The Celtic Way

The tradition of Celtic spirituality is very old, but early on the pressure of the Roman Catholic Church placed such pressure on it that it disappeared to become more of an underground movement which never really died.  It lived on through oral tradition which is impossible to irradicate and through the prayers and blessing which were recorded by some who came along to realize that a valued expression of spiritual faith was about to be gone.  There is much to say about the distinct theology of Celtic spirituality, but the thing which has proven to be such a blessing personally are the recorded prayers and blessings.

 

In her book, "The Celtic Way of Prayer,"  Esther De Waal wrote about the praying of those of the ancient Celtic way, "These are simple prayers, but we should not be misled by that.  They come out of a heart full of gratitude, thankfulness.  They are not beseeching God to give them this, or grant them that.  They are recognizing that God has showered them with blessings and they thank Him for what He has given...They are generous prayers, not claiming all these good things for ourselves alone but wishing to share them.  So they bring us back to two aspects of prayer that we might easily neglect.  They remind us of gratitude.  They remind us of a shared and corporate spirituality."

There is a simplicity about this approach to prayer which is almost mindboggling.  We come to the moment of our designated and scheduled praying with all sorts of rituals and routines to accomplish.  Most of our praying we would not think of as being as simple as a widening circle of gratitude. It does not seem that we have prayed until we have told God what He needs to do with the circumstances we face.  Celtic spirituality calls us to live thanking God for the blessings which abound around us in the people we see as well as in creation.  For so many of us it would mean walking into a new way of living out our life with God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.