St. Patrick for Groundlings

In today's Lion Lamb blog I ditched St. Patrick for St. Brigid even though this is his feast day, so perhaps I should give him some due here in my Groundling blog. Here are portions of two St. Patrick's blog entries from years past, one from a decade ago and another from March 2010. 

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For me St. Patrick's Day is always a reminder of the Celtic Christian tradition which has been rekindled and redisovered in recent years. It is a creative, earth-honouring, less hierarchical approach to the community of faith which is so old that is new again.

I like the prayers and blessings which were created for every aspect of life, a willingness to find the holy and extraordinary in the midst of the mundane and ordinary. Below is a portion of a "hatching prayer" which caught my attention after seeing the chickens of our friends on the weekend and enjoying the eggs we purchased from them since our return.

I Will rise early on the morning of Monday,

I will sing my rune and rhyme,

I will go sunwise with my cog

To the nest of my hen with sure intent.

I will place my left hand to my breast,

My right hand to my heart,

I will seek the loving wisdom of Him

Abundant in grace, in broods, and in flocks.

I will close my two eyes quickly,

As in blind-man's buff moving slowly;

I will stretch my left hand over thither

To the nest of my hen on yonder side.

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 I decided to share a blessings with you on St. Patrick's Day which comes from a remarkable collection of prayers and blessings assembled by Alexander Carmichael. Carmichael was a British "simple servant" in the 19th century who in the course of travels related to his work became aware of the rich oral prayer tradition of rural folk in Scotland and Ireland.

Collecting these prayers became a passion for this gentle and compassionate man, what one biography described as a "beautiful mania." The collection, known as the Carmina Gadelica, has preserved hundreds of lovely Celtic prayers which might have otherwise been lost.

God be with thee in every pass,

Jesus be with thee on every hill,

Spirit be with thee on every stream,

Headland and ridge and lawn:

Each sea and land, each moor and meadow,

Each lying down, each rising up,

In the trough of the waves, on the crest of the billows,

Each step of the journey thou goest.