Dylan is(as you will see) a very moving writer. I hadn't known, 'til now, how deeply he felt these same things. As he is my nephew(more like a brother, really) it makes me very happy to hear these feelings expressed so beautifully and seriously. Hoping he does not mind my quoting him, he writes:
"Something in my soul yearns for the memories of the early growing church, at a time after apostasy, but still so close to the original truth. Something before the 'Catholic' church, but after the Apostasy. My guess is that perhaps our ancestors started accepting Christ around this time.
I feel this excitement and yearning, and I use it to fuel my desire to do the work of the Lord. Yet part of me is still Pagan, deep in me, wanting to participate in the old traditions and ways of our wayward ancestors. It envelopes my bloodstream, like the salt which is in the sea, and the mist in the air of the Celtic lands. Older than the Romans, older than the Greeks, being off to ourselves with our Pagan gods even ages before the Birth of the Christ, come to save us all. We waited in our green lands with our unseen gods, and came unto Christ based upon what little we had of Him, but through this all, we liked our old ways, instilled in our blood.
That blood still runs through our veins, but now we have the fullness of the Christ, and we still yearn for the old ways. I try to turn this yearning towards learning more of the truth, our ancestors didn't have all the truth. They must have found the end of those lacking truths, and filled it with what they already knew."
dear Mairi Mae, I wish this whole long scrolling of you and what you have given would never end. Fitting that this piece of Dylan's is here, and it seems even more powerful than when I first read it! I LOVED the photo of you in your kilt--and the "stance" was perfect for the context of right now. You're doing an excellent job here, with a reason for regular postings. I hope you keep it up as a kind of journal once you are in Scotland itself. SUSA
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