Michael Harding

The cosmos is just here now I this moment. That's it. The entire 14billion years is in the click of your fingers. And the end is the beginning and the beginning is the ending. And it happens in every second of time. the entire thing from beginning to end happens now. And always now. And so if we take the Christian story we begin to see how it works as a meditation. We fall into a state of contemplation. It's not about understanding anything and certainly not God. Because there is no god, there is no understanding possible, and there is only this present moment here and now and one very useful handle on it is to tell ourselves the remarkable story of the man who became god because the god became man. 

This five years of podcasting has been a journey. in the beginning I didn't know where it was going. It's also a story. The story of my faith adventure. And this weekend I'd like to share a lovely focus on what we used to call Pentacost. So here is part one, which I hope you like. A kind of introduction. And this evening or in the morning I'll drop the second part, a reflection on those simple and amazing words; I believe in God. Which I translate as - I am aware of God, when the cosmos sits down beside me.And on Sunday evening I'll send out the final third part of this meditation to celebrate the great wonders of faith as a very useful strategy for wellness and well being. Enjoy. This is part one. Part Two later today. Part Three on Sunday.

This is my final song about the ancient and magical feast of Ascension. Try it out.

Was listening to Bono on the radio this morning speaking eloquently about his father, himself as a father, and the Father in heaven. And here is my take on the path; from illness to bliss, and using conventional practices to get find the way. You know when I'm sharing these podcasts I'm not trying to say anything intelligent. I'm just sharing who I am. Cos there is this unnameable secret in us all, this yearning for the awesome mystery at the heart of the world and we're all just trying to get there. So sharing this is like what a story teller should be doing, if this is the story; and this IS the story. 

Rushing this on a warm evening in Ennis where I'm on stage having a great time with book. But here is a bit of joy for May 16th. Blessings.

Mixing ideas about Easter with a Buddhist notion here. How these two traditions dovetail just amazes me all the time. But this is only my take. My imaginal ramblings. Hope you enjoy them. Part Two coming in an hour.

I've never tried to do this before. it always feels beyond my ability to talk about the finer points of theology but here we go. It's the Good Friday moment. And that's the first of three moments. The second is Holy Saturday. The third is Easter Sunday. So in this series of three, I'm dealing with them in sequence. Today I reflect on Good Friday, in the next podcast I will explore the one we rarely think about and that is Holy Saturday, and finally I'll try to share what really belief in Easter means for me. So this is part one of three.

New16 hours agoWell I began with a reflection on Lough Derg where I went last Easter with a friend for holy water, and then I couldn't resist rambling on about some amazing Buddhist history. I hope you like it, mingling dream, fantasy, faith, and two religions as we approach Easter. Let your faith be fun, and a fuel for your imagination. Or maybe that should be let your imagination be fun and a fuel for your faith. Happy weekend !

Maintaining faith in a God gets difficult in the world we live in. We seem to be facing chaos and darkness and suffering everywhere we look. So I'm delighted to share my personal strategy on it, and why I would bother holding on to this thing called faith. I suppose what perplexes me is Evil and the sense that God could hardly wish all this suffering of War Disease and Death to be inflicted on sentient beings. I find that true, and I have no answer. Unless I change the focus and turn my attention to love as it exists in the universe. Then everything changes.