Many years ago I was delivering a talk in Ottowa, Ontario, on some of the main themes of the prologue to St. John’s Gospel, and especially the words, “the Light that enlightens every person coming into the world” (John 1:9, adapted).

In attendance that evening was a Canadian Mohawk elder. He had been invited to be there to make observations about the parallels between the First Nations spirituality and the spirituality of the Celtic world.

At the end of my talk he stood with tears in his eyes and said, “As I have been listening to these themes, I have been wondering where I would be tonight. I have been wondering where my people would be tonight. And I have been wondering where we would be as a Western world tonight if the mission that had come to us from Europe centuries ago had come expecting to find light in us.”

from The Rebirthing of God