Seasonal Cycles

The unfolding of the seasons is an overarching template for the Celtic imagination. In the pre-Christian tradition there are significant feast days aligned with the equinoxes and solstices. And then there are the cross-quarter days, which are the midway points between them and part of the harvest cycle.

The Christian calendar incorporates many of these rhythms, with Christmas falling near the winter solstice, the feast of John the Baptist at the summer solstice, and Easter after the spring equinox. The monastic prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours also respects these sacred rhythms of nature’s rise and fall, birth and death.

Why not make time for contemplative walks outside in your neighbourhood. Instead of trying to get somewhere specific, simply pay attention to the world around you and how God might be speaking to you. Pay particular attention to the signs of the season—what flowers might be in bloom, whether the trees have their leaves, and the height of the sun in the sky. Ask yourself what season your own soul is in right now.

Scripture meditation

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die.—Ecclesiastes 3:1–2a

May we remember today 

that we are part of an unfolding story
That calls us to listen 

to God’s words with intent to action
May we live in the reality 

of God’s kingdom entering into our lives
May we rejoice 

in the wonder of God’s eternal presence
May all that we do deepen our awareness of God
May we see in every moment the spark of holiness
And recognise Christ in every encounter
May God’s word burst from the pages of our lives and …
become the life we live AMEN

Silence and Solitude

The practice of Silence and Solitude is very much at the heart of Celtic Spirituality. Frances J. Roberts, author of devotional books writes,

“If I chose to hide you away, it is for a reason.
I have brought you to this place.
Drink in the silence. Seek solitude.

Listen to the silence.

It will teach you. It will build strength
Let others share it with you.
It is little to be found elsewhere.

Silence will speak more to you in a day than the world of voices can teach you in a lifetime. Find silence. Find solitude – and having discovered her riches, bind her to your heart.”

          

Perhaps one of the most well known phrases from the psalms is found in Psalm 46 where we find the succinct words, “Be still and know that I am God.”

Most of us aren’t very good at silence, are we. We surround ourselves with noise – mp3 players, text messages, chatty conversation, TV, CDs. Being silent is difficult, Isn’t it.

But often in the silence, if we can manage to put away all our own words and distractions, the still, small voice of the Spirit of God will break through with a nudge, a prompting, a phrase, an insight, a startling illumination or conviction. And then we will know why silence is so important. 

It is said that effective meditation is the result of three elements: stillness, silence and solitude.

Loneliness is small; solitude is large. Loneliness closes in around you; solitude expands toward the infinite. Loneliness has its roots in words, in an internal conversation that nobody answers; solitude has its roots in the great silence of eternity.

Kent Nurburn in his book Simple Truths says "In solitude silence becomes a symphony. Time changes from a series of moments strung together into a seamless motion riding on the rhythms of the stars. Loneliness is banished, solitude is in full flower, and we are one with the pulse of life and the flow of time. . . .

"As always, look at the world around you. The mountain is not restless in its aloneness. The hawk tracing circles in the sky is not longing for union with the sun. They exist in the perfect peace of an eternal present, and that is the peace that one finds only in solitude. Find this peace in yourself, and you will never know another moment of loneliness in your life."

Sit quietly and read the words of Kathrina von Schlegel 

Be still, my soul; your God will undertake

to guide the future as he has the past;

your hope, your confidence, let nothing shake;

all now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know

his voice who ruled them while he lived below. Amen

Walking the Rounds

Following on from our devotional on encircling, today we move to the Celtic practice of walking the rounds. I must admit that during the height of lockdown, when we were permitted to take exercise we preferred to plan a circular route.  

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.

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

Scripture meditation

1 John 1:6-7 If we say we have an intimate connection with the Father but we continue stumbling around in darkness, then we are lying because we do not live according to truth. 7 If we walk step by step in the light, where the Father is, then we are ultimately connected to each other through the sacrifice of Jesus His Son. His blood purifies us from all our sins.

