Questions I have about "Thin Places"

What I know: (Author)

1. There is a feeling about a place that we call "thin places" that is thicker and stronger. A sense of something peaceful and yet gloriously alive; of Joy lurking somewhere in the landscape. Molly Wolf

2.According to Celtic Christianity, a thin place is any place where the wall between this material world and the realm of the divine becomes so thin that we can experience a glimpse or a taste of the glory, majesty and love of God. Rev. Dean Snyder

3 In the Celtic tradition such places that give us an opening into the magnificence and wonder of that Presence are called "Thin Places". There is a Celtic saying that heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller. A thin place is where the veil that separates heaven and earth is lifted and one is able to receive a glimpse of the glory of God. A contmeporary poet Sharlande Sledge gives this description,

"Thin places," the Celts call this space,

Both seen and unseen,

Where the door between the world

And the next is cracked open for a moment

And the light is not all on the other side.

God shaped space. Holy. Author: Sylvia Maddox

More from Sylvia Maddox: There is a Celtic saying that heaven and earth are only 3 feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller. She goes on to say that a thin place requires us to step from one world to another and that often means traveling to a place where we have less control and where the unpredictable becomes the means of discovery. These sanctuaries of creation help us as John O'donohue writes, "to anchor our longing in the ancient longing of Nature."

4. Christian Celts spoke of "thin places" = places where worlds were particularly close to each other. Places where, if you were quiet enough, you could hear the murmurings of God. Author mentions Jerusalem, he says that caves were votive places. The notion of a holy place, the place where the divine is more than usually accessible, is persistent. He also says that "Pilgrimage is often spoken of as a return to one's own sacred center." Author: Charles Foster

5. Mindy Burgoyne writes in a blog called "When God is Silent". A thin place is a place on earth where the veil between this physical world we experience with our five senses and the eternal world is "thin". The eternal world is more neaer. These "thin places" were not made thin by you or me or anyone else. They are inherently thin, which is a mystery. There is a cosmic, mystical quality to the place itself that transcends the senses. The physical world and the Otherworld (the world of the Divine Presence) are knitted together. Author: Mindy Burgoyne

6. Karl E. Peters, Unitarian Society of Hartford, brings in the idea of Marcus Borg and Teilhard de Chardin who called this the "divine milieu", the divine holy environment. It's always there, but in a few instances, in thin places, it begins to become manifest in our lives more clearly. People, rituals may become thin places, so can small children, and places of worship.

Peters says that Borg states that "thin places" is more than one way a person moves from closed to open heart. One of them is encounters with thin places. It is a Celtic Christian metaphor for coming to contact with the sacred, which is present all around us, but which is hidden from us. Author: Karl E. Peters