Celtic Ways To Pray

Celtic traditions point to God in the natural elements in this refreshing take on how to pray. Where is God when we pray? Artist and priest Ruth Pattison looks to the legacy of Celtic spirituality to say God is in all of creation that surrounds us—earth, fire, water, air—and not up in the clouds. She invites the reader into a grounded spirituality rooted deep in Celtic tradition that sees everything as infused with the Spirit—including humanity. The material will deepen the experience of worship with creative hands-on spiritual practices for the context of liturgy. It can also be used for creating the structure and substance of retreats, spiritual formation classes, and for helping parents who want to learn to pray with children.

J. Philip Newell and his wife Ali were cowardens of the lay religious community of Iona Abbey in the Western Isles of Scotland. There Philip developed this book as an aid to daily prayer. Here is a weekly cycle of morning and evening prayers in the Celtic tradition, with gospel and psalm readings taken from the liturgical year. Each "day" reflects a concern of the Iona Community: justice and peace, healing, the goodness of creation and care for the earth, commitment to Christ, communion of heaven and earth, and welcome and hospitality.

Esther de Waal's classic guide to Celtic spirituality shows how its rich literary traditions and earthy realism can speak to the toughness and challenges of our own world. Avoiding sentimentality , she presents a spirituality that can be lived with honesty, commitment and truthfulness.

This book is a beautiful and dramatic collection of Celtic praise, compiled by Church of Scotland minister and Gaelic scholar Alistair Maclean, which was first published in 1937. It comprises over one hundred prayers, poems, sayings, and praises from the Christian tradition of the author's native Hebrides.

Morning, Midday and Evening Prayer and Complies with Meditations for the day and four years of Daily Readings from Books 1 and 2.

Discover an ancient way of prayer that leads us to new union with God. "Long ago," Calvin Miller writes, "when the Celts built their own rustic kingdom of God in what would later be the British Isles, their fervor in prayer washed their world in a vital revival." In uncertain and dangerous days of high infant-mortality rates, leprosy and plagues, the Celts breathed candid prayers out of the reality of their lives: Desperate prayers for protection. Praise for the God who was king over all creation. Honest prayers of confession. In these pages, Miller introduces us to six types of Celtic prayer that can connect us to God more deeply by helping us pray out of the circumstances and uncertainties of our own life. "This book proposes a kind of prayer that can end our amputated feelings of separateness from God," says Miller. What was true for the Celts is still true for us: "Hunger for Christ keeps us talking to God till our separation is swallowed up in our unending togetherness with him." As rich as the faith they describe, these pages lead us on an ancient path that gives guidance for present and future prayers, until the day the Celts longed for, when all separation is gone and we live forever in the presence of God.

The ancient Celts did not distinguish between the sacred and the secular. To these imaginative people, everything had spiritual significance. Simpson draws deeply from this rich Celtic tradition to compile a collection of blessings that celebrate God's truth in readers' day-to-day lives.

Let the lives and the wisdom of the Celtic saints teach you to pray. An excellent resource for individuals or groups who want to learn from the masters.