Celtic Spiritual Exercises

Learning by heart

While the Irish monks are known for their illuminated sacred texts, books were rare and valuable, so they would have had to learn many scripture passages by heart to be able to pray with them. This was a continuation of the older Druidic tradition, which was primarily an oral culture that prized committing to memory rather than writing.

The Irish monks sang psalms throughout each day as a central part of their prayer. They were immersed in this poetry and ancient call to see God active in the whole world. They likely would have memorised all 150 psalms, as their days were intertwined with their imagery.

In daily life

Begin by finding just two lines of a scriptural text or poem that are meaningful to you. It could even be one of the suggested texts in this article. Spend time each morning with these lines, repeating them gently to yourself until you have learned them by heart and then recall them throughout the day.

Scripture meditation

I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

—Jeremiah 31:33

Prayer

Gracious Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning: help us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that, encouraged and supported by your holy Word, we may embrace and always hold fast the joyful hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Celtic Spiritual Practices

Walking the rounds

A central Celtic practice at sacred sites, such as churches, graves, crosses, and holy wells, is known as “walking the rounds.”

This involves walking sunwise (or clockwise) in a mindful way around various markers or monuments. The number of rounds varies but is often three to reflect the sacredness of that number in the Celtic imagination. There are pattern days associated with different holy places and a set number of rounds to walk in specific places along with certain prayers.

Walking helps to arrive to a place and slow down. Walking in a circular manner helps to move us out of linear ways of thinking and to open our hearts to receive God’s grace.

In daily life

Find a holy place to walk around. It might be a sunwise journey around a favorite tree, your church, or around the edges of a labyrinth. While walking the rounds, you might say traditional prayers like the Hail Mary and the Lord’s Prayer, but any prayers of the heart are welcome.

Scripture meditation

When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” — Exodus 3:4–5

Prayer
Gracious God, as I journey today, may you be found not only in quietness of prayer, ocean’s edge or mountain peak, but in the bustle of everyday life; in children’s laughter, conversation, a beggar’s bowl, a busker’s song, market hall or production floor, sparkling eyes, a smile, a tear, lover’s embrace, high five, a hug, the struggle of increasing years. May you be found in pain and joy, gain and loss, for you are there, around, within, if we have eyes to see. Amen

Celtic Spiritual Practice

Soul friendship

Another key practice for the Celtic saints was having a soul friend, inspired by earlier desert traditions. St. Brigid is often quoted as saying, “Go forth and eat nothing until you get a soul friend, for anyone without a soul friend is like a body without a head; is like the water of a polluted lake, neither good for drinking nor for washing.”

Everyone, whether lay or clergy, man or woman, was expected to have a spiritual mentor and companion on the soul’s journey. This was a person in whom they could confide all of their inner struggles, someone who would help them find their path and who could midwife them in discernment. There was a sense of genuine warmth and intimacy in this relationship and deep respect for the other’s wisdom as a source of blessing. Age or gender differences did not matter.

In daily life 

I invite you to spend some time seeking out a soul friend. You may already have one in your life: a spiritual director, a wise guide, someone you can turn to when things feel challenging and to whom you entrust the secret desires of your heart.

Scripture meditation

Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. — Ruth 1:16

Prayer

Gracious Heavenly Father, your word says that you will always guide me. You do not leave me wandering through life, but you are with me during every moment of every day. You will satisfy my needs when I feel frustrated and you will strengthen me when life makes me weary. Help me to follow your ways as you lead me into a life of fruitfulness and joy. May I be like the well-watered garden which thrives because the roots are firmly planted in your love. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

Faith in Times if Crisis No.34

 

Psalm 57:1-3a, 3c, 9-11. New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA). 

Of David, when he fled from Saul in a cave.

1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
    for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
    until the destroying storms pass by.
2 I cry to God Most High,
    to God who fulfils his purpose for me.

3 He will send from Heaven and save me,    

    God will send forth his steadfast love and his faithfulness.

9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
    I will sing praises to you among the nations.
10 For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens;
    your faithfulness extends to the clouds.

11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
    Let your glory be over all the earth.

Meditation by Dr J P Hunter

This Psalm was written when David was physically hiding in a cave from the pursuit by murderous Saul. 

Then, in his time of trouble, David spiritually turned to his Heavenly Father, saying in you my soul takes refuge and in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge. His soul was sheltering until the destroying storms pass by. 

Similarly, we in our time of trial, also have taken physically shelter in our homes until the infection risk passes by. Do we, like David, also spiritually turn to our Heavenly Father and express our true feelings of isolation, sorrow or fear? Then, like so often in David’s Psalms, we too will experience that our spirits will be lifted and we will be able to move from prayer to praise. I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.

