Celtic Spirituality

Celtic Spirituality 1

A prayer of St. Patrick

“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 above me, Christ beneath me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.”

Celtic Cross St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, Little Rock

The Celts were a religious people whose faith penetrated every aspect of their lives who eventually settled in present day Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.  The first documentation of Celtic Christianity was in the 5th century associated with Patrick’s conversion of Ireland to Roman Christianity. Patrick, however, built upon and incorporated much of the Celts’ natural existing religious culture into Christianity, comparing the shamrock to the Trinity and organizing the church around monasteries which resemble the nation’s tribal system.   The high Celtic cross with a central circle some believe is the blending of the worship of the sun and moon into the cross.   Because of this incorporation of Christianity into the Celtic religion, the Irish Celts made the transition quite quickly without persecution or martyrdom or wars. Specific traits of Celtic Christianity evolved.

1. A powerful sense of a supernatural world and a life beyond death.

2. The Immanent Presence of God in every aspect of life.  God is near at hand, integral to daily life, often feminine.

3.The sacredness of the earth, especially water, woods, and hills.  Religious ceremonies were often held outdoors.

4.   A high value placed on learning, literary expression, and music,

5. The importance of community and personal relationships. 

Phillip Newell also writes about several features of the Celtic tradition which distinguish it from the Mediterranean or Roman or Orthodox tradition.

1.   In Celtic spirituality, what is deepest within us is the image of God.

Our sin and defects have distorted this image but not erased it.   In the Mediterranean tradition, through original sin, what is deepest within us is our sinfulness.

2.   Celtic spirituality believes in the beauty of creation. Creation is a blessing, an expression of God.  In the Mediterranean tradition, there is a separation between spirit and matter.  Spirit is better.

Celtic art with everlasting patterns where one strand is woven   together inseparably, signifies that the spiritual and the physical cannot be torn apart. Redemption is connecting to God deep within us and among us in creation.

As Celtic spirituality spread across the Irish Sea, there now were two types of Christianity in England, Roman, well-organized and tied to the rest of Christianity and Celtic, strongly monastic, contemplative, and mission minded. In 664 a synod was held at Whitby to determine which tradition should be the church in England. The Roman church prevailed, and now it has taken 2000 years for so many of us to be introduced to and again incorporate the Celtic tradition into modern day Christianity. I have also always wondered how Anglican Christianity would have developed if at the Synod of Whitby there had been a blending of the two, Celtic and Christian traditions, as was done at the reformation in England in 1559 with the Elizabethan Agreement where Catholic and Protestant faiths were blended into a Via Media.

John Miriam Jones, With an Eagle’s Eye, 1998. 

Phillip Newell, Celtic Benediction, 2000.

Phillip Newell, Christ of the Celts 2008.

Joanna   joannaseibert.com

Icons Anders

Icons

“I have always heard that icons represented ‘windows into heaven,’ glimpses of the glory of the life to come, hinted at in golf leaf and vivid colors suggesting fullness of life. But our speaker countered this view by pointing out that we don’t really need ‘windows’ as much as eyes that are opened up to see what is around us here in this life. For in Orthodox thought heaven is not so much ‘another place’ that needs to be peered into but rather the quality of life in Christ which begins here through the power of his resurrection. In this view, eternal life includes the day-to-day getting there, the faithful journey of the saints as they are permitting glimpses of glory that punctuate everyday life, especially as they are revealed in us in corporate worship. No wonder Orthodox services tend to be so long-with seemingly endless choir responses and many opportunities to grasp the beauty of joy of resurrection, especially as it is celebrated in the season of Easter.”

Awaiting the Child, Isabel Anders 1987.

A recent short dream has called me back to a daily use of icons as my spiritual practice. In the dream the icons for my hard drive and my backup on my computer desktop have suddenly disappeared, but the icons for the documents I am working on are still there on my desktop. I have difficulty understanding that, for the desktop icons should not be there without the hard drive. My dream group and my spiritual director tell me that this may mean the hard drive and backup are still there. The things which I use for support that I think I have lost are still there but are hidden. One of the people in my dream group with much computer experience reminds us that icons are also called short cuts. This is a new understanding of icons. Computer icons help us get to information that is behind them more easily. That is what icons on our desktop as well as religious icons do! Religious icons are short cuts, often also called windows to connecting to God, but Isabel Anders tells us there is much more to it. They are also exercises in recognizing beauty and God so that we can transfer that skill to the presence of God all around us. So, icons could also be considered the cliff notes, a concentrated experiential way to connect and be aware of the kingdom here on this earth.  

I hope my icon friends will not view this as trivializing the spiritual practice of using icons, for they are so important in my life with my desk and walls covered with them so that everywhere I turn I can connect to them. This is just my inadequate attempt to introduce others to icons who may be afraid to use them for fear that these are foreign practices or idol worshiping.  

Joanna      joannaseibert.com

Venite The Sea is His

The sea is His

Psalm 95:1-7 portions
Venite

"Come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before God’s presence with thanksgiving;
and raise to the Lord a shout with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God;
you are great above all gods.
In your hand are the caverns of the earth;
and the heights of the hills are yours also.
The sea is yours, for you made it,
and your hands have molded the dry land.

Come, let us bow down and bend the knee,
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For you are our God,
and we are the people of your pasture, and the sheep of your hand.
Oh, that today we would hearken to your voice!"               Book of Common Prayer, p. 82

 He hurries in late with coffee in one hand and keys in another. “Sorry, about being late, trying to do too much, too much going on.” I light our candle as a prayer to the Holy Spirit to be present. We sit in silence until his breathing becomes less labored. “ When I am so busy, my world becomes all about me. I do not feel God’s presence. I wish I knew how to slow down my life and better hear God working in my life, “ he finally says.

 I tell him this story.

  On our last visit to the Gulf of Mexico, my husband and I rose early whenever possible, sitting out on our balcony and waiting in the dark for the sun to rise. Usually the sun creeps up, a little pink, a little more light, and then with a huge crash of light like the cymbals and tympani at the conclusion of a symphony. On a few days we become real beach bums, just sitting or looking out on the changing sea, waiting for the early morning fishermen: the osprey, the fishing boats, the surf fishermen with their accompanying blue heron waiting for the catch of the day. Soon come the dolphins and the pelicans swimming and flying and diving back and forth along the shoreline.  We take in a world greater than of our own making.

The Venite from Morning Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer speaks to what happens more than we can express. One of our most famous theologians and philosophers who spent his lifetime trying to understand God, came and sat by the ocean for the very first time and wept uncontrollably as he experienced the vastness of God in the sea, more than he had ever imagined. Sitting by a body of water and observing new life as it emerges each day from under and above the sea, taking us into a world greater than of our own making can be more healing than drugs.

Is it possible for you to start the day, or stop during the day to sit by a body of water? For only a half hour, maybe during lunch or after dinner, stop and allow the rhythm of life on the river, or the sea, or the lake be moved to heal you.

Joanna           joannaseibert.com