Friday is for Friends<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today we begin a conversation about Tracy Balzer's book, Thin Places. It is an invitation to Celtic spirituality. I hope you join us. An opening question:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Friday is for Friends\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today we begin a conversation about Tracy Balzer's book, Thin Places. It is an invitation to Celtic spirituality. I hope you join us. An opening question:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-08-24T05:30:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=ur2&o=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/\",\"name\":\"Friday is for Friends\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-08-24T05:30:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-08-24T05:30:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Today we begin a conversation about Tracy Balzer's book, Thin Places. It is an invitation to Celtic spirituality. I hope you join us. An opening question:\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Friday is for Friends\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Friday is for Friends","description":"Today we begin a conversation about Tracy Balzer's book, Thin Places. It is an invitation to Celtic spirituality. I hope you join us. An opening question:","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Friday is for Friends","og_description":"Today we begin a conversation about Tracy Balzer's book, Thin Places. It is an invitation to Celtic spirituality. I hope you join us. An opening question:","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2007-08-24T05:30:40+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=ur2&o=1"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/","name":"Friday is for Friends","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-08-24T05:30:40+00:00","dateModified":"2007-08-24T05:30:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"Today we begin a conversation about Tracy Balzer's book, Thin Places. It is an invitation to Celtic spirituality. I hope you join us. An opening question:","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Friday is for Friends"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":3180,"date":"2007-08-24T00:30:40","date_gmt":"2007-08-24T05:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/"},"modified":"2007-08-24T00:30:40","modified_gmt":"2007-08-24T05:30:40","slug":"friday-is-for-friends-54","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/08\/24\/friday-is-for-friends-54\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday is for Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Today we begin a conversation about Tracy Balzer\u2019s book, Thin Places<\/a> $\"\"$ . It is an invitation to Celtic spirituality. I hope you join us.
\nAn opening question: What have you learned from the Celtic way?
\nTracy begins with a succinct survey of her spiritual autobiography and provides an example of how God has spoken to her \u2014 in prayer and worship, sacrament, Word, fellowship, intellect, friendship, silence and the Celtic way.
\nEach chapter has a journal entry, a discussion of a topic, a Celtic Blessing (always worth it to read these), a meditation text and some discussion questions. (Thus, this book is great for a group.)
\nThe focus of today is on \u201cthin places.\u201d The pagan Celts believed that certain places were sacred and loaded with religious significance. As the Celtic regions became infused with Christians, especially after St. Patrick<\/a> $\"\"$ , those sacred places were Christianized. They became what is called \u201cthin places.\u201d
\nWhat is a thin place? \u201cAny place that creates a space and an atmosphere that inspires us to be honest before God and to listen to the deep murmurings of his Spirit within us is thin\u201d (298).
\nWe don\u2019t have to go to Iona or to Glendalough or to Monasterboice or Saul \u2014 anyone been to these places? We don\u2019t have enter a church or find a retreat center or go to the woods or alongside a beach \u2014 thin places are anywhere that is conducive for us to listen to and hear from God. But many of us know some thin places \u2014 and many of us have experienced thin places in a place like Iona.
\n\u201cWhat makes a place truly thin? Before all else, the answer lies in our own internal landscape\u201d (38). I like this expression: \u201cour own internal landscape.\u201d
\nA major issue for most of us is that we find ourselves often in \u201cthick places.\u201d That is, where God seems absent or distant or we seem especially unreceptive. We need some discipline and we need to wait on God.
\nTwo of Tracy\u2019s questions: What is the thinnest place you\u2019ve been to? What are the things that make your world \u201cthick\u201d?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"