There has been a renaissance of interest in Celtic spirituality in the last few decades. Although most-things-Celtish are associated with Ireland, the Celts lived at various times throughout most of Western Europe. In fact, Paul ¢â‚¬â„¢s letter to the Galatians was probably written to a Celtic group living in Asia Minor. The most famous Celtic evangelist was, of course, St Patrick, who during his missionary work in Ireland in the 5^th century ordained over 300 bishops and 3000 presbyters  ¢â‚¬“ and was the greatest  ¢â‚¬Ëœunifier ¢â‚¬â„¢ of the scattered groups of Christians throughout his homeland. Not many Western Christians would seriously echo St. Patrick ¢â‚¬â„¢s approach to the simple life:  ¢â‚¬ËœI know perfectly well that poverty and misfortune suit me better than riches and pleasure. Christ the Lord, himself, was poor for our sakes ¢â‚¬â„¢.

Why the recent interest in Celtic spirituality? Try this for starters, from a Celtic spirituality website:

• Love of nature and a passion for the wild and elemental as a reminder of God’s gift.
• Love and respect for art and poetry.
• Love and respect for the great stories and higher learning.
• Sense of God and the saints as a continuing, personal, helpful presence.
• Theologically orthodox, yet with heavy emphasis on the Trinity, and a love and respect for Mary, the Incarnation of Christ, and liturgy.
• Thin boundaries between the sacred and the secular.
• Unique Church structure: there were originally no towns, just nomadic settlements, hence the church was more monastic rather than diocesan, resulting in quite independent rules and liturgies.
• Ireland was very isolated; it was hard to impose outside central Roman authority.
• Influenced much by middle-eastern and Coptic monasticism.
• Monasteries were often huge theocratic villages often associated with a clan with the same kinship ties, along with slaves, freemen, celibate monks, married clergy, professed lay people, men and women living side by side.
• While some monasteries were in isolated places, many more were at the crossroads of provincial territories.
• Women had more equal footing in ancient Irish law, thus had more equal say in church governance.
• Developed the idea of having a “soul friend” (anamchara) to help in spiritual direction.
• Invented personal confession.
• Oral word-based culture; most of the people were illiterate but had great memorization skills. They loved to hear great stories.
• A sense of closeness and immanence between the natural and supernatural.
• A mandate for hospitality.
• Emphasis on family and kinship ties. [1]

Two recent books will whet your appetite:

(1)   Pat Robson ¢â‚¬â„¢s The Celtic Heart (Fount 1998) is an anthology of Celtic quotes, prayers and poems, based around the stories of 20 outstanding saints, with themes including aloneness with God, the wonder of God ¢â‚¬â„¢s creation, a hermit ¢â‚¬â„¢s life, love and marriage, death, Easter and resurrection, Christmas etc. I ¢â‚¬â„¢ve just spent a devotional month in this marvelous little book.

  (2) George Hunter III ¢â‚¬â„¢s The Celtic Way of Evangelism (Abingdon 2000/2010)   argues that the Celtic mode of  ¢â‚¬Ëœdoing evangelism ¢â‚¬â„¢ would be a good guide for us too. Try this:  ¢â‚¬Ëœ[Patrick ¢â‚¬â„¢s] mission team typically spent weeks or months as a ministering community of faith within a tribe. The church that emerged would have been astonishingly indigenous ¢â‚¬ ¦ Patrick would leave one of his prot ƒ ©g ƒ ©s behind to be the new church ¢â‚¬â„¢s priest ¢â‚¬ ¦ and one or two of the young people would join the team as it moved on to plant another church ¢â‚¬â„¢. This reminds me of one of the most successful indigenous evangelistic movements of our time – in India, centred around the ministry of Bakht Singh. [2] The monasteries founded by Patrick and others, says Hunter, were actually centres of evangelism/outreach, rather than withdrawal from the world.

For sociologists of religion and church historians, there ¢â‚¬â„¢s the fascinating story of clashes between the imperial Roman Catholic church and these informal indigenous movements  ¢â‚¬“ culminating in the Synod of Whitby. [3]

Prayers of commitment don ¢â‚¬â„¢t come any better than these, in the Celtic tradition:

God be in my head, and in my understanding
God be in my eyes, and in my looking

God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;

God be in my heart, and in my thinking

God be at my end and at my departing.

Or this one:

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

A  ¢â‚¬Ëœprayer of   silence ¢â‚¬â„¢ in the Celtic tradition:

I weave a silence onto my lips

I weave a silence into my mind

I weave a silence within my heart

I close my ears to distractions

I close my eyes to attractions

I close my heart to temptations.

Calm me O Lord as you stilled the storm

Still me O Lord, keep me from harm

Let all the tumult within me cease

Enfold me Lord in your peace.

Then there ¢â‚¬â„¢s the famous Irish blessing:

May the road rise to meet you

May the wind be always at your back

May the sun shine warm upon your face

The rain fall soft upon your fields

And until we meet again

May God hold you

In the hollow of his hand.

Enjoy: and be blessed!

[1]   http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic.html

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakht_Singh

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synod_of_Whitby

[4] And a note about pronunciation (from Answers.com): When referring to the Celtic people, their languages and culture, modern scholars tend to pronounce the word with a K-sound, recalling the original form of the word, which is the Greek  ŽÅ¡ Ž µ Ž » â€ž Ž ¿ Ž ¹ ( pronounced “Keltoi”). When referring to sports teams that call themselves Celtics or Celts (bearing in mind that sports figures do not generally represent the most careful speakers), we use the S-sound.  
The Irish say Keltic and Kelts.  
Americans say Seltics and Selts.  
Both are technically correct. It just depends on whether you want to pronounce it the American way or the Irish way.

Rowland Croucher

January 2012

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