Circle Prayer Based on a Prayer found in the Gethsemane Chapel, Wells Cathedral, Wells, England. This is a form of prayer used by early Celtic Christians. .It is called the Caim, the encircling prayer.

Putting Ourselves in God’s presence 

As I walk today -

Circle me, O God, encircle me with your presence.

Keep joy within, keep bitterness out;
Keep generosity within, keep greed out;
Keep love within, keep self-seeking out;
Keep light within, keep darkness out.

In the name of the Sacred Three, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen

Prayer for Peacemakers

Circle, O God, those who work for peace and Justice in your world, encircle them with your presence.

Keep wisdom within, keep folly out;
Keep strength within, keep weariness out;
Keep hope within, keep despair out;
Keep light within, keep darkness out.

In the name of the Sacred Three, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen

For victims of violence and injustice

Circle, O God, those who are victims of violence and injustice, encircle them with your presence.

Keep truth within, keep falsehood out;
Keep compassion within, keep hard-heartedness out;
Keep love within, keep hatred out;
Keep light within, keep darkness out.

In the name of the Sacred Three, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen

For those who commit acts of violence and injustice

Circle, O God, those who have committed acts of violence and justice, encircle them with your presence.

Help them to see the truth and to turn away from falsehood;
Help them to learn compassion and leave hard-heartedness behind;
Help them find the courage to turn away from evil;
May they feel your love in a world filled with hate;
Help them to see your light in the darkness.

In the name of the Sacred Three, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Encircling

Christ with me, Christ before me
Christ behind me, Christ in me
Christ beneath me, Christ above me7
Christ on my right, Christ on my left
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down
Christ when I arise, Christ to shield me

—Prayer excerpt attributed to St. Patrick

In the Celtic monastic tradition, a lorica is a type of prayer seeking protection, invoking the power of God to safeguard against darker forces. You are probably familiar with the lorica prayer above, attributed to St. Patrick. The biblical inspiration may come from Ephesians 6:14, which refers to putting on the breastplate of righteousness.

This practice is rooted in the precarious sense people often have of our own existence. Travellers especially faced dangers at night from thieves or wild animals with only fire and prayer as protection. Circles have always been important to the Celts. Even the early medieval Celtic and Anglo-Saxon monasteries were often placed inside a circular enclosure as

In daily life

These breastplate prayers name the presence of Christ in all directions as a shield against harm and a reminder of God’s loving presence. You can extend this circle beyond yourself to include your family, your community, your country, and the earth.

Scripture meditation

You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust.”
—Psalm 91:1–2

Circle me Lord, Keep protection near, and danger afar. Circle me Lord, Keep light near, and darkness afar. Circle me Lord, Keep peace within. Keep evil out. Circle me Lord, Keep hope within. Keep doubt without. May you be a bright flame before me.

May you be a guiding star above me. May you be a smooth path below me. And a loving Guide behind me. Today, tonight, and forever. Amen

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 6th century Ireland, all the movers and shakers of Celtic Christianity had their “soul friends” and were, in turn, “soul friends” to others. They had a particular way of befriending that intentionally honoured and nurtured the life of the soul. It involved mutual encouragement, confession and telling the truth in love.

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.

Here is what Paul advised the Colossians Church, “This is what I have asked of God for you: that you will be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love, and that you will have the rich experience of knowing Christ with real certainty and clear understanding. For God’s secret plan, now at last made known, is Christ himself.In him lie hidden all the mighty, untapped treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2:2-3

God of our journey,  we bless you for abiding with us throughout our pilgrimage. As we seek to know and love you more deeply encounter us in our journey of silences, of dry deserts and green pastures. Enable us to be soul friends to each other, and to be constant and courageous seekers after you.

‘As Christ shared his life with others, he always spent time alone with you.
May we grow to resemble him our beloved friend, redeemer and guide.
May we grow and flourish through your grace. Amen

Each Moment

Amund Karner, a Scottish Celtic writer penned, “ In His presence, live a moment at a time: live that moment fully. To try to live a holy life is to be crushed by the enormity of the task, but a whole life consists of a series of such moments….

