Celtic Spirituality: Celtic sacred life of hospitality in community
“I sought my God;
My God I could not see.
I sought my soul
My soul eluded me.
I sought my brother
And I found all three.”
In the tradition of Celtic hospitality, God is not only present in Nature, but also in our neighbor, in ourselves, and especially in the stranger. This is a sacredness in relationships. I am told there is no word in the Irish language for private property. Faith is lived in a community with a combination of periodic seclusion and community and mission. Anamchara or soul friends or spiritual friends or spiritual directors are essential relationships. Women are regarded as equals, and communities are not hierarchical. Monasteries rather than parishes are the basis of the church. The Celts value education, art, and music.
We made a trip to Iona off the western coast of Scotland twice, and would return in a heartbeat. You don’t simply stumble onto Iona, however. You really do have to want to go there, traveling by ferry, down a one-lane winding road, and finally walking over on a ferry onto the small, three-mile-long island in the Inner Hebrides where Columba brought Celtic Christianity to England in 563. Here the breathtaking illuminated manuscripts of The Book of Kells are believed to have begun to be written at the end of the 8th century. Iona is believed to be an exceptionally “thin” space where the membrane between the spiritual and the secular is extremely thin. This was our experience as well. You walk a lot, eat good food, worship outdoors and in the ancient abbey and a decaying nunnery, listen to the wind and waves, study high crosses, wear warm clothing and watch the sea change the color of the 2,000 million-year-old rocks by the shoreline.
I often meet with spiritual friends who describe Celtic Spirituality when they have no name for it. This seems a sign of the universality of this type of spirituality. The sacred presence of God in each of us is a start.
Again, further reading might include
Philip Newell, Celtic Benediction, and John Miriam Jones, With an Eagle’s Eye.
Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/