The Path of Celtic Prayer

God, bless me this day,
God bless me this night;
Bless, O bless, thou God of grace,
Each day and hour of my life;
Bless, O bless, thou God of grace,
Each day and hour of my life,

God, bless the pathway on which I go,
God, bless the earth that is beneath my sole;
Bless, O God, and give to me Thy love,
O God of gods, bless my rest and my reposte;
Bless, O God, and give to me Thy love,
O God of gods, bless my rest and my reposte.

"The Journey Prayer" of Brendan (taken from Carmina Gadelica)


This is an excellent book by Calvin Miller (2007, InterVarsity) on Celtic Spirituality. Aside from a general introduction to Celtic spirituality, Miller narrows his focus to Celtic forms of prayers.

Calvin Miller writes,

I have written this book for two reasons. First, I want to address the way the Celtic people related to God to keep their devotion centered on the Savior. But I also want to demonstrate how these ancient lovers of God were able to strip away institutional business and empty religiosity that can separate Christians from Christ.

He classifies Celtic prayers as

(1) Trinity Prayer (the art of loving all of God)

(2) Scripture Prayer (praying the Bible back to its author)

(3) Long, Wandering Prayer (seeing life as a single , unending prayer)

(4) Nature Prayer (poetry and praise in ordinary life)

(5) Lorica Prayer (asking God for protection)

(6) Confessional Prayer (living in agreement with God)

It would not have been an easy task to categorise the prayers of Celts into six neat categories. Many prayers would fit many categories while some are more narratives than prayers. While Miller has been very informative in the 'closely linked to nature' spirituality of the Celts, one wonders how he is to achieve his second objective because the Celts never did have an institutional church. And he did not explore the fact that Celtic Christianity is syncretic with paganism.

There is always the danger of looking at Celtic spirituality through romantic rosy lens, and making the jump into applying it to Christians in the 21st century. Nevertheless this book is a good study of one of the many forms of Christian spiritualities throughout Christian history.

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