Spiritual Practice - Writing Prayers and Poems With a Celtic Flavour
Last weekend, as you know, I conducted a Celtic Spirituality webinar. One of the fun exercises I led people through was the creation of Celtic prayers. Similarly at our community meeting on Monday evening, I shared some of the beautiful prayers written by Celtic saints throughout the centuries. I also shared a couple of my own poems inspired by their influence.
Some of the prayers were circling prayers like the one I posted a couple of weeks ago in my post Praying in All Directions, others were prayers about ordinary everyday activities like starting the taking a shower and getting going in the day. Everyone commented on how inspiring this process was.
First deciding what to write encouraged all of us to look back over our days to think about how we could more intentionally integrate prayer into everything we did. You might like to write a prayer for an upcoming event our journey, like the one at the top.
Second, the process of writing was a reflective, contemplative process that stirred our creativity and drew our thoughts towards God.
Third, sharing our prayers with each other felt like a prayer time in itself and all of us were enriched by each other’s contributions. Yesterday in “Keeping Up With The News” I shared one of the prayers from the retreat, but here are a couple of others that I hope will encourage you to sit down and write your own prayers. Set aside about half an hour for the process. If possible recruit a couple of friends to do this exercise with you. Make sure you take time to share at the end and find out what inspired each of you to write.
Here are a couple more prayers to help get your own creative juices flowing.
This first prayer is a typical circling prayer and provides a simple template for your own prayer:
The sacred three encircle us
Keep love within and fear without
Keep peace within and violence out
Circle us with your presence
Keep truth within and injustice out
Keep acceptance in and prejudice out
Circle us with your grace
Keep wholeness in and disease without
Keep care within and selfishness out
Circle us with your love
This second prayer is similar but has a little more creative license in the way it is constructed.
God encircle us with your love
Enclose us with your comfort
Christ encircle me with your peace
Send us out with your compassion
Spirit encircle us with your truth
Anoint us with your word
God encircle us
Your love sustain us
Your peace fill us
Your truth guide us
Encircle us with your presence
This third prayer from Father John Fitzgerald’s book Blessings For the Fast Paced and Cyberspaced. is a great one to reflect on as you consider your own day and what disrupts your peace and equilibrium.
O God, make my tools of technology into instruments of your peace today.
May my cell phone connect me to blessings but disconnect me from trivia.
May my automobile move me to safety,
past road rage and road rush.
May my e-mail enrich me with connectedness but also give me wisdom to empty the trash
May the internet open up the world to me but not snare me into addictions.
Through sights, sounds, movements and competition move my spirit on angels’ wings.
When day is done, may I come home again out of stress into peace and joy
This last prayer is the one I often use to end a seminar. It is based on another ancient Celtic prayer and always makes me feel as I stand together with the saints past, present and those to come as I read it.
Let us go forth today,
In the love of our Creator,
In the strength of our Redeemer,
In the power of our Sustainer.
In the fellowship of witnesses
From every tribe and nation
and culture.
Those who are present,
those from the past,
those who are yet to come.
Let us go forth today,
United with the Sacred Three,
In harmony with the Holy One,
Compassion in our hearts,
Gratitude in our thoughts,
Generosity in our deeds,
Justice as our passion.
Let us go forth today
Carrying God’s image
Into our hurting world.
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