Prayer

Lord, as I shelter in my home until the infection risk passes by, I come to You. I seek your presence, for my soul seeks refuge in You. I would like to share my sorrow, fear and grief, asking that You take them from me. Then my spirit will be lifted as I know, that You are there beside me as I daily go. I will thank You and praise your name, my King. For yes, me too, may seek shelter in the shadow of your wing. Amen

Hymn – Singing the Faith 355, verse 1,2

1 Jesus, lover of my soul,                                                                                                                     

hangs my helpless soul on thee;

while the near waters roll,                                                       

while the tempest still is high;                                                

hide me, O my Saviour, hide,

till the storm of life is past;

safe into the haven guide                                                         

O receive my soul at last.

2 Other refuge have I none,

Let me to thy bosom fly,

leave, ah, leave me not alone,

still support and comfort me.

All my trust on thee is stayed,

all my help from thee I bring

cover my defenceless head

With the shadow of thy wing.

      Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Celtic Spiritual Exercises

Blessing Each Moment

In the Celtic tradition, one of the practices that aids in loving attention to daily life is blessing. Blessings are prayers celebrating the ordinary tasks of the day. There is a beautiful book of Scottish blessings called the Carmina Gadelica, collected by Andrew Carmichael in the 19th century in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. It is filled with blessings of the day’s unfolding.

Blessing is an act of acknowledging the gifts and graces already present and offering gratitude to God for them. All the mundane activities of the day are opportunities to witness grace at work. 

In daily life
We can begin to see the everyday things of our lives as openings into the depths of the world. The steam rising from my coffee, the bird singing from a tree branch outside my window, the doorbell announcing a friend’s arrival, the meal that nourishes my body for service all bring me closer to God’s grace. Consider writing a blessing of gratitude for each of the ordinary things that sustain you during the day. 

Scripture meditation
God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”
—Genesis 9:12–13

Prayer

Open my eyes that I may see

The Presence that is all about me.

Open my ears that I may hear

The voice that is quiet yet ever near.

Open my heart that I may feel

The love of my God close and real.

Open each sense, make me aware

Of the Power and Peace always there.

Celtic Spiritual Exercises

Wandering

In the Celtic monastic tradition, wandering was a powerful practice inspired by the biblical story of Abraham. There is a unique term for this wandering: peregrinatio pro Christo, or the call to wander for the love of Christ. It differs from pilgrimage and is a phrase without a precise English definition. 

The wandering saints set forth without destination, often getting into a small boat with no oars or rudder, called a coracle, and trusting themselves to the currents of divine love.

They surrendered themselves completely to the wind and ocean and let themselves be carried to what they called the place of their resurrection, the place where they would live and work, die and be buried, and where their remains would await their resurrection on the Last Day. 

In daily life
Each evening reflect on the previous day and notice the signs of the divine presence. Where have you felt nudges to move forward? How have you been invited to surrender into trust? Where have you turned away from these? In what ways did you resist or ignore the holy impulses? 

Scripture meditation
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.”
—Genesis 17:1–2

Prayer

Aline with none but thee, my God

I journey on my way.

What need I fear, when thou art near,

O King of night and day?

More safe am I within thy hand

Than if a host did round me stand.

St Columba of Iona

Celtic Exercises

This week we engage with some Celtic Exercises - ways of deepening our relationship with God through using everyday ordinariness to come into the spiritual richness of his grace.

1. Thresholds

Thresholds are the spaces between when we move from one time to another, as in the threshold of dawn to day or dusk to dark; from one space to another, as in times of pilgrimage or in moving from secular to sacred space; and from one awareness to another, as in times when old structures start to fall away and we begin to envision something new. 

The Celtic peoples had a love of edges and boundary places, most likely as the result of living on an island, but they also held a keen sense of the Otherworld as a place just beneath the veil of this one. 

Celtic Christian monks were also drawn to edge places, inspired by those who fled to the desert. They found their own threshold places, such as Skellig Michael, a jagged stone island jutting out into the Atlantic on which the ruins of a monastic community are still perched on top. 

In daily life

Become aware each time you cross a threshold. This might be across a doorway, in moving from one activity to another, or the thresholds of the day, especially at dawn and dusk. Pause at each of these and offer a short prayer of gratitude.

Scripture meditation

Thus says the Lord: Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. —Jeremiah 6:16

Prayer

And so we take the ragged fragments, the patches of darkness that give shape to the light; the scraps of desires unslaked or realised; the memories of spaces of blessing, of pain.

And so we gather the scattered pieces the hopes we carry fractured or whole; the struggles of birthing exhausted, elated; the places of welcome that bring healing and life.

And so we lay them at the threshold, God; bid you hold them, bless them, use them; ask you tend them, mend them, transform them to keep us warm,

make us whole, and send us forth. Amen