Worship is justice. And there is a devotional life that is bigger than one's personal time with God. This is what i am thinking today.
Debbie and Miriam (another pilgrim who moved up to Orkney to pray) are on a ferry to visit the island of Westray today. According to a book i am reading "Pilgrimage sites of the Orkney Isles", Westray has at least 2 of those 15 significant Celtic monastic sites..
Interesting thought from the book: "Modern day pilgrims are following in the steps of those who were determined to keep the devotional life alive . . "
THE devotional life . . . not OUR or MY devotional life.
The previous church world that i was brought up in emphasized the individual's devotional life, and there wasn't a sense of a communal devotional life, or a devotional life that was perhaps even larger than that - something that spans time and space, spans generations, something that demands we continue in.
Maybe this is why some of us have been called up here. The devotional life of the Celtic monks on these islands ceased, their way of following Jesus was partially squashed by the Romans, acquired by Vikings, their buildings demolished by the Reformers (they left only 2 churches intact in Orkney) and pilgrimage routes stopped. Maybe God is reestablishing worship on these islands, not for our personal growth or our private devotional lives but for THE devotional life that must stay alive - all things must worship their Creator. Worship is justice. When there is no worship, no rightful response given back to the Creator, then a void is substituted in its place. To worship is to reestablish justice. To call up and maintain the devotional life is to help establish justice, to shift the world towards RIGHTness.
