The Celtic Way

Celtic Christianity developed between the fifth and eleventh century in a region of the world influenced greatly by pagan and Druid traditions.  As this indigenous spiritual community began to take root, it did not throw away all that was a part of its past, but adopted and included part of that culture inside its growing theology.  Thus, one of the thing so dominant in Celtic spirituality is a deep respect for the creation and a high regard for its cycles and seasons.  While some have rejected this spiritual tradition as being pantheistic, it actually affirms that the creation points to the Creator.

 

Those immersed in this tradition worked and lived and died deeply mindful of the presence of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit in all the ordinary moments experienced within the creation.  Newborn babies were touched with three drops of water at birth and seeds were planted in such a way as to remind the planter to respect the rhythms of the earth.  It was not a romantic idealistic easy way of life, but a hard one filled with all of life's harshness.  Yet, midst it all, the literature and rituals of this spiritual tradition pointed those who walked the land toward the Creator of the land.

 

The more we allow ourselves to be touched by a spiritual understanding which places such high value on the creation and the immediacy of the holy Presence, the more we begin to hunger for a stronger connection to the earth upon which we walk.  Somehow, the Celtic spiritual tradition goes far beyond recycling or not littering the landscape to a place where it is understood that not one of our footsteps is on something other than holy ground brought into being by the Creator.  Sometimes it seems that we get so busy we forget where we are.  Celtic spirituality has a way of reconnecting us and rooting us to the place where we are.