John Philip Newell is an internationally acclaimed spiritual teacher, speaker, and author of several books, including Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul, Listening for the Heartbeat of God, and A New Harmony. The former Warden of Iona Abbey in the Western Isles of Scotland, he is the founder of Earth and Soul (a Celtic Initiative of Study, Spiritual Practice, and Compassionate Action) and teaches regularly in California, New England, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, and Canada and leads international pilgrimages to Iona. He lives with his wife in Edinburgh, Scotland.

It was on Iona years ago that I first became aware of the need to reclaim some of the features of ancient Christianity in the Celtic world as lost treasure for today. Part of that treasure is the much-cherished image of John the evangelist, also known as John the Beloved, leaning against Jesus at the Last Supper. Celtic tradition holds that by doing this he heard the heartbeat of God. He became a symbol of the practice of listening—listening deep within ourselves, within one another, and within the body of the earth for the beat of the Sacred Presence.

Do we know that within each one of us is the unspeakably beautiful beat of the Sacred? Do we know that we can honor that Sacredness in one another and in everything that has being? And do we know that this combination—growing in awareness that we are bearers of Presence, along with a faithful commitment to honor that Presence in one another and in the earth—holds the key to transformation in our world?

-Newell, The Rebirthing of God, 2014 (Skylight: New York) xvii.

Gathering and Sowing Forgotten Seeds for Our Time
Audio and video recorded dialogue with John Philip Newell, Diana Badger and Owen O Suilleabhain on the Awakin.org website.

Click here to listen/view free of charge

https://www.awakin.org/v2/calls/581/john-philip-newell/recording?check=1

John Philip Newell, December 9, 2021 interview with Diana Bass