Celtic Spirituality

We now start on a series of Exploring Celtic Spirituality: What Is Celtic Spirituality? It’s a spiritual life that looks at the ‘there and then’ through the lens of the ‘here and now.’ In many senses, Celtic Spirituality is discovering through prayer the power lines that connects between these to realms; the ‘there and then’ and the ‘here and now’. David Adams, one time vicar of Holy Island, Lindisfarne is perhaps the best known exponent of bringing the Celtic tradition of prayer into the present day.

In many ways, through his writings, David brings a sense of the eternal, the holy and the mystery of faith into the ordinary, everyday and present moment that makes each moment of a significant spiritual dimension. Another leading proponent of Celtic Spirituality, Ray Simpson also of Holy Island, who helps us glimpse a spirituality that weaves together all the strands of quest for renewal,  relevance and our roots. He writes, “Contemplative prayer is natural, unprogrammed; it is perpetual openness to God, so that in the openness his concerns can flow in and out of our minds as he wills.” 

Such Spirituality has much to do with  how we live, what we think, what we say, what we do, how we pray in embracing and expressing the gospel in our everyday roles, responsibilities and relationships. This  can mean embracing and expressing the gospel through the lenses of following a Rule of life, as seen in our Availability and our Vulnerability.

One of the great discoveries found within Celtic Spirituality is that we do not ever journey on our own. Not only do we have many travelling companions today, we are also aware that many have trodden these paths before us, and that we are ‘treading where the saints have trod’, connected by faith to ‘the great cloud of witnesses’ who urge us to go farther on and further in. Hebrews 12:1-3.

Over the next weeks we will explore more of what Celtic Spirituality can mean for us today.

Lord, you are in this place, 

Fill us with your power,

Cover us with your peace. 

Show us your presence.

Lord, help us to know,

We are in your hands,

We are under your protection, 

We are covered by your love.

Lord, we ask you today

To deliver us from evil,

To guide us in our travels, 

To defend us from all harm.

Lord, give us now

Eyes to see the invisible,

Ears to hear your call,

Hands to do your work,

And hearts to respond to your love.

David Adam ‘ Times and Seasons: modern prayers in the Celtic tradition. SPCK.1989