“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites . . . go into your room and pray to your Father in secret.”  Jesus

“More and more did the love of God, and my fear of Him increase, and my spirit was moved so that each day I said up to a hundred prayers and up to a hundred more each night.” St. Patrick in his “Confessions”

Do you pray?

If so, how do you pray?

What is prayer anyway?

For the next few weeks, or maybe months, I’d like to delve more deeply into this topic, especially from the Celtic perspective.  The obvious place to begin is with Patrick.

I was taught that prayer was speaking to God.  It was a one-way conversation.  Though God would answer prayer (Yes, No, or Not yet), God didn’t communicate directly through prayer.  That was done in Scripture.  Full stop.  So prayer was an occasion to pour out one’s heart about concerns and questions.  It was essentially a diatribe directed at Someone above and beyond in the hopes that somehow, He or They would answer.  Prayer was intentional, and limited to certain places, like church of course, or times of day, like mealtime or bedtime. Really, it was quite structured and limited and didn’t motivate one to prayer. 

The Celts didn’t see prayer that way.  For the Celts prayer was intimate and sacred communion with God, Christ, the Holy Trinity.  Prayer was entering into the Presence of God, or perhaps a full awareness that God was always present in all things and in every way.  Prayer was the recognition that God was as near as life itself, as the air breathed, the world lived in.  God was not “out there”, but rather “right here”, and even “in here.”

In our discussion last week about his conversion, we mentioned the role that prayer played for Patrick.  At his conversion Patrick was not in a church or in some other “holy space” conventionally associated with a place conducive to prayer.  He was out in the wildernesswatching sheep.  “I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I felt neither ill nor any slothfulness because The Spirit of God was burning within me.”[1]

A few things to note here.  First is that he was aware of the presence of God in nature.  There was no church for him to attend, or altar for him to pray at.  God was revealing Godself to Patrick where Patrick was at that time.  Creation was Christ’s cathedral.  The prayer that is called “St. Patrick’s Breastplate”, which we will look at in more detail in the future, is replete with such references which make this connection between the presence of God without and within. That’s important, for that is how God works.  God comes to us wherever we are, both geographically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Second, God was not only near him, but within him.  God was not a far-off entity that he had to entreat or search for to be heard.  God was as near to Patrick as he was to himself.  The Spirit of God was burning within him. 

Third, prayer was Patrick’s regular practice.   He speaks of praying both day and night, hundreds of times.  Prayer not only sustained his life, but it gave him life.  It was integrated into all that he did.  This practice of prayer was passed on and became part of the approach to prayer by the Celtic followers of The Way.  In her book  “Every Earthly Blessing”, Esther De Waal recounts the manner in which prayer was woven into one’s daily activities. Two examples of this follow, one prayed for the field work, the other in the kitchen.

God bless Thou thyself my reaping, each ride, and plain, and field, each sickle curved, shapely, hard, each ear and handful in the sheaf.”

“Mary’s Son, my Friend, cometh to bless my kitchen, the kitchen of the white God, a kitchen which my King hath blessed, a kitchen that hath butter.”[2]

Prayer for Patrick and those who followed in his footsteps was integrated into every aspect of one’s being.  It was as normal and natural as breathing.

Finally, Prayer was natural.  It didn’t have to be learned or done in a certain way.  There wasn’t a “right” and a “wrong” way to pray.  The closest one got to a formula for prayer was that of praying in the name of The Trinity, and sometimes to Mary. 

For me, learning about Celtic Prayer has changed the way I see prayer, and God as well.  It is refreshing and renewing.  I invite you to consider prayer.  How you see it, how you do it, and whom you do it with.  And maybe consider taking a new look at it through the eyes of Patrick and the other ancient Celts.

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[1] “Confessions” Passage 1

[2] Both of these come from “Every Earthly Blessing” by Esther DeWaal, Morehouse Publishing, 1999.