A Celtic Way to Pray

 

“In the heavens, God has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom from the canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.  Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them.”  Psalm 19:4-6

 

 

This verse from Psalm 19 describes the length of a day by using the image of the sun making a journey across the sky.  Journeys or quests are universal to human experience.  There are references to them in cultures and religions all over the world.  The Aboriginal “walkabout,” the Islamic “hajj,” the Native American “vision quest,” and the Christian “pilgrimage,” to name a few. These journeys or quests are about self discovery and a deeper understanding of the sacred.

 

Celtic Christianity has a profound way of understanding this journey to the self and to God.  The word for it is “peregrinatio”--seeking, quest, adventure, wandering.  Esther De Waal in her book, The Celtic Way of Prayer, claims that “peregrinatio” is “ultimately a journey...to find the place of my resurrection, the resurrected self, the self that I might hope to be, to become, the true self in Christ.”

 

This notion of “peregrinatio” came from the Celtic view of life as a journey from birth to death.  Life’s journey is punctuated by daily journeys of work and home life, as well as travel to other lands.  Celtic tradition is full of journey prayers that blessed people in their coming and going.  There are songs for crossing the threshold of a house upon beginning and returning from a journey.  There are blessings for loved ones who traveled long distances and short prayers that made the smallest errand an experience of God.

 

I invite you in the next few weeks to think of each day as a journey and to pray this ancient Celtic prayer as you set your feet on the earth when you get out of bed, as you travel through the day, encountering whatever adventure or opportunity your journey holds, returning at the day’s end to complete your journey:

 

Bless to me, O God,

The earth beneath my foot,

Bless to me, O God,

The path whereon I go;

Bless to me, O God,

The thing of my desire;

Thou Evermore of evermore,

Bless Thou to me my rest.