Focus your gaze, and then, when the arrow of your attention is released, it will hit the mark and find Him.  The aim: Him. The glory: His.”

I recall an administrator at the college I attended in the 70’s would admonish students with the words, “redeem the time.”; words taken from the King James Version of Ephesians 5:14-16, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

There are a number of hymns that share this notion of making each moment a scared one. For example Frances Havergal wrote, “Take my moments and my days; let them flow in endless praise”

Edward Joy penned the refrain

All my days and all my hours,
All my will and all my powers,
All the passion of my soul,
Not a fragment – but the whole
Shall be Thine, dear Lord,
Shall be Thine, dear Lord.

One of the practices within the Celtic tradition is that of blessing the moment, where 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.

In practice, it could mean taking a breath before beginning a new task. It could mean saying a prayer as a task or chore is completed. It could mean minding the clock and pausing on the hour or at even hours or every three hours at 6 o’clock, 9 o’clock, Noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m. or 9 p.m., and so on.

In the milking of cows and tending the hearth,
in threading the loom and gathering the peat,
the breath of prayer blessing each movement,
a naming of Creator upon each mindful deed.

Not in our kingdom of busyness,
not in our land of lost simplicity,
yet the Celtic grace of looking deeply
and the Celtic faith of believing fully
lives on enduringly within each of us,
beseeching our beholding.

Like the unceasing prayer of Celts,
an ancient call to gather the ordinary,
savor the sacrament that lies within,
bless whatever life offers to us
in the routine, the mindless, the duty,
the cherished, the surprising, the serene.

Let our open gaze fall faithfully
over a stretch of hurried days,
see among their swiftly moving pieces
a story threaded with touch of Divine.

Celtic moment, Soul moment, Sacred moment,
in simple task or thin veil of mystery,
whatever our day brings we can bless,
whatever our lives hold we can reverence.

Gather all to our soul:
the silent sparkle of untamed moments,
the hurried haze of endless duty,
the silky joy of surprising experience,
the shadowed grasp of unwanted pain.

Recover the lost cloak
of Celtic rhyme and Celtic rhythm,
put on the rich garment
of intentional communion,
embrace the commonness of life
woven on the endless loom of the Holy

Thresholds

In the Celtic Christian tradition, there are prayers for literally crossing a threshold, but also prayers for the metaphorical crossings in our lives: from dawn and dusk, for the start of a new task, for the beginning of a journey. The threshold is a designated space or time to open to God.

Think for a moment about the threshold.

In a house, it is the opening that keeps the structure from being a closed-in box; the threshold marks the place of setting out, the line that exposes a singular entity to a new day, a new face, the open air. In time, it marks the shift from one region of days into another: a birthday, the start of a new job, an emptying nest, a season of grief.

The threshold is also a marker of transition: between the annual seasons, between night and day, or even between work and home in the short space of a daily commute. In geographical space, it marks the edges of things: land meeting land, shore meeting ocean, earth meeting sky. Even the human body, outward-facing, is threshold-like; our eyes and ears are on the brink of ourselves as we open to others around us.

Maybe there are windows and doors in the soul -- casements of connection -- waiting to be opened, looked out through, stepped across. Maybe there is a waterway of lovingkindness yet to be traveled, a river that flows through the estuaries, past known land and out into the seas. But first, we must cross the threshold.

In John 10:9 we find Jesus speaking of himself as a threshold,  a door; “I am the door. If anyone goes in through me, he will be safe and sound; he can come in and out and find his food.” (JB Phillips)

Thomas Merton, a Trappist Monk prays in his “Thoughts in Solitude,”…

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, 

and the fact that I think 

that I am following your will does 

not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe 

that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me 

by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always 

though I may seem to be lost 

and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, 

and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. 

Amen