably within the community. Ray Simpson has spent most of his life walking in the footsteps of the Christian Celts, and now he allows us to experience for ourselves their dynamic spirituality.

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,for through him God created everything. . . . He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.-Colossians 1:15-17Like a vast, ever-growing Tree of Life, Christ-the expression of Divine love-expands endlessly throughout the universe. This is the perspective of ancient Celtic spirituality, and it is this concept that Ray Simpson reveals in his poem-prayers. Inspired by the traditional Celtic style of prayer, he gives words to our individual relationships with God. He speaks of the wonder, beauty, and love revealed through the Universal Christ, the Tree of Life that includes all that is. Each and everything in creation is sacred, for everything is a word of God-and we too are called to be God''s words to our world.

Ray Simpson has given his life, both professionally and personally, to Celtic Christianity, and now he helps us to celebrate a Celtic outlook on the season of Christmas. With their eloquent yet simple words, his prayers welcome the Holy One who comes to us in small, ordinary ways, who is present in the helpless and the vulnerable. As we join Ray in prayer, we stand on the threshold to paradox and mystery-and we "prepare the way" for God to enter our world anew.

Monk in the Marketplace is the autobiography of Ray Simpson, founding guardian of the Community of Aidan and Hilda, much-loved author of books on Celtic spirituality, and a major influence on the new monastic movement across the world. Ray's memoir charts human pain and God incidents in his childhood and college, baptisms of fire in industrial heartlands and multi-racial London, pioneering a Village of God at Bowthorpe, Norwich, the call to be a contemplative in the market-place and to live without a salary, his co- founding of the Community of Aidan and Hilda, and twenty years as founder of the Celtic Christianity library and Open Gate Retreat House on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne ('the spiritual capital of England'). This could become a classic 'diary of a soul' and his excursions into the Simpsons are hilarious.

Celtic Christianity is the key not only for the future of the Church but of the whole planet, argues Ray Simpson, Founding Guardian of the Community of Aidan and Hilda.

Seventh-century Ireland is becoming a land of saints, scholars, and spiritual foster mothers as well as warriors. The boy Aidan, a descendant of Saint Brigid, is formed by all of these as well as by a pilgrimage, aborted by an Arab uprising, on which he meets a follower of the Prophet Muhammad. He is transferred to Iona, the mother-house of Saint Columba's family of monasteries, where his character is forged. Aidan becomes guest-master to challenging visitors, one of whom conducts a mysterious affair, suffers a midlife crisis, and develops friendships with royal Saxon exiles at the Dunadd court, the seat of the "real" King Arthur. Iona commissions Aidan to evangelize the original WASPs: the White, Anglo-Saxon Pagan invaders of Britain. Aidan offers a radically different approach to that of the Roman missionaries. His gentle grassroots gospel-sharing through friendship, his villages of God that model God's kingdom, his introduction of spiritual foster-mothers such as Hilda to the English, his soul friendships and heartbreaks with successive saintly and power-hungry kings, and his near-death foresight into the future take us inside the heroic spiritual formation of a person and a people in a story that has contemporary significance. Even Aidan's name, Flame, tells a story of its own

Surveying the life and times of Aidan of Lindisfarne, this book draws insights into missional approaches to inspire both outreach and discipleship for today¿s Church. As in his previous BRF book, Hilda of Whitby, Ray Simpson shows that such figures from past centuries can provide models for Christian life and witness today. An author and speaker on Celtic spirituality with a worldwide reputation, he combines historical fact with spiritual lessons in a highly accessible style.

In the dark and turbulent centuries after the Roman occupation of Britain, and during the Anglo-Saxon colonisation, the light of heaven still shone through the work and witness of the monastic communities, 'villages of God', which dotted the land. This book explores the Hilda's life and ministry.